2024-08-28 18:25:33
The Attorney General’s Office confirmed that six people have been arrested for the murder of Yohalmo Valdés and his wife América Martínez de Valdés.
The couple disappeared on August 4, 2024, and their bodies were found buried in the yard of their home on the 11th of the same month, in the Satélite neighborhood, northwest of San Salvador. Relatives of the victims released information about the case and the authorities took up the case again.
Without specifying the names of the six detainees, a prosecutor said that the public ministry has an open investigation into the double homicide and that those arrested are accused of aggravated homicide, disappearance of persons, receiving stolen goods and illegal possession of firearms.
“There are several people in custody who will be subjected to criminal proceedings for having participated in the commission of these criminal acts,” said the representative of the Prosecutor’s Office.
He added that “there were some people who were detained for investigation, but these people were the ones who allowed and collaborated with the investigation and it was possible to determine the responsibility of those who are now detained and who are those who participated in the aggravated homicide of the Valdés Martínez couple.”
According to the prosecutor, the six people who were initially under investigation have already been released. On Monday morning they faced the initial hearing for the crime of resistance in the Ninth Court of Peace of San Salvador and were definitively exonerated for not being involved in the incident.
The prosecutor announced that the six people arrested for the double murder will remain in prison for the four crimes, since they have abundant evidence to take the case to the final stage of a public hearing.
On Monday morning, Justice and Security Minister Gustavo Villatoro had confirmed that “the case had already been resolved with the arrests of those materially responsible, the direct and indirect perpetrators who were involved in the double murder.”
With the Prosecutor’s Office, “they had carried out a series of investigations, and were even able to find the remains of the victims with the help of a canine,” Villatoro explained.