\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t Cecilia Strzyzowski used to run a caf\u00e9 in the northeastern Argentine province of Chaco. But in June 2023, she packed her suitcase with the belongings she would need to start a new life in Ushuaia, four thousand kilometers south, with her partner, C\u00e9sar Sena.<\/p>\n
C\u00e9sar\u2019s parents were politicians and social leaders who held such power in and around Resistencia, the provincial capital, that they had a neighborhood built and named after his father, Emerenciano Sena. The family had strong ties to Peronist Chaco Governor Jorge Capitanich; at the time, Emerenciano was running for provincial deputy and his mother, Marcela Acu\u00f1a, for mayor of Resistencia.<\/p>\n
On the morning of June 2, security camera footage shows Cecilia, 28, entering one of the Sena family\u2019s houses with C\u00e9sar, who was 19 at the time. She was never seen again.<\/p>\n
Who was convicted of murdering Cecilia? Earlier this month, a jury found C\u00e9sar, Emerenciano, Acu\u00f1a, and three of their assistants guilty of murdering her and attempting to hide the deed. They will be sentenced next Wednesday. C\u00e9sar was convicted of aggravated homicide. Acu\u00f1a and Emerenciano were found to have acted as his primary accomplices, and three of the family\u2019s assistants were convicted of helping cover up the killing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a tearful statement to the press after the verdict, Cecilia\u2019s mother, Gloria Romero, said that since reporting the disappearance, she had lived in fear that people linked to the Senas would harm her other daughter. \u201cOften, I used to regret reporting them\u2026 I would say, if they kill me, it doesn\u2019t matter, but [my other daughter] deserves better, and I put her at risk, and she\u2019s supposed to be what I protect most.\u201d<\/p>\n
Why was Cecilia\u2019s killing so shocking? The case outraged the public, not only because of the killing of a young woman, but also because of the family\u2019s political ties. Emerenciano started out as a construction worker, but in the late 1990s and early 2000s, he started to join roadblock protests organized by unemployed people suffering the economic twilight years of Menemism \u2014 groups that would become known as piqueteros (picketers). Through the piqueteros, he became an important social leader in Chaco, managing to secure state aid and subsidies, work that earned him significant respect and social status.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 2007, when Capitanich became governor, Emerenciano was put in charge of a social housing project of over 500 houses, which later became the Emerenciano Sena neighborhood. From there on, he remained a key ally for the provincial government, acting as a link with the community.<\/p>\n
The Senas were removed from the ballot of Capitanich\u2019s Frente Chaque\u00f1o coalition for the 2023 local elections after Cecilia\u2019s disappearance. Capitanich ran for reelection and topped the primaries that same month but ultimately lost the governorship to Leandro Zdero.<\/p>\n
What do we know about Cecilia\u2019s final days? Cecilia was last seen alive on the day that C\u00e9sar had promised her they would set off for Ushuaia. In reality, he never booked the journey. The court\u2019s verdict was that, far from travelling to Tierra del Fuego, she never left the Senas\u2019 house. Security footage shows C\u00e9sar\u2019s parents arriving there at around noon and then leaving later that day, without Cecilia.<\/p>\n
For four days, Cecilia\u2019s family chatted via text with someone they believed was her before police went to Romero\u2019s house to tell her they had received a tip-off that something had happened to her daughter. The family reported her missing on June 6, and a huge search operation began.<\/p>\n
Suspicion quickly fell on the Senas. Police raided several of their properties. What they found was damning: blood, which tests confirmed was Cecilia\u2019s, and fragments of bone. However, there was no sign of her body.<\/p>\n
The exact time of the murder is unclear, but the security tape\u2019s time stamps suggest C\u00e9sar killed Cecilia on his own, and that his parents arrived later to help him clear up the crime scene and get rid of her body. C\u00e9sar had visible scratches on his neck, indicating that Cecilia tried to resist. Investigators believe the family planned her murder in advance, although the parents claimed they had no idea what had happened and claimed they were innocent.<\/p>\n
How did the Senas cover up the killing? After the parents arrived, they got to work disposing of Cecilia\u2019s body and any evidence they thought would link back to the crime. Security videos show driver and private assistant Gustavo Obreg\u00f3n removing black bags from the house, which investigators concluded contained Cecilia\u2019s remains. He and C\u00e9sar took them to a field and incinerated them.<\/p>\n
Three weeks after Cecilia disappeared, Anah\u00ed Ginarte, of the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, found several fragments of bone from a woman\u2019s body in the field where Obreg\u00f3n took the bags. They had been burned for so long that all DNA had been destroyed, meaning the team could not identify them. Ginarte, who gave evidence during the trial, said that this appeared to be intentional.<\/p>\n
They could not prove the bones were Cecilia\u2019s, but other evidence soon turned up. Her wallet and pieces of credit cards bearing her name were discovered in the field. Investigators also found her jewelry, which had likewise been burned, and pieces of the suitcase she had packed to begin her new life in Ushuaia.<\/p>\n
Then, there was the blood at the Senas\u2019 home. The room where Cecilia is believed to have been killed was covered in it: on the floor, on the bed frame, and on the mattress. Just days after the murder, the Sena family sent the bed, the mattress, and other furniture from the room to a home in the Emerenciano Sena neighborhood, on the pretext that it was a donation for the poor families living there.<\/p>\n
Investigators believe Marcela Acu\u00f1a called her secretary, political collaborator, and right-hand woman, Fabiana Gonz\u00e1lez, to help clean the crime scene and coordinate the transfer of the furniture. CCTV footage showed Obreg\u00f3n driving a truck with the furniture in it. Gonz\u00e1lez and Obreg\u00f3n were convicted of covering up the crime. In 2023, they, too, were removed from the Frente Chaque\u00f1o ballot after being arrested as suspects.<\/p>\n
A field watchman, Gustavo Melgarejo, was also convicted of covering up the crime for guarding the fire in which Cecilia\u2019s remains were burned. Melgarejo\u2019s co-worker Griselda Reinoso, who was the seventh person in the dock, was acquitted due to lack of evidence of her involvement.<\/p>\n
Why was Cecilia killed? The court did not determine why C\u00e9sar killed Cecilia, although prosecutors believe it may have been related to the Sena parents\u2019 opposition to their son\u2019s relationship. The couple had gotten married in September 2022 but then sought a divorce within days because of family pressure. \u201cThe young man was under significant control from his parents, not only financially but also in crucial life decisions,\u201d the prosecutors said during the trial.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It is the first time a jury in Chaco province has delivered a guilty verdict without the victim\u2019s body or death certificate.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The prosecutors said they would ask Judge Dolly Fern\u00e1ndez to issue a death certificate for Cecilia, explicitly stating that she was a victim of femicide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cecilia Strzyzowski used to run a caf\u00e9 in the northeastern Argentine province of Chaco. But in June 2023, she packed her suitcase with the belongings she would need to start a new life in Ushuaia, four thousand kilometers south, with her partner, C\u00e9sar Sena. C\u00e9sar\u2019s parents were politicians and social leaders who held such power […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":11801,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1801,4034,1802,358,4035,699,4036,1912,4033,4037],"tags":[4026,4027,4028,4024,4029,4030,4031,1909,4025,4032],"class_list":["post-11800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cecilia-strzyzowski","category-cesar-sena","category-chaco","category-crime","category-emerenciano-sena","category-femicide","category-gustavo-obregon","category-judiciary","category-local","category-marcela-acuna","tag-cecilia-strzyzowski","tag-cesar-sena","tag-chaco","tag-crime","tag-emerenciano-sena","tag-femicide","tag-gustavo-obregon","tag-judiciary","tag-local","tag-marcela-acuna"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}