A missing mother in Venezuela has been found after a months-long search led to a gruesome discovery. Ana Gabriela Medina Blanco, 19, had been missing for more than five months when her ex-boyfriend decided to take matters into his own hands several weeks ago and go looking for her himself.
After entering her property in search of clues, the man reportedly detected an overpowering stench that led him to a freezer. When he cracked it open, detectives say he was horrified by what he found inside.
Blanco was reportedly last seen in February, though her disappearance did not immediately raise alarm bells.
The teen mother would often travel to the city capital, Caracas, for extended periods of time and only kept “sporadic contact” with her family, according to the Mirror.
Her stepfather also told a local media outlet that he’d recently moved to a different part of the country and didn’t see the teen on a day-to-day basis.
Though the young mom was eventually reported missing months ago, it remains unclear as to whether police searched her residence.
By the sound of things, though, it seems unlikely.
When the woman’s ex-partner finally traveled to her home July 29 in Aragua, it didn’t take him long to find her. The unidentified man, who is also the father of her 4-year-old son, was immediately overwhelmed by the smell of death emanating from the kitchen and rushed in to investigate.
After peeking into the fridge and finding nothing, he then moved on to the freezer — where he found the mother’s body in a horrifying state.
Inside, Blanco was naked and curled up in the fetal position.
Right away, it was clear that she’d been tortured before her death, as her hands were bound and her head was forced between her legs.
Gruesome stab wounds across her body also indicated the brutal manner in which she died: being viciously attacked with a screwdriver. In fact, local reports suggested the young mother was stabbed more than 50 times by her killer before being stuffed into the freezer.
Now, police are searching for a man known as Josue, whose fingerprints were left on the freezer.
The man, who’s been described by locals as a “jealous and abusive” boyfriend, was reportedly dating the teen mom at the time of her disappearance.
His whereabouts, however, remain unknown, as he appears to be on the run.
As shocking as this case may be, violent crimes have risen sharply in Venezuela, as the country grapples with an economic collapse.
Data from the independent Venezuelan Violence Observatory noted that the homicide rate in 2020 was 45.6 per 100,000, with a total of 11,891 murders recorded, the Daily Mail reported. Luckily, violent crime rates have started to dip this year, but homicide is still considered an ongoing epidemic in the country — one that’s reportedly 11 times more deadly than the coronavirus in Venezuela.
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Original Article: https://cafemom.com/news/ana-gabriela-medina-blanco-missing-body-found-freezer
Flat head screwdriver or Philips head screwdriver?