A night businessman was arrested as a suspect in the homicide of the journalist from Corrientes Griselda Blanco, found strangled and with blows and stab wounds six days ago at her home in the city of Curuzú Cuatiá, while the first person arrested, a former partner of the The victim was released, judicial and police sources reported this Friday.
The new detainee was identified as Dario Alfredo Ricardo Holzweissig (46), who rents and commercially operates a bowling alley called “South Point”located at kilometer 159 of Provincial Route 126.
Sources of the investigation revealed to Télam that the victim’s children had declared that there was a “toxic relationship” between his mother and the new detainee, since what had started as a business relationship, later became a sentimental one.
In turn, the recovery that computer experts made of a series of messages that evidenced a conflict between Blanco and Holzweissig was key.
The arrest was made in a house that Holzweissig has on the side and at the back of the danceable restobar, by detectives from the NEA Complex Investigations Department and personnel from the Homicide Division, both from the Investigations Superintendence of the Argentine Federal Police, together with the Division of Criminal Investigation of the Region III Curuzú Cuatiá Unit of the Corrientes police.
Griselda Blanco was a radio press worker and produced live broadcasts of programs dedicated to local journalism / Photo: Facebook
The PFA detectives traveled to Curuzú Cuatiá at the request of the Prosecutor Unit for the Reception and Analysis of Cases (Ufrac) of that city of Corrientes, in charge of the prosecutor María José Barrero Sahagun, who since Thursday directed the new raids ordered by the local Grants judge, Martín José Vega.
One of the police investigators revealed to Télam that the new detainee is incriminated “indicative evidence, phone content, audio and video from security cameras.”
The sources indicated that the experts from the Evidence Search Unit of the PFA began to work in the home of the defendant and, in addition, a search for evidence was mounted in the vicinity, by the inspector Ricardo Juri -with years of experience in the Homicide Division-, and who is currently the head of the aforementioned NEA Complex Investigations Department of the PFA, based in Chajarí, Entre Ríos.
In that inspection, on a plot of land adjacent to the employer’s residence, a knife and an unarmed cell phone were found that could be directly related to the crime and they were preserved to be appraised.
According to the sources, the PFA investigation included field work and data analysis that made Holzweissig the prime suspect.
Homicide detectives analyzed various security cameras and established that the new detainee had returned to his home in the early hours of the morning on the day of the crime in his car and that this vehicle had been in the vicinity of the home of the murdered journalist.
The work of the experts from the PFA Cybercrime Technical Department was another of the keys to the investigation, since, as explained to Télam by one of the researchers, “Despite not having the victim’s cell phone, they were able to recover ‘from the cloud’ a series of messages between the victim and the suspect that were revealing.”
After the arrest of this businessman, the prosecutor Barrero Sahagún ordered the release of the first prisoner for the crime, journalist Armando Jara, ex-partner of the womanalthough according to judicial sources, it will still be under investigation in the case.
The measure is correlated with the claim of the lawyer Francisco Adaime, Jara’s defender, who had announced a motion to nullify the accusation, which in statements to Télam, said that it had been arranged without having “sufficient evidence” against his client and when “reporting results that are fundamental” were still missing.
“We do not have the results on the DNA of the hair that was found in the hand of the victim, of the swab that they did to Jara, of the cameras and of the work of the Scientific Police on the scene”said the lawyer on Wednesday.
In the same sense, he had also specified that Blanco’s ex-partner did not have “any injury or scratch, when it was verified that the victim, who was a robust person, defended himself.”
Blanco (44) was found strangled, with a rope around her neck, lying on the floor, with blows to the face and stab wounds at her home on Juan Pujol street, Curuzú Cuatiá, last Saturday night.
The woman was a radio press worker and produced live broadcasts of programs dedicated to local journalism.
Although at first the possibility of suicide was considered, the autopsy ruled it out and one of his sons, Lautaro Cesani, stated on social networks: “Our mother did not commit suicide, our mother was killed. She told truths that no one dared to say. They wanted to keep her quiet and they could not. Justice for Griselda Blanco“.
It is that the journalist from Curuzucuateña made various public complaints, including against a provincial police commissioner for sexual abuse and also for a case of malpractice at the “Dr. Fernando Irastorza” hospital, where a friend died, among others, and His relatives assured that he “received threats.”
After learning of the crime, the Federation of Press Workers (Fatpren) demanded from the Justice “a transparent investigation for the urgent clarification of the fact”, as well as from the Association of Corrientes Journalists (APC).
📣 We will continue to mobilize until we guarantee clarification of the fact and justice for our partner.
👉 We thank all the organizations and references that brought their solidarity closer
❗️Enough of the threats and attacks on the press workers!#JusticiaPorGriselda pic.twitter.com/5t2ypqXt8I
– FATPREN (@PrensaFATPREN) May 24, 2023
