fletchermarple:Who Killed Maria Marta?When it comes to murder mysteries with crazy twists, this one

fletchermarple:Who Killed Maria Marta?When it comes to murder mysteries with crazy twists, this one is high up the list. It’s a long and complicated story that’s been changing for 18 years, and I’ll try my best to tell it clearly.On October 27, 2002, a Sunday, Argentina was hooked on the football match between their main local teams, Boca and River. María Marta García Belsunce (50) and her husband Carlos Carrascosa had watched the match at her sister’s house, who lived in the same exclusive gated community, the Carmel Country Club, as the couple. María Marta left at around 6 pm, because she had an appointment with a masseuse that went to her house every Sunday at 7 pm. Carlos decided to stay for a while longer with his in-laws and, according to his later testimony, arrived to his house an hour later to find his wife dead in the bathroom, with half her body submerged in the filled bathtub. Carlos called the paramedics and María Marta’s family, and told them he believed she had accidentally hit her head on a big beam that was in the bathroom, fell in the tub and drowned.Despite such a freak sounding accident, no one seemed to question that explanation at first. One of the two doctors that arrived at the scene even helped clean the blood in the bathroom so the family wouldn’t get too upset. Because it was a Sunday and it wasn’t easy to get a funeral home to get to them, the family got a pre-made death certificate that listed a wrong cause of death to help make the burial process easier. At this point, they said, they were still believing that María Marta’s death was a tragic accident, although one of her brothers thought something didn’t seem quite right and asked for an investigation. Prosecutor Diego Molina Pico arrived at the wake, but didn’t order an immediate autopsy, as it’s the standard procedure for accidental deaths in Argentina.A couple of weeks later, Molina Pico finally interviewed one of the medics at the scene, who expressed some doubts about the “hit and drown” theory. He claimed he’d told the family he believed it was a violent death, but he didn’t call the police. Later, one of María Marta’s brothers said they’d found a little piece of metal under her body and, not knowing what it was, they’d flushed it down the toilet. It had been over a month since María Marta’s death when an autopsy was finally performed, and it revealed a shocking discovery: she had FIVE gunshot wounds in her head. And no one had noticed. A search in the septic tank of Carlos and María Marta’s house allowed them to find the piece of metal her brother had mentioned, and it was a piece of a sixth bullet that had misses it’s mark.As you can probably imagine, this was a huge blunder by the prosecutor and his investigative team. Molina Pico proceeded to blame the García Belsunce family for intentionally covering up the murder, and accused Carlos of murdering his wife. He said that before the medics arrived, the family had used glue on María Marta’s head to hide the wounds (later, in the trial, a chemistry expert explained that while there was one component found in the body consistent with glue material, it couldn’t be said for certain that glue had been used). As for motive, he didn’t have a solid one, since there was no evidence of anything but a loving marriage between Carlos and María Marta. Before the trial, he claimed in the press that the family had ties to a Mexican drug cartel and the murder had been over money, but by the time they went to court this narrative had disappeared.No other lines of investigation were pursued. The prosecution questioned Carlos’ alibi for the time of the murder, and insisted that María Marta’s family was covering up for him for unknown reasons. He produced a couple of witnesses that said Carlos had been at a club house inside the country club at around 6:30 pm, but Carlos denied this. A guard testified that he saw him arriving at his house at 7 pm, when he had let the masseuse in. Although in her earlier statement the masseuse agreed with this version, by the time she went to trial, also charged with covering up the murder, she said she’d been waiting way longer outside, and thus creating doubts about Carlos’ alibi.A second theory emergesMaría Marta’s family has, to this day, always been firm in their support of Carlos Carrascosa’s innocence. Their theory is that the murder was a botched robbery. María Marta was a treasurer for some of the charities around the club, and she was rumored to keep that money at her house. They think when she arrived, earlier than expected, she surprised someone inside the house, someone she knew, and they killed her.Before I go further into this, let me tell you what happened with Molina Pico’s theory. He took Carlos Carrascosa to trial for murder, and other members of María Marta’s family as accessories to the crime. Carrascosa was acquitted of homicide in 2007 but found guilty of covering up a crime. Then, two years later the Appeals Court overturned the result and proclaimed he was also guilty of murder. As you probably know, it’s a very rare thing that a superior court switches a not guilty sentence to a guilty one by only going through court documents. He spent five years in jail, but was finally acquitted once again by in 2016, after it was revealed that the original time of death was wrong and Marta was killed at around 6:30 pm. Whether Carlos was at his in laws as he said, or at the club house as the prosecutor had claimed at trial, he couldn’t have been at the house.So back to the robbery theory. Turns out that María Marta had a neighbor called Nicolás Pachelo who was hardly a stand up citizen. He was known for being violent and volatile, and over the years he’s faced several accusations for robbery, drug trafficking and other crimes. Pachelo had been questioned about the day of María Marta’s murder, and he gave detailed accounts of what he did before and after the time of the murder, but not during that critical time period. He had some previous troubles with Maria Marta, as she and her husband believed he had stolen their dog. Pachelo said he wasn’t at the country club that day, but at least four witnesses claimed to have seen him there around the time of the murder. His mother, who was his alibi for the day, killed herself the day before she had to give her statement to the prosecution.After Carlos was acquitted, new investigators reopened the case and focused on Pachelo as their main suspect. He’s currently on prison for another crime and has been charged, along with two guards of the Carmel, for María Marta’s murder. This truly crazy and fascinating case is the subject of a new Netflix documentary series called “Carmel”. Check it out! -- source link

More pics about