19 Jul 2024
Death by Police
Sometimes we find cases that seem to come out of a Tarantinian mind and we see how the lives of several people are immersed in a butterfly effect in which an endless sequence of events, seemingly triggered by each other, end up having completely unpredictable consequences. During this case you may have the opinion of being more inclined to think that all this was nothing more than a series of catastrophes and that for this reason, the defendants accepted the sentence requested by the prosecutor, or you could imagine that it was a "come on, what a battle you are giving me", that it was an attempt to flee in his paranoia and that he fell headlong between the rocks or that by leaving him there, or that in some way or another, the sea trapped Diego, the victim whose story I am going to tell you in this program, and did not let him go until those days after his disappearance, it could all be the result of a bad decision, but everything there is about this case, before and after it happened, gives you a tremendous shadow of doubt to fall on your head.
Diego Perez Tomas had five older brothers and sisters. He had very close ties with them and, due to a handicap, he received a non-contributory pension and his siblings were always very attentive to him.
In fact, it was one of his brothers who administered his pension on his behalf and who was authorized to operate his bank account.
All of the brothers frequently talked on the phone, and Diego's cell phone was purchased by one of them.
They often visited Diego and took care of his daily problems, such as food, either by taking it home or eating with him at another brother's bar.
The contact with Diego was constant, which is why they soon realized that something was wrong when they lost contact with him.
It was Tuesday, March 11, 2014 at 04:35 a.m. when Diego Pérez Tomás, a neighbor of Cartagena's Virgen de la Caridad, a conflictive area known as Las Seiscientas called the National Police to alert that some neighbors were threatening him. A neighbor claimed that he saw Diego that night "very excited" and that he was carrying a blanket.
A National Police patrol was dispatched to the scene and found the man in his home, nervous and excited, but they did not find any neighbors or other people in the vicinity, so the officers withdrew and continued their regular duty.
The next day Diego's brother noticed that his brother was not at home and would contact the police station immediately, but was told to wait 24 hours before filing a complaint.
On Thursday 13, Diego's brother reported that he had disappeared after leaving the house they shared two days earlier and that he had not heard from him since.
It was he who provided all the information that could facilitate the location of Diego, including three telephone conversations that the two brothers had held in a period of less than three hours the last afternoon. The following days, the brothers actively participated in the search for Diego, placing his photograph in public places, requesting the collaboration of citizens on social networks and carrying out, with the help of family and friends, extensive searches.
