Breathe
By Yohali Reséndiz
The camera at the Coppel store in Durango's Historic Center recorded that at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday, May 12, a young man (today identified as Dante Yahir "N") entered the store.
Once inside, take the stairs up to the second floor and walk around the restroom area.
1:00 p.m.
"The bathroom was occupied and since they were already late, I knocked on the door. No one answered so I tried to open it but the door was locked. Then I heard a noise and after a few minutes the door opened and a tall young man came out with wounds on his face, blood on his arms and neck and a cloth wrapped around his head. He came out quickly and I went into the bathrooms when I noticed the blood dripping and in one of the bathrooms a woman was lying there but when I approached, she was badly hurt. I started shouting for them to stop the tall young man and to help me," said the witness, a worker at the Coppel store.
"We started asking about our colleagues and then we knew it was Liliana," says another store employee.
The unthinkable happened...a woman was found dead inside the Coppel store located in the Historic Center of Durango.
Witnesses who were loitering inside the store said that upon (bumping) looking at the young man with blood on his face they asked him if he needed anything. He replied that he did not and left in a hurry.
A Red Cross ambulance arrived at the scene while police cordoned off the area.
The paramedics who rushed in would confirm that Liliana had died, while the police investigation was first line that it was a violent death, a femicide.
Minutes later, this happened:
-Yes, in Guadiana Park at the entrance. See you there in a little while.
-But how am I going to recognize you? Ah ok, dice tattoo on the face ok. I'll see you in a little while.
A tall young man with a bruised face with deep scratches on his face, neck and arms (hung up and said to his friend: I'm going to sell it to you - referring to the cell phone that the friend looked at, which had a transparent case with a 500 peso bill imprisoned in it.
-Please keep this for me," said Dante to his friend who somewhat reluctantly received a bag that did not weigh much.
The friend knew him from the restaurant where Dante had been a waiter, he was not having a good time, he didn't even ask him about the wounds on his face, he knew he had been kicked out of his house and was now living and sleeping in Guadiana Park. What he did notice was that his friend noticed Dante was strange, drugged is the word.
Not even an hour had passed when the friend heard the news: "A man entered the Coppel store in the Historic Center of Durango to beat, rape and asphyxiate his victim, Eva Liliana Montelongo Hernandez, an employee of the place for 4 years. The police have cordoned off the area and are searching for the alleged perpetrator of this horrendous crime."
A pain in his stomach led him to rummage in a bag that Dante had given him to keep. When he opened it, he took out a pair of women's pants, half wet with stains, and then a credential with the Coppel logo and a name: Eva Liliana Montelongo Hernández fell to the floor. The friend vomited and then called 911.
Police were looking for the man with a dice tattoo.
It should be noted that the investigative police requested the videos from the store through a public prosecutor's office, but the responsible parties did not want to provide them and the legal obligation had to be imposed by the authorities.
Store representatives rushed to offer the bereaved 100,000 pesos to avoid any lawsuits. And then they proceeded to clean the bathroom because they had to open the next day. Sales come first.
Indignation grew among Durango residents as on Monday, May 13, the Coppel store in Durango's Historic Center opened its doors as if nothing had happened, sales were first.... It didn't matter that one of its employees had been murdered, after all, the bathrooms had already been cleaned.
Governmental indolence was present in the body and voice of the governor of Durango, Eduardo Villegas, when he expressed to the media that "it was an issue between two people and that it was not a public safety issue and that it has nothing to do with the incidence of crime".
Listening to him was so offensive to the people of Durango that they immediately began to gather outside the store to protest the same old thing: indolence.
Feminist groups had agreed that the protest would be silent and that its purpose was to remember Lili through an altar with candles and flowers brought by citizens, but it got out of control when a man broke the windows and the store was set on fire.
Coincidentally, the Durango District Attorney's Office informed in a press release about the arrest of the alleged perpetrator: Dante Yahir "N", 20 years old, who narrated with complete brazenness how he took the life of Eva Liliana Montelongo Hernandez.
"I followed her to the bathroom, subdued her, beat her, raped and asphyxiated her", after that he was held in CEFERESO 1 in Durango and almost 48 hours after the crime he committed he was sentenced to 59 years, 11 months and 29 days in prison.
A prompt and expeditious sentence in a country where judges regularly protect women's aggressors.
In Durango, the attorney general's office is headed by Sonia Yadira Fragoso De la Garza, a prosecutor who has given no truce to those who commit sexual crimes or violence against women.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
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