Story By: Ana Lacasa, Sub-Editor:  Joana Mihajlovska, Agency: Newsflash

An autopsy has shown that a teenage girl suspected of killing herself was actually strangled to death and her boyfriend has been arrested as the main suspect.

Luz Belen Marino, 16, was found dead in her home garage in the city of Lujan in the eastern Argentine province of Buenos Aires.

According to the newspaper Infobae, Marino’s boyfriend, Cristian Zanetti, 22, called the police to say he found the teen hanging by a wire from the ceiling.

Zanetti then called an ambulance, but paramedics declared the teen dead at the scene.

The case was first considered a suicide until the autopsy revealed that the victim was strangled.

According to Infobae, the coroner found that the marks on the victim’s neck were straight and not diagonal as would be the case in a hanging.

The prosecutor in charge of the investigation, Maria Laura Cardiviola, has categorised the case as “femicide” and ordered the arrest of the victim’s boyfriend as he was the last person to see her alive.

According to Infobae, there were various inconsistencies in Zanetti’s statement during questioning which have made him the main suspect.

The young couple had reportedly been arguing a lot in the days leading up to the teenager’s death.

Zanetti shared a goodbye message on his Facebook account shortly after her death saying: “I am going to love you forever, like the first day. You were and are the love of my life, the best thing that ever happened to me in life, full of love and energy.”

The investigation is ongoing.

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