A woman who lost her unborn baby when she was shot five times during a massacre has given birth after becoming pregnant again.
Monica Lloret, 41, survived the Hurlingham Massacre in the town of William C. Morris in the provincial subdivision of Hurlingham in the Greater Buenos Aires area in Argentina on Sunday, 5th February, 2017.
In the massacre, Diego Loscalzo shot and killed five members of his family.
Lloret lost her partner in the attack and took five bullets herself, one of which killed her unborn baby, whom she had named Mateo and who was due the following day.
But now Lloret has become a mother again after giving birth to her fifth child Gabriel on 16th December, with the story reported in local media yesterday (20th January).
She told the news outlet Primer Plano Online: “It’s important to know there’s always a rainbow after the storm.”
Lloret and Gabriel’s father had been friends for years, and they embarked upon a relationship during which Gabriel was conceived before eventually parting ways.
The tragedy Lloret went through left its mark on her, with the haemotherapy technician telling the news outlet: “Until he was born and I heard him cry, I wasn’t going to be able to believe it.”
She added: “This is a new beginning for me. I miss everything that’s no longer here, but you have to carry on. You can live with pain, which does not mean forgetting it.”
Loscalzo was 38 years old and was going through a separation from his partner Romina Maguna, 36, who worked as a police officer.
On the night of the crime, the pair argued after dinner and Loscalzo attacked Maguna. Their children fled to their rooms and cowered under their beds as they listened to the gunshots that killed their mum.
Loscalzo then went to the flat in the same building where his partner’s sister Vanesa Maguna, 38, lived with her partner Dario Diaz, 34. He shot them both dead and also shot Maguna’s friend Cintia Lopez Gotta, who survived by feigning death.
He then drove 25 blocks to the house where the rest of his partner’s family lived, convincing them to get into his car after telling them his partner had had an accident.
He drove a short distance before stopping the car and shooting dead his partner’s mother Juana Paiva, 55, and his partner’s brother Jose Eduardo Maguna, 38.
He also shot Maguna’s partner Lloret and Lloret’s daughter Camila Maciel.
Lloret took a bullet to each leg, another in the chest, a fourth in the side of the abdomen, and the last one, which killed her unborn baby, in the belly.
Loscalzo fled the scene, but was arrested in the city of Rio Segundo, over six hours away by car, the following day. He was later sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.
Lloret has three other sons aged 25, 23 and 16, and Camila is now 18.
