QCOSTARICA – Walking by his young daughter’s home Tuesday morning, Marvin Montel Alvarez, he noticed some dogs surrounding a mound of earth. On investigating, he came to the gruesome find, the freshly buried body his daughter. He had last seen her, alive, Sunday night.
This is in Los Camarenos, in Santa Cruz de Guanacaste.
Alvarez immediately called police, who in turn called the Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ), to unearth the body of 17 year-old Irinia Alvarez Chaves.
According to the OIJ report, at first glance, there were no wounds on the girls body, possibly she was strangled. However, that has to yet to be determined by an autopsy.
The OIJ clarified that there was no report that the victim was missing, and are unclear whether it was a femicide or if the crime was motivated by something else.
Missing is Irinia’s live-in boyfriend, a 18 year-old who is now wanted by the OIJ for questioning in the girl’s death.
Irinia’s father told investigators that his daughter had been living with the young boy for about a month, and the last time he saw them both was Sunday night, at the family home, near where his daughter lived and found her dead.
Alvarez said his daughter was as student and her boyfriend, who just four months ago became of age, was working in construction. The father told investigators that the he had consented to the relationship after discovering their secret, that the young couple argued a lot, but she never filed a police report.
According to the Instituto Nacional de la Mujer (Inamu) – National Institute for Women – 20 women were murdered in the first half of this year, 11 of them were victims of femicide.
The most year with the most number of femicides was in 2011, with 42.
Femicide is a sexual/gender hate crime term, broadly defined as the killing of women but definitions vary depending on the cultural context.
In Costa Rica, femicide is committed by a man who kills the woman he has a relationship with, be it marriage or live-in.
Source: La Nacion
