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"Inocencia Flores" was a title given to a woman whose tortured body was found stuffed into a canvas bag and wrapped in a blanket in Oruro, Bolivia. A 50-year-old man with a history of violence named José Leaño Perales was convicted of her murder, but he gave the police the wrong name for the victim. According to José, she was a domestic servant under his employ. The woman he claimed the decedent to be would later be found alive, leaving her true identity unknown.
Case[]
At 6 AM on 13 December 1977, a passerby found a canvas bag on the corner of Buenos Aires Street in Oruro, Bolivia, with human feet sticking out of it. The police arrived and opened the bag, finding a dead body wrapped inside a green and blue blanket. The body, belonging to a woman, was completely naked, and her face was covered in blood. Her hair was described as 'loose,' and she had been tortured. The decedent was covered in bruises, stab wounds, and even scars and lashes, likely from a whip. The majority of the wounds were on the head and chest, with some injuries from a board on her back and legs. The pathologist counted 56 wounds total, 26 of which were stab wounds. Most of the wounds were inflicted 48 hours prior. The cause of death was a single blow to the head with a hammer, resulting in a 7-cm wound. The time of death was placed at around 2 AM and 3 AM.
Pressure was placed on the police to make an arrest, as many were outraged and held protests over the murder. Eventually, the police arrested 50-year-old José Leaño Perales for the murder. The evidence against José was rather compelling; he had fresh scratch marks on both his face and arms and fresh blood stains on his clothing. A search of his home revealed more pairs of clothing that belonged to the decedent. José had a history of violence and was alleged to "sell" homeless and "peasant" children and would be repeatedly abusive to any housekeeper that he hired. José denied any involvement and mocked and threatened the police for suspecting him.
José's first court hearing would take place on 23 December, and he finally confessed and told the court what had happened. The decedent was a housekeeper he had recently hired named Marcelina Francisca Gutiérrez, from Bolivia's indigenous community. He had gotten heavily intoxicated and killed her after he resisted an attempt he had made to rape her. In January 1978, a woman showed up at José's house with a child. The woman was the real Marcelina Francisca Gutiérrez, who was still alive. She said she had moved to Oruro for better opportunities and got a job as José's housekeeper. José would repeatedly beat, abuse and rape her. After finding out Marcelina was pregnant, José fired her. Marcelina had returned to try to demand child support from José.
After Marcelina had appeared and cleared up the misidentification, the police returned to try to identify the decedent. Her face was shown in local newspapers, but nobody came forward to identify her. The only lead was her clothing found in José's house, which was considered traditional clothing, indicating that she likely originated from the valleys of Cochabamba or the Paria province.
José was convicted of the decedent's murder and sentenced to 30 years imprisonment without the possibility of parole. While in prison, he acted violently and aggressively toward the other inmates, which ultimately led to him being killed in a fight with another inmate sometime in the 1990s.
Clothing[]
- Indigenous clothing.
Belongings[]
- Green and blue blanket.
- Canvas bag.
Sources[]
- Wikipedia (Spanish) POSTMORTEM WARNING
- Unitel (Spanish)
- El Sajama (Spanish) POSTMORTEM WARNING
- FM Bolivia (Spanish)