The last woman who saw the backpackers: “I noticed that something was wrong” – Clarín.com

The store has no name but the neighborhood is known as “The store of Mrs. Hope”. It is less than a block from the precarious yellow house, tin roof and rags instead of curtains where, according to the confession of one of the two detainees, they would have killed the two Argentine tourists. She is, according to the official version of events, the last person who saw Maria Jose Coni and Marina Menegazzo alive.

“They came to the store at about half past eight p.m.. They were with Mr. nicknamed ‘The Red’. I stop here (at the counter) and the black-haired girl went straight to find what to buy, chose orange juice and something else to eat. Nicknamed Mr. ‘Red’ stayed near the fridge but I caught my girl with blond hair, because she felt worried, tense, as very serious, “says Hope Pezo Clarin.

“I stared at the blonde girl. She also looked at me, like chocábamos looks. The strange thing was that I did not ask anything and this gentleman will have noticed my face mistrust and says: ‘They stole the girls and I am going to help, I’m going to take my house.’ And I thought, ‘What house? if this man is not from here, here you are homeless. In addition, he was with drinks on top. It was odd, they were together but did not seem friends. I realized that something strange was happening. “

Hope says Maria Jose asked where they had stolen. And she replied, “In the place where we were hosted. We went to the beach and when we got back was nothing like what we did in the week. I did not know what they were engaged in town, I later learned that sold burgers and fruit salads. “

Marina, according Esperanza, pulled of” fanny “(fanny pack), $ 10 and said, “This is the last thing left me.” And he paid. Stefanni Gladys’s mother Maria Jose Coni, do not believe him to Hope: says her daughter did not wear fanny pack. Cecibel, the owner of the hostel where they were staying said that the girls said they had never stolen there. The story of Hope is a piece that fits with the official version of events. Who took a taxi all three at about 20, who bought in the store after

Marina and Maria Jose, she said they went to

the store without backpacks. And Hope believes that had left their luggage in that precarious home: “Yes, because when the black-haired girl bought something to drink, ‘Red’ said, ‘There is no water, as they had gone to that place and then they came here. ” Then, he says, the three walked to the yellow house on this dirt road today after heavy rain, became a swamp mud that reaches the ankles. If everything happened as the man who confessed to have killed them, then went to the house and the girls were alone he said. At dawn, the two men returned drunk, “brown” would abuse them and as they resisted, the murdered.