Convicted allegedly responsible for femicide of 8-year-old girl in Santiago de Tolú, Sucre

A municipal criminal judge in Sucre issued a prison insurance measure against Jairo Eduardo Julio Monterroza, for the death of a girl under 8 years of age. The man was charged with the crimes of aggravated femicide and violent sexual acts, which were accepted.

The events investigated by the Attorney General's Office reportedly occurred on January 25, in the Costa Azul neighborhood of the municipality of Santiago de Tolú (Sucre). CTI officials found the lifeless body of the 8-year-old girl in the courtyard of Monterroza's 29-year-old house. The child's body showed signs of sexual abuse.

In the Bulletin issued by the investigating body, it was possible to establish that the minor disappeared on January 24 in the afternoon, when she was last seen playing in the house of the defendant today. The next day she was found at 8 in the morning in the same place. The capture of the man took place on April 8 in Medellín by officials of the National Police.

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The operation to search for man was carried out through georeferencing. Among the evidentiary material submitted to the court, it was possible to establish that the victim's blood was found on Julio Monterroza's sweater and traces of the defendant's DNA were found on the juvenile's body, “keys for the prosecution to determine his alleged responsibility for the crime,” the official communication states.

It should be noted that the group of investigators of the Prosecutor's Office relied on all kinds of forensic techniques; for example, DNA collation, blood samples and technology that allowed the subsequent location of the alleged murderer.

After his imprisonment, it became known that Jairo Eduardo Julio Monterroza tried to hang himself in the cell, so he had to be taken to the Sincelejo University Hospital to be treated and analyzed by a psychiatrist.

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According to the Observatory Feminicidios Colombia, 55 cases of murders against women have been registered so far in 2022. The Observatory reported 619 cases throughout 2021. Five of them performed in the department of Sucre.

In the last twelve months in this part of the country, three femicides occurred in the municipality of San Onofre; one in Tolú, one in Sincelejo, one in Sampués and another in San Pedro, for a total of five cases.

The Sectional Director of Prosecutors in Sucre, Fernando Salgado Juris, reported that in this section of the country, the clarification of all cases of femicide registered during 2021 was achieved. “Thanks to coordinated work with the Judicial Police, the Prosecutor's Office won two convictions for the murder of women, one of 31 years in prison and the other for 23 years, being the first exemplary and the maximum allowed by Colombian Criminal Law,” said Salgado Juris.

The director of the Fundación Feminicidios Colombia, Yamile Roncancio, said on January 6 in an interview with El Pais that “in Colombia it has been normalized for women to be killed. There is no reaction, even when it comes to femicides of girls. In the face of such news, people are still normal. When a woman is killed, nothing happens,”

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