A mother-of-four has been found murdered in Berazategui, Buenos Aires Province, with her partner arrested for the brutal killing.
The body of María Luisa Belén Muñoz, 33, was found at her home early Sunday morning. She had been stabbed at least 24 times.
Her partner, with whom she lived, has been arrested for the femicide. Initial reports indicate that Alejandro Albornoz, 34, himself alerted the police to the crime.
Witnesses from the couple's inner circle told local media outlets that Albornoz was a violent person, both with other members of his extended family and Muñoz, though his partner never reported him to the authorities.
The gruesome discovery took place in the early hours of Sunday morning at the home where Albornoz lived with Muñoz and her four children.
Muñoz’s sister, who lives on the same plot of land as the victim, told police she had heard screams at around 4am in the morning, after Albornoz returned home.
After checking on her sister and failing to gain entry, she called her sibling who did not answer. As a last resort, she phoned Albornoz, who answered the phone and reportedly said he had “run out of time.”
Soon after, Albornoz phoned the emergency services and confessed to the crime.
When police arrived at the time, they found Muñoz dead in the bathtub with multiple stab wounds. The woman's 12-year-old daughter was also in the house and was taken away.
Albornoz was arrested and upon searching the home, investigators found bloodstained clothing and the murder weapon in another room.
Relatives of the slain woman told local media that Albornoz was often violent towards Muñoz, but that she had never reported him to the authorities. The accused already had a restraining order out against him, filed after a complaint by his own mother, reported Infobae.
An autopsy later revealed that the victim's body had been stabbed 24 times, most of them in the thorax area. She also had defensive wounds on her upper limbs.
Albornoz has been taken to a local police station and will be questioned on Monday by local prosecutor Daniel Ichazo, who has already taken testimony from several of the woman's immediate family members, many of whom were in the vicinity at the time of the killing.
Gender-related killings of women and girls in Argentina rose last year to 322, or an average of nearly one a day, the National Ombudsman's Office reported last month.
Almost 60 percent of femicide victims last year were killed at home, at work or at homes shared with the perpetrators. In three out of four cases there was a pre-existing relationship between the victim and the perpetrator, the ombudsman's office said.
– TIMES/NA/PERFIL
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