SOFIA YASMIN HERRERA 4 - Rio Grande (Argentina) - 28/09/08

I came across this case on the Joana Morais blog. I hadn't heard of this case before and noticed we didn't have a thread for Sofia here. So thought I would start one.

http://joana-morais.blogspot.com/2009/08/argentinean-mccanns-sofia-herreras.html



August 21, 2009

The Argentinean “McCanns”: Sofia Herrera’s father was detained
(Translated)

The story of Sofía Yasmín Herrera, 3 years old and 8 months, is similar to the one of Madeleine McCann of almost four years old who disappeared in Portugal in 2007. Sofia was with her parents and mysteriously disappeared on the 28th of September 2008 from a camping site in the touristic town of Rio Grande, Argentina. The similarities with the 'Maddie Case' and with the controversial 'McCanns', grew on the other side of the world. The contradictions of Sofia's parents statements arouse suspicions since the first day. In cases like this, usually the close circle around the victim has and should be always investigated.

Sofia Herrera’s father was detained as ordered by the judge because he contradicted himself during the reconstruction of his daughter’s disappearance. In addition at the magistrate’s request, the camping’s caretaker where the girl was last seen was also detained. The reconstruction started last Wednesday and ended yesterday. Today, the judge will hear the detainee’s statements.

Nearly a year after the disappearance of the child, Sofia Herrera, the Justice of Tierra del Fuego[lit. Land of Fire] arrested the father of the child. The caretaker of the camping John Godall, the place where the girl was last seen, was also placed in a police cell waiting a forthcoming statement questioning.

The arrests came after the reconstruction of the disappearance, which began Wednesday and ended yesterday. “It was the second reconstruction, with all the players who were there at the last moments the girl was seen; because, during the various statements, several differences were detected between the stories. Thanks to this new diligence we could detect some serious incongruences in some of the things that were said relative to the time and space, which caused a shift in the case”, confirmed a prosecution source who intervenes on the case to Pagina/12.

At the moment Fabian Herrera is accused of "hindering the investigation" and the caretaker Alberto Urrutia, for the alleged "abduction" of the child.

Sofia was last seen on September 28, 2008. During the investigation, psychiatric experts, the Supreme Court of Justice, Buenos Aires police, federal police and even a forensic team of Cordoba [Argentina’s Cordoba ] intervened in the case. Last night, after eleven months without Sofia, the judge Eduardo López ordered the arrest de Herrera, while, at the request of the plaintiff’s attorney (Francisco Ibarra) the same was done with Urrutia. Although the crimes against them are different, both men were arrested after the second reconstruction of the events.

The site of the reconstruction: the campsite John Godall Rio Grande (Tierra del Fuego).

The time: between last Wednesday and yesterday.

The intention: to determine the time (the hours) and the exact place where each player was just before the disappearance.



The players: the child's mother (María Elena Delgado), Fabian Herrera, Paloma and Silvio Giménez (friends of the couple Herrera), their two sons and the caretaker Urrutia, these were all people who were camping in the time of the disappearance of Sofia.

After finishing the first stage of the judicial reconstruction and because of the alleged inconsistencies between the statements of Herrera and his friend Giménez, on Wednesday, Judge Lopez made a confrontation between the two. “Since the beginning of the case, Delgado, and Paloma Herrera had different contradictions in their statements. Silvio Giménez was the only one who in nine witness’s statements has always told the same thing”, told this newspaper a source of investigation.



During the confrontation, Giménez said the same that he had reported in September 2008, while Sofia's dad “did not remember well all the facts because I was very nervous”, assured to Pagina/12 his wife .

According to a preliminary report of the (second) reconstruction, Herrera kept repeatedly “forgetting” about the day when his daughter disappeared. For example, at the moment of establishing with his body the distance that separated him from Sofia in the last time he saw her the man replied that “it was not more than 20 meters”. However, measurements taken at the camping site yesterday by the Buenos Aires police officers determined that between the place Herrera said he was and the space where his daughter supposedly was there were more than 180 meters. Between the testimony and the diligences, there was almost two “cuadras” [measure – one cuadra= 80 meters by 80 meters] of difference.

A few days ago, psychologists from the Supreme Court of Justice determined that “the report of one of Giménez’s children – the six-year-old boy who said that he saw Sofia has she climbed into a car – is not a lie, but contains several inconsistencies, fissures, and basically is not accurate”, confirmed the prosecutor source. Therefore, according to the lawyer, from “the statements that were taken today (yesterday) it could determine that the last place where the little girl was seen, was very close to the house of Urrutia”, the camping’s caretaker.

The man lived in a kind of small house that is located in the building that has been under concession by the municipality to a Río Grande taxi cooperative, and he is in charge of the place’s maintenance and security. The employee’s case is different from that of Herrera, because to the investigators, Urrutia is directly related to Sofia’s disappearance.

According to the data that has been established, the detention order was issued right after the psychiatric evaluations and the measures that were taken over these days, that led lawyer Ibarra to request the judge to detain Urrutia, as well as to close the camping where the events took place. In previous statements, Urrutia had said that “he had been in the province for a year only”, that the day in question “there were no other families or people at the camping” and that he didn’t “see any suspicious vehicles in the area”, and neither did he see Sofia.

Subnotes

The Madeleine Case

Madeleine McCann, who had three years, disappeared on May 3, 2007, while on vacation with her parents and siblings in Praia de Luz, Portugal. The case was investigated by the British and Portuguese police, and remains unresolved. The Investigators from Portugal consider to today the girl's parents, Gerry and Kate McCann (doctors), as suspects.


A member of the Portuguese Judiciary Police said that the parents "continue a strategy of disseminating new information almost daily through the media," which "aims to harm the investigation and take it in the wrong paths."

The parents, meanwhile, hold a public campaign and hired detectives to find the girl. A couple of weeks ago, at a press conference they presented the sketch of a a woman who they consider suspicious.

Original source: Paginal12
Google Translation of Paginal12

Infancia Hoy (Children Today) - Spanish, Google Translation

21/08/2009 | 14:45

Case of the missing girl in Tierra del Fuego

The father of Sofia Arrested



Fabian Herrera was arrested after being questioned by the judge who conducted the cause of girl missing for nearly a year.

Tierra del Fuego - Sofia Herrera disappeared from a campsite where she was with her parents on 28 September. Yesterday Justice fuegian made a reconstruction of the time and after the interrogation the father of Sofia, the judge requested his arrest.

For its part, the Justice of Tierra del Fuego arrested on Thursday Fabián Herrera, father of Jasmine Sofia. The parent of the girl was delayed yesterday for alleged contradictions against those of another witness in the reconstruction of the event which first took place yesterday.

"I do not understand what he was talking about. We are so confused when contradicted state," said Maria Elena to Children TODAY. In addition, Sofia's mom said to wait a further questioning by the judge to emphasize the progress of the cause.

Until now it was known by the smell of the dogs that reached the last track that marks the perimeter fence between the road and camping Goodall.

However, recent expert able to identify the last place where he and the girl would give a new framework for the cause.

Source: Google Translation of Infancia Hoy, 21st August 2009

Sofia's details are also on the Interpol site.

Present family name: HERRERA
Birth name: HERRERA
Forename: SOFIA YASMIN
Sex: FEMALE
Date of birth: 30 December 2004 (4 years old)
Place of birth: RIO GRANDE, TIERRA DEL FUEGO, Argentina
Nationality: Argentina
Father's family name & forename: HERRERA
Mother's maiden name & forename: DELGADO



Colour of eyes: DARK
Colour of hair: DARK
Distinguishing marks and characteristics: undefined
Language spoken: Spanish Castilian



Date of disappearance: 28 September 2008 at 3 years old
Place of disappearance: RIO GRANDE, Argentina


http://www.interpol.int/public/Data/Children/Missing/Notices/Data/2008/56/2008_34756.asp

so many missing children of ALL ages is frightening in Argentina.