Who is Harold Echeverry? They accuse him of killing and dismembering Michelle Dayana, 14, on the night of the candles: he twice denied that his father had seen her

In Cali, Colombia, a criminal’s evil took the life of Michelle Dayana Gonzáleza 14-year-old teenager when the entire country was preparing to celebrate the night of the candles, on Thursday, December 7, 2023.

Four days passed and the whole country wished for the immediate arrest of the accused murderer. Is about Harold Andrés Echeverry Orozcothe security guard of a mechanical workshop and for whom they offered a reward of 100 million pesos (about $25,000), EFE noted.

On Monday afternoon, December 11, the suspect was arrested in Villavicencio. The networks celebrated the news. In the San Judas Tadeo neighborhood, men and women hugged each other and rode through the streets on motorcycles. They were looking for the victim’s father, Genaro González.

“I came from leaving my daughter at the cemetery and discovered this news. I’m happy, it gave me my soul back. That’s an animal. I hope she has no defense to be free,” said the teenager’s father, who published Cali es Cali on video.

What happened to Michelle Dayana

“Daddy, I’m not late,” Genaro González heard as his daughter went to a store. He went for candy, as he almost always did, BluRadio reported. But he didn’t come back that night. After a while the father went out to look for it and at the store they told him it was there, he bought it and left.

He returned to the house and did not find her. At that moment he decided to go out into the street and show some people, who were placing their candles in front of the Immaculate Conception, the photo of his daughter.

Genaro González didn’t get tired of walking the streets of Cali’s San Judas Tadeo neighborhood, nor of asking questions.

He arrived at the doors of the mechanical workshop and also questioned the guard. He denied seeing her.

The security cameras captured Michelle Dayana’s last journey on Thursday, December 7 at 7:43 PM as she left her home to buy sweets. “The teenager disappeared after passing a family lighting candles.”

“I left him 2,000 pesos as usual (…) I don’t think he saw them. When I get home, I leave them on the counter.

-Those 2,000 pesos are mine, give them to me because I’m going to buy some mecatos (candies).

– Make him quick, because we have to go outside so he can shower and change.

-‘Well, Dad, I’m not late,’ and that was the last time I saw my daughter,’ said the father.

“I spoke to my daughter’s killer”

When Genaro González saw in despair that she was not answering her cell phone, “he walked past the workshop several times and asked the guard if he had seen the girl.

“I saw my daughter’s killer standing there,” he said, according to the Colombian press.

The parent said he spoke to the guard twiceEl País noted.

Dawn broke and there was no sign of Michelle Dayana.

At 6 a.m. on Friday morning it was already clear “that her daughter had not continued on her way after passing the workshop.”

From the videos it looked like he was on that block, but the store told him they didn’t have security cameras. Suspicions increased.

According to El País, he said that a man approached the house to report that he had seen something suspicious in the workshop of one of the workers.

Authorities arrived on the scene Friday morning. Although the suspected perpetrator was still on site at the time, he managed to escape a few minutes later on a motorcycle from the workshop, BluRadio describes.

Upon entering the place, the father discovered a bloody and fighting scene. The 14-year-old girl was murdered and dismembered.

“When I enter a bathroom – which was closed, I kick it and open it – I see that there is a lot of blood (…) she fought before he hurt her (…),” the victim’s father says with pain, BluRadio reports.

Once we got inside with the lab people, they looked for traces of blood which led us to a suitcase that was under a staircase, where (in) a trash can was part of the minor.

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The History of Harold Echeverry

Authorities distributed a poster with the alleged killer’s face at airports and transportation terminals. Arresting him was a priority.

In Hoy Noticias they said Harold Echeverry was a soldier.

In the words of Jimmy Dranguet, Minister of Security and Justice of Cali: “It was possible to verify that Harold Andrés Echeverry Orozco had a reputation for abusing carnal access against minors.

“Some colleagues in the workshop claimed he had suffered a blow to the eye, scratches to his face and wounds to his lips and neck,” Dranguet said.

In Cali, this murder extinguished the joy of Christmas. Everyone wants justice.

They accompanied Genaro González in his farewell to Michelle Dayana, whose photo of a smiling face was on the coffin. The wake was at the neighborhood sports center.

In the photos, the 14-year-old teen looks happy. In one he makes the victory sign with his left hand. That V is also that of his life, cut short by cruelty.

“I ask the authorities to be strong,” Genaro González said. Echeverry would be taken to Cali on a National Police plane.

Some walls in the area, including the facade of the mechanical workshop, now have graffiti with the same message: “Girls don’t touch each other, they don’t kill each other.”

(JO)