The Strange Disappearance of Brian Irusta

It was a summer day in Argentina, on February 8, 2001, when a toddler of just a year and a half old named Brian Irusta was walking behind his brother and suddenly vanished.

Who was Brian Irusta

Brian Irusta was the youngest son (at the time) of Elizabeth Barros and Andres Irusta. They lived with their children in the Buenos Vecinos neighborhood located in the Argentinean province of Mendoza.

The day of his disappearance

It was hot midday in their neighborhood, and the kids were on vacation, so it was customary for them to be playing in the streets.

In this context, Brian Irusta and his brother were no different from the others. They walked together down a quiet street and approached an irrigation ditch to throw stones. Unfortunately, it was there where Brian was last seen.

That afternoon, the family began an exhaustive search in the area. With the help of 200 neighbors, police officers, and firefighters, they lowered the water level of the ditch, believing that he might have fallen there. But, after several hours of searching, they were sure that Brian wasn't anywhere to be found.

Development of the case and theories about the disappearance

During the search for Brian, the authorities developed several hypotheses. At first, they believed the child had fallen onto the ditch and consequently dragged towards a sewer located about 150 meters from the place of the disappearance.

Then, after gathering information from neighbors, they began to think that the infant had been kidnapped to carry out an illegal adoption. Two tips stated that Brian could be living with a family in the coastal area or that he was now living in one of the adjacent countries.

However, for Elizabeth Barros, the culprit in Brian's disappearance was his own father, Andres Irusta. "My husband sold the baby and threatened me so that I would not talk," declared Elizabeth in front of the Argentinean TV cameras.

Shortly after that, her statements were even more forceful when she affirmed that Andres had killed the child, although she later retracted when was questioned by the authorities.

Andres Irusta, on the other hand, defended himself from Barros' accusations (already separated by then), saying that she was "psychologically broken because of the child's disappearance." However, he was also aware that the police were investigating him because his phone had been "tapped."

Regarding the disappearance of his son, Irusta declared:

"He has been missing for two months now […], and I have nothing, neither his fingerprints nor the slightest hope".

Even so, he indicated that he was still looking for him and had requested the advice of lawyers to keep the case active.

Brian's case today

Twenty years have passed since the disappearance of Brian Irusta, and there is no clue about his whereabouts.

His mother was interviewed in March 2019 and said that she never received any news from Brian, any sign of life, any contact, nothing. It is as if he had vanished on thin air.

However, when asked about her theory on Brian's disappearance, she affirmed categorically that the boy's father took him.

Elizabeth also has her suspicions regarding the involvement of Brian's paternal family because she used to receive monthly government assistance given to parents for up to five children under the age of 18; but, at a certain point, she was no longer able to receive the money assigned for Brian.

She then discovered that Andrés Irusta was collecting the money in Buenos Aires. She now suspects that Brian is possibly living there with one of Andrés Irusta's sisters. But, unfortunately, she does not have the means to travel and look for his son there.

In addition to this, Barros indicates that both Brian's birth certificate and identity card are stored in the safety deposit box of the Fifth Court of Instruction of Mendoza. However, to this day, she has not been able to recover these documents.

The official search for Brian Irusta has been put on hold indefinitely in the absence of new leads, although his case file is still available on the Missing Children website.

Do you have information about Brian Irusta?

If you have any information about Brian Irusta's case, please contact Missing Children at 0800–333–5500, 911 emergency number, or [email protected].

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This article was written originally in Spanish and translated into English in an effort to raise awareness about missing children in Argentina and Latin America.