Luis Andrés Colmenares Escobar (May 23, 1990 in Villanueva (La Guajira), Colombia - October 31, 2010 in Bogotá D.C., Colombia) was an economics and industrial engineering major student at Los Andes University in Bogotá D.C., Colombia, who was found dead under suspicious circumstances on October 31, 2010, after going to a Halloween party at a club in the popular "Zona Rosa". Initial investigations explained Luis Andres' death as a result of a suicide, but almost a year later prosecutors found enough evidence to consider that Colmenares did not commit suicide, but rather was murdered. Ten months after Luis' death, the investigation was re-opened and suspects were named in the case. The prosecutor in this case was removed in a controversial decision by Colombia's Attorney General in May 2012 after constant complaints by counselor for the defense. In June 2012, Carlos Cárdenas was charged with Luis Colmenares' murder and detained.
Contents
Facts
On October 30, 2010, Luis Andrés went to a Halloween costume party at a night club in the popular Zona Rosa in Bogotá with his date, Laura Moreno, as well as Jessi Quintero, and several other friends and classmates.
According to Moreno and Quintero, they left the party around 3:15 a.m. local time on October 31, 2010. Luis was allegedly very anxious and he went out walked away. Jessi and Laura said they followed him and that Luis claimed he was feeling hungry, so the three of them went to eat while the rest of the group got Laura's SUV from the parking lot. Moreno and Quintero later told law enforcement that, after buying a hot dog, all of a sudden and without any explanation, Colmenares started to run "like crazy" towards El Virrey park, which was about 10 minutes walking distance from the hot dog stand. Jessi allegedly stayed at the hot dog stand waiting for her friends while Laura followed Luis. According to Laura, after she tried to stop him several times, Luis jumped into a drain located at El Virrey park. Jessi said that she was picked up by a group of friends, called Luis Andres' cell phone and Laura answered the call. She explained that Laura was frantic and told her that Luis jumped in the water channel (which was less than 50 cm deep) and that she was unable to see him anymore.
Supposedly, the group of friends met Laura at the park and started looking for Luis. After a couple of hours of not finding him, they sought police help at a station nearby. They also alerted Luis' family and a formal search began.
Oneida Escobar, mother of Luis Andrés, went to the park to look for her son at 6 a.m. after Laura and Jessi called Luis' brother. She initially started looking in hospitals and police stations. In the meantime, the police and firemen were conducting an exhaustive search around the area without any results. Around 6 p.m. on October 31, 2010, Oneida Escobar begged the firemen and police officer to look again under the drift where, according to Moreno, Colmenares jumped. After finding nothing, the firemen retired. Another call was received around 9 p.m. and when the firemen returned to search again, they found the dead body of Colmenares about 400 feet away from where Moreno said Luis had jumped. The body was taken to the Colombian National Legal Medicine Institute for further evaluation. The result of the first autopsy, showed Colmenares had a grade 3 of alcohol intoxication, which should have impaired him heavily, and confirmed the hypothesis of a suicide. Under this concept, the case was closed.
The authorities originally ruled Luis Andres' death as a suicide. However, the Colmenares family never accepted that theory. According to the autopsy performed at Instituto Nacional de Medicina Legal y Ciencias Forenses, by Leslie del Pilar Rodríguez, Luis Colmenares suffered a violent death. A second autopsy by Máximo Duque, former director of the same Institute, hired by the Colmenares family and research done by Prosecutor Antonio González concluded that the body had eight wounds, none compatible with a fall.
Trial
In September 2011, the case prosecutor and authorities have dismissed the suicide thesis, presented by Laura Moreno and her lawyers, that claimed that Colmenares ran into the water channel and thrown himself into it.
In October 2011, Laura Moreno and Jessi Quintero were arrested, accused of perjury and covering a crime. According to the prosecutors' office there is "strong evidence" that allow them to infer that these two young women participated in the murder of Luis Andrés Colmenares.
On May 31, 2012, Antonio González, main prosecutor, was removed from the case by Eduardo Montealegre, General Attorney, after frequent clashes with Jaime Granados, defense attorney of Laura Moreno, and substituted by Martha Lucía Zamora. González stated he had full confidence in Zamora's abilities to win the case, that he was proud of delivering a case already in trial while it was almost closed when he received and said he will keep silence about some aspects of the trial because of ethics.
In June 6, 2012, the prosecution stated that a witness of the events, Wilmer Ayola, came forward, claiming that the night of the events he saw a truck stopping in front of the park where the water channel is located. According to the witness, Luis Colmenares walked away from the truck and Laura Moreno ran after him and slapped Colmenares in the face. Carlos Cárdenas exited the truck and hit Colmenares in the head with a bottle and then Cárdenas and a group of friends kicked the victim while on the ground. After failed efforts by the group to reanimate Colmenares, they carried away the body in the truck. Ayola claimed he came forward because he had been threatened. He also explained that he was afraid because a partner that was with him that night, whom he identified only by the name of Cristian, had disappeared. Ayola added that Cárdenas offered one million pesos (approximately $500) to Cristian in exchange for their silence and that he received part of the money.
The same day Carlos Cárdenas was detained on charges of aggravated homicide. He claimed it was a false accusation and that there were people interested in damaging his reputation and the well being of his family. The prosecutors stated in the trial files that they had intercepted conversations between Cárdenas and Laura Moreno about his family having an "important contact" in the General Attorney's Office so she should keep her calm. The mother of Carlos Cárdenas, María del Pilar Gómez, hired a lawyer, Aidé Acevedo, to press Armando Novoa, Director of the National Prosecution Office, into changing the prosecutor in charge of the case. Both are indicted with obstruction of justice. The prosecution intercepted cell phone calls between both women talking about the best way to change the course of the case.
On June 14, 2012, Daniel Teleki, attorney for Jessi Quintero, renounced after claiming he and his family had been threatened on social networks. On June 19, 2012, the prosecutor explained that Cristian, the other witness identified by Wilmer Ayola, had been located and that he was looking for protection from the police. Cristian said he had taken pictures of Moreno's truck taken with his cellphone the night of the events.
The following day, Cárdenas and Morenos' lawyer, Jaime Granados, came forward explaining that Ayola worked as security guard in a building complex far from the site of the events and that records proved he was working there that night. He accused Ayola of perjury. In a radio interview, the following day, Ayola explained that he had escaped his working place and that he signed the records after returning to work at 5 a.m. claiming he had proof of this. That very same day, on June 20, 2012, the former General Attorney of Colombia, Mario Iguarán was hired by Cárdenas family as defense lawyer.
On June 28, 2012, the current General Attorney, Eduardo Montealegre stated that the initial prosecutor, Antonio González, expelled from the case after pressure from defense lawyers, and other auxiliary attorneys involved in the case, had to be protected from an assassination attempt detected by the CTI (Research Technical Corp or Cuerpo Técnico de Investigaciones) and that his security scheme had been reinforced. The same day, Jaime Granados, defense lawyer for Cárdenas, denounced penally González for retiring blood samples taken from Colmenares body, but offered no explanations about the motives of the attorney. González stated that this was a regular procedure.