Last Sunday, Celia Esquivel felt again that life had taken something from her. On July 11, Yván, the son he had wanted so badly, died at the age of just eight and a half months from acute meningitis that kept him in hospital for the last two months of his very short world tour. Since then, Celia has visited him every week to pray and bring him flowers. But this last Sunday, celebrating Children’s Day in Peru, Celia Esquivel not only had to bear the burden of the date, but also suffered the loss of her baby for the second time.
Arriving at the Sol de Oro Cemetery in the San Sebastián neighborhood of Cusco, he found a tomb in the Yván niche. The removed earth and the stuffed animal he was buried with are lying around. As they stuck out their noses, their hearts raced faster: The coffin window was broken: someone had taken the remains of their baby. Celia collapsed. Her father, Yván’s grandfather, who had accompanied her, managed to hug her tightly.
“I only ask for justice for my son that he appears. If anyone knows anything, tell me. I want to find it please leave me somewhere give me back his body He needs to rest,” the mother begged on several national radio stations. The cemetery warden told him that he had passed his son’s pavilion the day before and that everything was fine, so it is believed that the desecration of his grave took place on Sunday morning. Nonetheless, Celia Esquivel laments the lack of cooperation between Sol de Oro’s administrators. “No one wants to take responsibility,” she says.
The municipality of San Sebastián has promised to check the surveillance cameras of the surrounding streets to find the criminals. But the family regrets the late action of the public prosecutor. “They didn’t fingerprint the small drawer or the broken glass. Cusco’s borders were closed. An appraisal is required. That they telephone all those working in the cemetery (communication secret). “The truth has to come out,” Celia noted that the reason for the robbery was not clear. “I can think of many things. Until they traded with him. God sees everything,” he adds.
Rafael Esquivel, Celia’s father and the creature’s grandfather, claims that the kidnapping was carried out by a specialist as he did not fully excavate the coffin, only the headboard in order to break the glass and remove the body from there. “Responsibility lies with the municipality of Sen Sebastián. That’s why we pay our funeral fee. How many such cases will you handle? Doing this is not easy. People who know have done it,” he states. Yvan’s grave is a few steps away from a wire grid facing a street. They denounce that there are not many security forces at the cemetery.
The head of social and human development for the district, Julio Jaén Rodríguez, assures that support and containment will be offered to the mother, but he has also put the community of San Sebastián in the shoes of the victims. “We don’t know the motives. This is in a research stage. We cannot draw any conclusions or assumptions at this point. What we want to make clear is that we are also the injured party because security was breached at the cemetery. Unscrupulous people committed this criminal act of desecrating the grave of the minor,” he said in defense of his institution.
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The news has alarmed the people of Cusco because a month ago, the remains of a baby were stolen again. An eight-month-old fetus that died before birth. Shirley Pachas Carbajal, the mother, stated that the incident happened at Antonio Lorena Emergency Hospital. Authorities explained that some subjects broke the rear window of the morgue. They promised a thorough investigation, but the truth is that the case has not yet been resolved.
I can’t find peace for my pain. He’s a little angel. I ask you from the bottom of my heart to help me find my son,” Celia Esquivel is begging these days. The police are trying to find a connection between the two cases. Meanwhile, two mothers and two families endure drama: one couldn’t bury her little one, and the other was left with an empty grave.
The body of a deceased eight-month-old baby has been stolen from Sol de Oro Cemetery. With kind approval
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