At least 46 bodies were decapitated and dismembered nationwide during 2022; in Zone 8 there are 19

The body of a man, wrapped in flowery sheets and black pillowcases, lay in the middle of the road. His head, detached, was a few meters away, inside another plastic bag. Both human pieces were found at dawn on April 2. The event shocked the residents of the Bastión Popular sector, northwest of Guayaquil.

Fifteen minutes from this area, in Pascuales, this violent act multiplied by four in a period of 17 days, between December 10 and 27. Two men and a woman were beheaded and another man was dismembered in several parts.

These cruel and macabre findings were also replicated at the national level. Total, this Journal compiled at least 46 cases in the country during the year 2022the most violent recorded in the country’s history. 41% (19) occurred in Guayaquil (11) and Durán (8), two of the three cantons that are part of Zone 8.

The official statistics of these violent acts differ between two police institutions. According to Carlos Perugachi, head of the Zone 8 Criminalistics and Forensic Science Laboratory, they have received fourteen cases with these characteristics.

On the other hand, the National Directorate of Crimes against Life, Violent Deaths, Disappearances, Extortion and Kidnappings (Dinased) from Zone 8 records —according to a January interview— 29 dismembered bodies; thirteen of them were people deprived of their liberty killed during prison riots.

These figures do not coincide because perhaps the Dinased —considers Perugachi— would be referring to the subclassification of the pieces. “But (several) correspond to a single body,” he says.

Of the 46 victims whose bodies were decapitated and/or dismembered, 24 were in Guayas, 6 in Azuay (in the Turi prison), 5 in Los Ríos, 4 in El Oro, 2 in Esmeraldas, 2 in Cañar and the remaining 3 in the provinces of Santa Elena, Santo Domingo and Imbabura.

At least 90 dead and 385 injured make up the collateral victims during the year of the greatest violence in the country

Of the total cases, 40 were men and 6 women. Among them is the alleged femicide of a young woman in the Antonio Neumane cooperative on Trinitaria Island, south of Guayaquil. Her body was dismembered into ten parts, in her home, and they found it inside two bags and a suitcase on the perimeter road, on December 27. Her partner, who according to the Police would be part of a criminal gang, is the main suspect.

“As women are victims of this violence, deaths also increase with this cruelty. (For) the hit men it is easier to kill a woman than for her husband or the gang leader to send her to kill. This does not happen with men, except in prisons (…). Women are at risk”, explains Anabel Arévalo, Master in Family Psychotherapy and specialist in gender violence. (YO)

With fingerprints, anthropological examination and DNA tests, mutilated bodies are identified

The first step in identifying a corpse is to check the fingerprints. As soon as the body of a deceased person enters the Criminalistics and Forensic Sciences Laboratory of Zone 8, the sample (necrodactyly) is taken from the fingers, these data are entered into the police system and matches are sought in the database of people with a criminal record, explains Jorge Torres, head of Legal Medicine.

If it does not appear in those records and a relative has identified it, he adds, the information of the person with his fingerprint is requested from the Civil Registry, and an expert is in charge of verifying that there are at least nine coincidences in the lines (shapes and patterns ), which are unique to each person. (View image)

‘Stop the deaths’, cry of families of collateral victims

The results of this process can take from 20 to 45 minutes if the print is clear, and up to days if the image is not clear or complete. And if the fingerprint cannot be taken from the corpse, because it was found in a state of decomposition, burned or dismembered, says the specialist, an anthropological examination is carried out to determine sex, size and other characteristics that would help identification.

“It is complicated when it comes to anatomical pieces, because they are cuts that are sometimes not complete. What is done is to treat each anatomical piece; they are processed separately and listed”, says Torres.

The third and final step lies in the DNA test that is practiced on the deceased and the relative to confirm their name and deliver the body. This test was carried out, for example, on the two human heads found in Pascuales, northwest of Guayaquil, on December 21 and 27.

Only these anatomical pieces were delivered to their relatives, since the bodies were not found, recalls Carlos Perugachi, head of the Zone 8 Crime Laboratory.

In this same area, the identification of suspects at crime scenes is carried out. The fingerprints, in these cases, are taken with powders and colored chemicals that are spread on different surfaces with brushes —which have a magnet to place and remove the product— to make contrasts and capture the largest number of fingerprints. (YO)

Other victims in the country during 2022

September 13, 2022. The decapitated body of Kenneth Marcos IC (21) was found in two covers, in the Venus del Río parish, in Quevedo (Los Ríos).

September 15, 2022. A decapitated corpse was found packed with plastic covers in a remote sector of the El Arbolito cooperative, in Durán (Guayas). The victim would have been executed in another place, according to the police version. He had no documents, so he was not identified at the time. A recycler going through the waste for items found the human remains and alerted police.

November 30, 2022. Joseph VA (28) had been reported missing a week earlier. The body was dismembered into several parts and placed in seven sacks, on Perimetral avenue, near the viaduct that leads to the road to the coast, in the north of Guayaquil. The body had bullet wounds to the head, thorax, and legs. His relatives identified him by a tattoo.

December 21, 2022. The body of the Colombian Yésica C. was dismembered into nine parts and found in a garbage dump in the Trinitaria Island sector, south of Guayaquil.