He Disappeared Without A Trace And Police Believe He Has Been Kidnapped By Acquaintances

For a little more than a week, the province of Corrientes in Argentina has been shocked by the disappearance of Loan Danilo Peña, a five-year-old boy who mysteriously disappeared while picking oranges with some relatives.

According to several media, on June 13, Loan did not have a nursery because it was celebrated on San Antonio Day, so his father took the opportunity to go eat with him at his grandmother’s house, who is in a town called July 9.

As you can see in the photo that day in the grandmother’s house there were also more people and after the meal Loan went with a couple of friends, his uncle, and 6 cousins to look for oranges in the Algarrobal rural area.

So far everything is normal, the problem is that before sunset his cousins and the 3 adults returned to the house without Loan arguing that the little one had gone ahead of them because he wanted to return to his father. As soon as they saw that he didn’t arrive, everyone went out to look for him.

When he found no trace of Loan at about 5 o’clock, the father reported the disappearance to the police. From there, the Sofia Alert was activated to start the search tasks with the aim of finding the whereabouts of the minor.

During the weekend, 5 km from the grandmother’s house and 2.5 km from the orange grove from where it was last seen, the researchers found a Loan shoe in addition to 10 small footsteps in the mud.

In that area they also found blood stains, a peeled orange, fecal material and vomiting, which at first glance were no more than two days old. Even so, all this was seized to see if an analysis can determine if it belongs to the minor.

But the thing didn’t stay here because immediately after these findings, prosecutor Juan Carlos Castillo charged the 3 adults who went out that afternoon with Loan for the crime of abandonment since no one understands how they let such a small child leave alone.

It is Bernardino Antonio Benítez, the boy’s uncle and his father’s brother-in-law, and a couple of his friends, identified as Daniel Oscar “Fierrito” Ramírez and Mónica del Carme Millapi. To add more mystery it was learned that these people fell into inconsistencies and contradictions between the version they gave to the child’s father about the disappearance and the one they provided to the police.

Alberto Molina, Chief of the Corrientes Police, announced some details of the detainees:

“The woman is a housewife and her partner is an employee of a company, who was now on leave. The other is a changarín and some would have a history of cattle theft.”

Judge Lucio López Lecube ordered pretrial detention “for an indefinite period” for the 3 adults who refused to testify during the hearing.

On June 19, the authorities together with the 3 detainees carried out a reconstruction of the events that began at the house of Loan’s grandmother called the “zero” point of the investigation.

The boy’s cousins also participated in this reconstruction, who ratified his testimonies and provided new details, such as the fact that Loan went on a different path from the one that led to his grandmother’s house without knowing it. A route he was doing for the first time.

Since he was warned about his disappearance, the Minister of Security of Corrientes, Buenaventura Duarte, has carried out a large search operation with troops from the Army, the Gendarmerie and the Federal Police, in addition to dogs, drones, a helicopter, two planes, paragliders and agents from various provinces.

A base camp has been set up in the area for the more than 600 people who are looking for the little Loan day and night.

On the other hand, there is a reward of 5 million pesos for anyone who provides accurate data on where Loan could be. Interpol also announced a yellow alert for neighboring countries.

The lawyer of Loan’s family, Roberto Méndez, and the prosecutor provided more information:

“The most exhaustive thing they do during the day, as if to have a good visibility of everything, and at night they continue to work, but in a more cautious way.”

“What we know is that these three people who are detained, accused in principle for the crime of abandoning a person, as long as Loan does not appear, are responsible for his disappearance,”

The prosecutor added something else and was that the reconstruction of the facts weakened the hypothesis that the child lost what has led them to focus on the theory of kidnapping.

The theory of abduction:

A week after Loan’s disappearance, the agents opened another avenue of investigation: the kidnapping. Because of this, they appealed to the public and asked for the collaboration of the Attorney General’s Office for Trafficking and Exploitation of Persons.

After the call, the first important clue appeared that alerted the investigators. Apparently the owner of a restaurant located on Route 12, in the province of Entre Ríos, assured that on the day of the disappearance he saw the child.

Horacio Macías maintained that between 10 and midnight on the day of the events, a high-end gray car arrived. Two men, a woman and a child, came down from him and sat down at his restaurant for dinner. When the little one started to go around the establishment, one of the waiters asked him what his name was, which he answered Loan.

Another person called 911 warning that he had seen the boy getting out of a van. In fact, they managed to recover the surveillance images of that moment.

After analyzing the images, the police determined that it was not Loan.

Convinced that Loan has been kidnapped, the agents are testing with luminol and dogs in the vehicles of the accused to detect traces of Loan.

In addition, they are analyzing the telephone antennas in the area to see the phones that were operational and if a new number appears.

Thanks to this work and also to the witnesses who were on the day of the disappearance, the agents discovered that the uncle of the little one who is accused did not immediately participate in the search and that he appeared 11 hours later.

As if this were not enough on their mobile phone, they found a WhatsApp audio that said the child fell. About this, the only detail they have given is that they are investigating the uncle’s accounts to see if he received any payment for giving it to a third person.

And when I was writing this article the case took a turn with new information and apparently only a few hours ago. 3 people have been arrested.

This is another couple who was present at the family meal in which Loan was.

According to several media when the child disappeared and the police arrived, this couple stayed for a while and was authorized by Commissioner Maciel to retire because they had a medical turn: this commissioner has also been arrested as a suspect of some kind of cover-up, since he should not have allowed these two people to leave. The logical thing would be that they had stayed helping to find the child.

Another new is that this couple left in a red Ford K and that when the police analyzed the car with the dogs they detected that Loan was inside alive.

Then in another white Ford Ranger truck of the couple. The dogs also smelled the child’s trail.

At first glance, everything indicates that the first three detainees would have nothing to do with it. The main suspects would be this couple, who would have taken the little one for unknown purposes and went to the city of Corrientes, as evidenced by security cameras. It is not yet known what the involvement of Commissioner Maciel would be.

At the moment, this is all that is known about the disappearance of Loan Peña.

Thank you for reading the case and subscribing❤️