Buenos Aires, March 10 (NA) -- The disappearance of Tehuel de La Torre, a 21-year-old transgender man who left to look for a job and never returned, marks its fifth anniversary, with a life sentence for the perpetrator of the crime and the disappearance of the body.
According to the Argentine News Agency (NA), the incident occurred on March 11, 2021, when Tehuel undertook a journey in the Buenos Aires district of San Vicente to attend a job interview, looking for a waiter position. Along the way, De la Torre met his sister Verónica, to whom he told that he would meet Luis Alberto Ramos, a 37-year-old man who offered him work as a waiter at an event.
Tehuel arrived at Ramos's home (where Oscar Montes, another accused, was also present) on the afternoon of that March 11, and from that moment his trail was lost.
On July 11 of this year, Division I of the Buenos Aires Province Court of Criminal Appeals confirmed the life sentence for Ramos for the young man's murder, after rejecting the appeal resources from the defense, under the charge of aggravated homicide due to hatred of gender identity and sexual orientation.
The measure, signed by judges Daniel Carral and Ricardo Maidana, who placed special emphasis on Tehuel's vulnerability as a young trans man in an informal work situation, which Ramos took advantage of to lure Tehuel to his home. Another point they stated in the ruling is that the disappearance of the body and the burning of the young man's belongings constitute a symbolic act of denial of his identity, which reinforces the existence of a discriminatory motive.
This section is related to the fact that the young man's body has still not been found despite more than four years having passed since his murder. The evidence that allowed for the maximum sentence were security camera footage, Tehuel's SUBE card, the geolocation of his cell phone, images on the accused's phone where the victim appears, calcined remains of his belongings found on a plot, analysis of bloodstains with a genetic profile matching Tehuel, and the evasive conduct of the accused.
Regarding the other accused in the case, Oscar Montes, it is awaited that the start of his jury trial is decreed.
The case began when Michelle, Tehuel's girlfriend, filed the disappearance report at the 1st Police Station of San Vicente on March 13, 2021, after not having news for two days, when the Police geolocated the victim's cell phone to Ramos. Ramos and Montes, who were initially arrested for covering up the crime, obstructing the investigation and false testimony, told the Police that the victim had been at Korn's home, but a photo taken at 8:42 PM was found on Tehuel's phone, and that version was discarded. The investigators found the young man's jacket on fire and then a blood sample indicated that there was de la Torre's DNA on the wall of Ramos's house. The Ministry of National Security established a reward of 5 million pesos for those who provide accurate data on the victim's whereabouts.
Although both always claimed they were not involved in the case, there were several pieces of evidence that contradicted them. On August 30, 2024, the Oral Criminal Court No. 2 of La Plata, made up of judges Claudio Bernard, Silvia Hoerr, and Ramiro Fernández Lorenzo, ruled that Ramos is guilty, not only of the crime, but also of the disappearance of the body and "the damage that causes to his loved ones".
