Some farmers from the rural areas of Usme said in their conversations about Dilan Santiago Castro, who was just a two-year-old baby, “It is very difficult to believe the death of that little angel. I have never heard of this around here.” , was found dead.
The tragic death also brought out of anonymity the village of Curubital, which can be reached by a journey of about three kilometers along a road south of Bogota. The unearthed road, which became a mourning area after its discovery body child’s
(Read: Attention: Dilan Santiago’s father, Marlon Castro, has been released).
EL TIEMPO visited the house where the disappearance took place and where Dilan Santiago lived in the last days of his life. Although the events surrounding his death are unknown, Neighbors’ voices about life in that area give clues to researchers working on the hypothesis that there may have been a murder as a result of mechanical asphyxiation.
The same neighbors told EL TIEMPO that, in fact, everything points to the only person who was on that property the weekend she disappeared, Derly Rivas with her young son. The entire area is surrounded by dozens of hectares of potato crops and some wells used for trout farming.
(Also: Dilan Santiago Castro’s autopsy presented by the Forensic Medicine: he died as a result of asphyxiation)
The walls of the house where the child disappeared are white and spacious, and it is possible to see the traces of the insulation made with yellow tape around it while the authorities were searching for the child. brown hair, fair skin and dark eyes.
After passing a few meters along a path surrounded by plants, we see a valley with transparent waters descending from the steppe and some frailejons; A weathered blue fence, more than two meters high, stops the passage. There, several Creole dogs bark loudly, warning that a strange person has arrived.
“They are always warning and barking at strangers. They are not brave, but they make a fuss,” says one of the workers at the factory. The farm known as Monte Bello TrucheraIt is a village with approximately 30 wells where trout is grown, potatoes are grown on several hectares of land, and until last week it lived peacefully.
“What I was afraid of was that Dilan had fallen into one of these wells, considering he was so young,” the man explains. The disappearance of a child was reported in the national media on Tuesday, February 6, 2024.
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After crossing the fence and climbing the slope a few meters, you can see the single-storey, white-walled house where Dilan Santiago and her mother live. Derly Yulieth Rivas. According to his mother, this house was the last place she saw him alive before he disappeared under strange circumstances.
This mother told EL TIEMPO that around 2 pm on Tuesday, February 6, she left her child alone in the kitchen for a while to get firewood and soak some clothes in soap. When he returned, Dilan had disappeared.
Derly stated that she did not hear any screaming, crying or strange noise from the child.. In the woman’s account and noting the steps she is thought to have taken that day, it is stated that the distance she traveled from where she left her child to where the firewood was placed did not exceed four or five meters.
When you open the kitchen door you find a small white plastic chair where they sit the child, there is also a stove on which they cook with firewood and various pots and foods. An unwashed yellow teapot is still in the dishwasher. and there are a few plates next to it.
“That’s how he (Derly Rivas) left the place that day,” says the man hired on a daily basis to work there.
The firewood the mother allegedly went looking for at the time of her disappearance is still piled nearby, a few feet away from the kitchen. There is a bucket on the floor next to the board with clothes to soak for washing. Some of Dilan’s clothes still stand out in this regard.
(Also: Dilan Santiago case will be transferred to the Prosecutor’s Office Homicide Unit: this is known).
In the other rooms, there are rooms with several beds for all the remaining workers. Even though it is daytime and the sky is clear and the house is dark, it is difficult to find details without a flashlight. and there is little that can be told about its interior.
(Also: Dilan Santiago Castro’s father speaks: ‘I haven’t talked to my son for a month and a half.’)
As Monte Bello Truchera employees told this newspaper: Tolima native Derly Yulieth Rivas was living in the house where the baby died when she came to the farm in 2023 as a partner of one of the managers..
“First, she was the wife of one of the managers. She lived here in December and came as the boy’s partner. She left him and returned to her town. Then, around January 15, they called her to work, but they were no longer a couple with the boy,” say locals.
It is known that the farm was run by two brothers. One of them confirmed to EL TIEMPO that he had known him since December, “he arrived around the 12th or 14th and stayed for almost fifteen days.” At that time, Derly returned to Tolima on the 28th of the same month.
“He went to spend Christmas with his family and He returned on January 15,” says Fabián Salazar, one of the managers. It was the same man who found the boy’s body on Saturday morning. Her memory also states that she found the baby face down, head on the side, and in an open area. His testimony is one of the keys to case investigators determining what happened to the boy.
In fact, both managers gave statements to the authorities because they both came to the farm the night the disappearance was reported and stayed with the young mother. As for how they found the body, they said it happened while they were checking the potato crop.
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From the weekend until Tuesday, the day he disappeared, Derly Rivas was alone at the farm with her baby Dilan Santiago.
On Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Rómulo, who works at the neighboring property, called the property’s manager, Fabián, and told him: “Derly’s child seems to be missing, they can’t find him.” This was the first known report regarding the fate of Dilan Santiago.
On the same day, Fabián recalled that they came to EL TIEMPO at 19.00 on Tuesday night to see first-hand what happened, and at that time Derly told them the same story: He said that he had been looking for her for two hours and that it was like this: if the earth had swallowed him in a few seconds .
As the worker told the newspaper after calling Dilan for several hours that day, Rómulo not only told managers what happened, Finally, it occurred to him to report what was happening at the National Army post on the pavement and alert the uniformed officers.who eventually supports the search.
The baby’s mother’s version does not match what the boy’s aunt, Valentina Castro, told the media. The woman claims she received news of the disappearance from a local person and then called Derly to confirm.
“I called Derly and she told me to stop gossiping, that what I was talking about was that I shouldn’t interfere in her life. It was on a Tuesday. I called the police and they started investigating,” says Valentina.
Meanwhile, neighbors are horrified by the cause of death determined by the Forensic Medicine: mechanical asphyxiationThis was confirmed on Tuesday, as there was no one else on the farm other than the mother.
Derly told the media: “I don’t understand why they did this with her. If they didn’t want to see me they would have said to me: ‘Woman, go away, we don’t want to see you here’ but don’t do that.” She also said that no one knows her pain and wants them to find the person responsible for her baby’s death.
Leonor Merchán, director of the Bogotá prosecutor’s office, announced on Thursday, February 15, that the case is being investigated as a murder and that “no one has been ruled out” as the possible person responsible for the child’s death. Individuals associated with the investigation are alleged perpetrators.
Laura Avendaño Ladino
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I am Bret Jackson, a professional journalist and author for Gadget Onus, where I specialize in writing about the gaming industry. With over 6 years of experience in my field, I have built up an extensive portfolio that ranges from reviews to interviews with top figures within the industry. My work has been featured on various news sites, providing readers with insightful analysis regarding the current state of gaming culture.
