Story By: Ana Lacasa, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: CEN

Video Credit: CEN

A 17-year-old girl and her 45-year-old boyfriend have been arrested after the body of the teenager’s mother was discovered buried under her patio – eight months after she was reported missing.

Police found the body of Daniela Cicchini, 49, buried in the courtyard of her own home, in the city of La Plata in the eastern Argentinian province of Buenos Aires, thanks to a sharp-eyed neighbour.

The man had asked the teenager, named by police as M.H.C., and her boyfriend, Claudio Santa Cruz, if he could climb over their wall to repair his roof which had been damaged in a storm.

Pictures Credit: CEN

They agreed and he noticed one small rectangular section of the patio in the courtyard of the house had been repaired while the rest of it had been left untouched, even though it was in poor condition.

The neighbour, whose name has not been released, grew suspicious and shared his fears with friends and relatives of the missing woman who passed them on to the local police.

Cops went to the property and lifted up the newly restored section of patio where they found the badly decomposed body of a woman later identified as Ms Cicchini.

Prosecutor Maria Eugenia Di Lorenzo, who is in charge of the investigation, ordered the arrest of M.H.C. and Santa Cruz who have both been charged with murder. So far, the motive is unknown although one local media report said investigators believed the boyfriend’s age could have had something to do with it.

M.H.C. had reported her mother’s disappearance to cops last June, claiming she had gone to meet a man called Alejandro who she had met in a nightclub and that she had never returned.

Neighbours launched searches of the area in the weeks that followed and pictures of the supposedly missing woman were even shared on social media by her daughter.