A journalist who was investigating a police chief for sexual harassment has been found beaten to death and hanged at her home in Argentina.
Victim Griselda Blanco, 45, was convinced that she was at risk after her confrontation with the high-ranking officer.
Before her death, she had warned her son Lautaro Cesani to contact lawyer Silvia Casarrubia if “something” happened to her.
He told local media how the police chief – not named in local media – had threatened her when she accused him of sexual harassment.
Police had initially dismissed Griselda’s death as a suicide when her body was found hanged at her home in the city of Curuzu Cuatia, in the north-eastern province of Corrientes in Argentina, on Saturday, 20th May.
Then – when traces of blood were found near her body, which also appeared to have been beaten – they arrested her former partner, reporter Armando Jara, 54, on suspicion of homicide.
Now her son Lautaro has revealed that one of her two mobile phones went missing when she was killed.
And he says he does not believe that her ex Jara is to blame.
He told local media: “With Jara, as with any couple, they had problems, but I don’t think he would go to this extreme… I don’t think Jara has anything to do with it.”
Police reportedly found hairs on the victim’s hands which are understood to have been sent to a laboratory for analysis.
Prosecutor Maria Jose Barrero Sahagun initially ordered the investigation to be led by Argentina’s Federal Police (PFA) who had often been exposed by Griselda, according to local media.
Now the case is being shared by the PFA and by a unit under the direct control of the prosecutor.
Her colleagues reportedly told local media that Blanco had received a number of threats in the days leading up to her death and that she had “friction with the police authorities in the city.”
Lautaro told local media: “I don’t think that femicide is the term that should be used here to qualify this.”
And lawyer Casarrubia told local media that Blanco had recently “exposed in a live broadcast a situation of sexual harassment within the Corrientes Police in which a commissioner was denounced.”
The Federation of Press Workers (Fatpren) has demanded “a transparent investigation in order to urgently clarify the facts.”
The demand was also echoed by the Association of Corrientes Journalists (APC).
The investigation is ongoing.
