Luis Escobar / La Paz
The families of Iris (15 years old) and Lucy (17 years old) have lived through torment since the day of the disappearance of the teenagers. For months, the parents of the victims were extorted and threatened by Richard Choque Rojas, kidnapper, serial rapist and confessed murderer of the young women.
Through text and audio messages, the offender demanded between 50,000 and 70,000 dollars from the families in exchange for the lives of the adolescents. Failing to raise the money, the parents of Iris and Lucy went -separately- to the Police, who could do little to find their daughters.
Upon learning that the families went to the police, Richard threatened to kill the younger sisters of the victims.
in May of last year.
Photo: RRSS
Lucy R., the oldest of seven children, disappeared from her home on May 18 last year. A month earlier, the 17-year-old teenager began working as a secretary, said her mother, María Zambrana. “I couldn’t get to know your office because I had my baby in those days,” she said, adding that in those days she was just recovering from childbirth. He added that his daughter worked with a man named Diego.
The mother reported that Lucy went out that Saturday at 2:00 p.m., as she did the last three weekends. At 4:00 p.m. he called her, but the young woman no longer answered her cell phone. The cell phone was off.
The day Lucy disappeared, her parents called their daughter’s cell phone nonstop until dawn. From that moment the family began to search for their daughter without rest. “She didn’t answer anymore, she didn’t take clothes or anything and I never saw her again,” the young woman’s mother recalled through tears.
In June, two weeks after Lucy disappeared, the kidnapper called the family demanding $70,000 for their daughter’s life. “If they don’t pay me, I’m going to chop up your daughter. He was telling the truth and he did it,” said Mrs. María. The father added that his family is poor and it was impossible to get that amount of money.
To pressure and threaten the family, Richard sent images of other severed bodies. “I leave you some photos of people who broke our rules. If you go to the Police with this message, we will take other measures. Comply with what was agreed to have your loved one back, “wrote the aggressor.
Lucy’s mother no longer wanted her other children to go out on the street because she feared that they would be kidnapped by the delinquent.
“The neighbors said that strange people came by car and stopped to look at the door of my house. I ask for justice and guarantees. I did not stop crying these nine months, “he said.
Juan Zambrana, Angy’s grandfather, told Página Siete that on Monday night they learned that they found the lifeless body of his granddaughter. “They took off all his clothes and he is in a state of decomposition, he is unrecognizable. It is to be bitter. Her mother recognized her because she had two piercings in her ear for earrings, a stain on her neck and her teeth were not well formed, “he said.
The grandfather was yesterday in the morgue of the Hospital de Clínicas de Miraflores awaiting a DNA result that proves Lucy’s identity.
Last night, the Vice Minister of Justice, César Siles, brought a coffin and said that it was a donation from officials of that State portfolio. At 9:00 p.m., the funeral home removed the body. The family said that Lucy will be buried in her community because her parents have no financial resources.
five months missing
Iris V., 15, disappeared after leaving her home in Alto Villa Victoria on August 27. “My niece went out to collect invitations when they told her not to. Then it disappeared. They were invitations for the baptism of her little sister, “Efraín Villca, the teenager’s uncle, told Page Seven.
“Iris’s kidnapper, through Facebook, sent messages. He asked us for $50,000. How are we going to get that amount if we don’t even have enough to eat?” said Villca.
Alicia Verónica Choque, Iris’s mother, reported that the kidnapper called her two weeks after her daughter’s disappearance. “He asked me for $60,000 in exchange for his life. I didn’t have that amount. I went to the Police, I took the photos and I was there every day since September, October. Then I no longer had money and returned to Guanay”, he said.
“They sent me photos of my daughter, she was naked on a bed. I asked to speak to her but she never wanted to pass me by. I implored him to talk to her, but he wouldn’t let me. (The policemen) did not move, I begged them to help me find my daughter, but there was nothing. Maybe they wanted money, but they never asked me,” he said.
Marisol Quiroga, the family’s lawyer, commented that the Prosecutor’s Office only requested extracts of calls and names of the holders. “We didn’t see any more,” he said.
The professional stated that the mother spent almost two and a half months with her baby in La Paz to look for her daughter, but returned to Guanay because she no longer had financial resources.
“I saw how the lady suffered in everything. In October, she left because she received threats against her sisters and feared for the lives of her other daughters,” she said.
On Monday night, a neighbor saw the news and reported that they found Iris. The mother came to La Paz and arrived yesterday morning at the morgue to examine her daughter. He identified her because in one of the last photos Richard sent, “she was seen with painted nails, black earrings and a scar,” he said.
Lucy was supposed to graduate this year
Lucy lived in District 8 of the city of El Alto and studied at the Villa Imperial Educational Unit, in the same area. Last year, when he disappeared, he was in pre-promotion. He had to graduate from high school in 2022 and dreamed of going to university.
“She wanted to study accounting, but we never thought this would happen,” said her mother, María Zambrana.
Juan Zambrana, the teenager’s grandfather, said his granddaughter also wanted to study journalism. “She was a good girl, she was in prepromo when she disappeared and this year she had to leave school. She was never still and she always had the interest to study and improve herself”, she commented.
Lucy got to work, but she didn’t say where. Her mother said that the young woman found a job in a pharmacy “as a secretary.”
Since he disappeared, his parents have been extorted. “On December 25, he kept asking for money. He demanded 10,000 Bolivians in cell phone cards from me,” he assured.
Iris came from Guanay to study
Iris V. lived in Guanay and her family decided that she should move to the city of La Paz to study.
The teenager arrived at the house of the mother’s family in the Alto Villa Victoria neighborhood of La Paz. She was enrolled in a school in the same area.
On August 27, the young woman went to collect some invitations for a family party, but never returned.
Her parents learned of her disappearance and came from Guanay to look for her. They ran out of financial resources.
They received threats and extortions from Iris’s kidnapper, who even warned that he would take the girl’s two little sisters.
The family returned to Guanay to “hide” the other two girls who were threatened. The criminal extorted money from the family, and also sent him photos of Iris without clothes on a bed. The parents begged Richard to speak for their daughter, but he refused. The family never managed to raise the ransom money.
