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Similar Murder of Deanna Criswell, Murder of Sylvia Likens, Ramona Moore homicide | ||
The Lissette Ochoa domestic violence case was one of the best known cases of spousal abuse in Colombia because of the couple's elite social status and for the brutality of the battering perpetrated on Lissette Ochoa by her husband Rafael Dangond.
Contents
Events
On 29 July 2006, Rafael Dangond and Lissette Ochoa attended a wedding party in the exclusive Country Club in the city of Barranquilla, Colombia. Dangond became aggressive after his wife Lissette was invited to dance by a group of friends who had traveled from Venezuela to attend the wedding, among them a young male who danced with her. While Ochoa was dancing, some of the wedding guests recount seeing Dangond sitting alone at the table. He later walked towards the bathroom and then came out with reddened eyes, presumably caused by alcohol or drugs. Apparently, Dangond became angry and jealous.
Once she returned to her seat, Dangond immediately ordered his wife to exit the event and, once outside, Dangond began battering her and pushed her into their car where the beating continued at approximately 2:00 AM. He drove the car erratically around the city while constantly hitting her for more than two hours. When they arrived home at approximately 4:00 AM, the violence continued. Ochoa desperately locked herself in a bathroom and used a cellphone to call her father, Jorge Álvaro Ochoa, who told her he was on his way to her apartment. She also warned him that her husband was armed and was yelling threats about killing himself, her, and her father. At this moment, Dangond knocked the door down, fired his weapon, and the bullet scratched his wife's armpit.
When her father, Jorge Álvaro, arrived at their building, she had managed to exit the apartment building where she met with her father, who recounted looking at her as if she were a character from the film The Exorcist. Her eyes were purple and swollen, her upper lip was basically touching her nose, and she had come out crawling. Her father immediately tried to report the incident to the police, but was told to return later in the morning when the person in charge of those cases arrived, negligence that he and others would later criticize in the media. He then took her to a clinic where she spent more than a month interned after suffering multiple physical traumas mainly on her head. Doctor Humberto Caiaffa, who cared for Ochoa, said she had multiple fractures and had arrived at the clinic in a "lamentable" state.
National attention
The case gained notoriety thanks in part to Ochoa's aunt, Astrid Amador, who took pictures of her during the wedding and afterwards at the hospital. She e-mailed the pictures, and the story was basically spread by word of mouth until the most influential Colombian news media reported the event and produced other numerous reports related to these types of cases that had been widely ignored in Colombia. The investigation on the case was initiated, and Ochoa also filed for divorce.
Husband jailed and released
On 4 August 2006, Dangond turned himself in to authorities after a brief absentia and was jailed in El Bosque Prison for three months. He was formally accused on 17 November 2006, by Ochoa's family members in a sectional attorney's office in Barranquilla. He was accused of assault and battery, homicide intent, and carrying an illegal weapon. The attorney later decided on the case and absented himself from a final resolution and revoked the preventive detention, setting Dangond temporarily free. He was sentenced to 5 years in jail for attempted murder and for assaulting his wife.
SoHo magazine article
Ochoa wrote an article called "¡Nunca más!" (Never again!) in the Colombian SoHo magazine, telling her side of the story. She called men who are violent toward women beasts and recalled her married life of nine years, during which she had had two children by her husband; she also mentioned that her husband had previously been violent to a lesser extent with her, signals that she had ignored and which had escalated to a point that had almost gotten her killed.
Public apology and reunion
On 1 December 2006, Dangond acknowledged facing psychological issues and struggles with drug addiction, which also affected the upbringing of their two children. He admitted to having personality difficulties and expressed his ongoing love for his wife. Dangond offered a public apology for his actions on that night, extending his remorse to his wife, family, and the wider community. Gratefully, he publicly thanked his wife for granting him a second chance to return to her as her husband.