The Third Court of Instruction of Santo Domingo Este accepted a request from the prosecutors who carried out the investigation into the death of the young woman Paula Santana Escalantewhose body was found in the sewer of a company in the Las Américas Free Zone, where the victim worked, and issued the archive provisional indictment of the two defendants of the crime.
Representatives of the Public Prosecutor’s Office They requested the archive for not having sufficient evidence to incriminate Joaquín Alexander Hidalgo Marte (Alex), 38, and Alex Elvin Cruz Díaz (Chuki), 23, to file formal charges against them.
Both men keep pretrial detention at the Correctional and Rehabilitation Center of Saint Peter of Macoris since February of this year, the month in which the 23-year-old woman was raped and killed.
“This court therefore confirms the archive ordered by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, given that in the case at hand, said institution has carried out, in a justified manner, all the acts of investigation, as well as the pertinent diligence to clarify this fact,” argued the court.
The company where Santana Escalante worked and was raped and strangled is Oscor CaribbeanLLC (Interger Holding), which was sanctioned by the Ministry of Labor.
The company was sanctioned for “serious and very serious violations of health and safety at work” and ordered not to use the company’s warehouse where the incident occurred, “as a way of ensuring the safety of other workers.”
Investigation go on open
He Public Prosecutor’s Office reported that, although the accusation against Hidalgo Marte (Alex), 38, and Alex Elvin Cruz Díaz (Chuki), 23, was not submitted, and the archive provisional, the “investigation continues open and they remain objects of investigation.”
The Third Court of Instruction of Santo Domingo Este accepted the request of the accusing body based on article 281, numeral 4 of the Code of Criminal Procedurewhich establishes that, among the reasons why the Public Prosecutor’s Office may order the filing of the case by means of a reasoned opinion, is that “the evidence is insufficient to support the accusation and there is no reasonable possibility of incorporating new elements.”
Merián Santana, Paula’s aunt, said that the authorities have let them down because the Public Prosecutor’s Office did not do its job. She expressed her helplessness because “she was a healthy girl and she didn’t bother anyone, what she had was a great desire to improve.”
The girl aspired to be a flight attendant, for which she studied and was almost graduating when she was killed.
“Because if they didn’t have enough evidence against their two companions, why did they arrest them? And those responsible are on the loose and God knows what other lives they will take,” complained Merián.
