Global Courant 2023-05-16 14:00:38
Gustavo Melmann (67) has been suffering from pain for more than two decades, but he does not let up. The “Justice for Natalia” poster never stopped hanging on his chest. Nor in that of Laura Calampuca (66), the mother of his four children. Nicolás (42), Nahuel (39) and Lucía (28), the brothers of “Naty”, accompany them and fight in their own way.
Natalia (15), the third daughter of the couple, met a horrendous end on the morning of February 4, 2001 in Miramar. It seems like a lie, but 22 years later the family continues to beg for justice: this Wednesday the verdict will be announced against the former sergeant from Buenos Aires Ricardo Panadero (63), acquitted in 2018 and tried again for the crime.
Panadero was not part of the trial in which his colleagues Oscar Echenique (63), Ricardo Anselmini (55) and Ricardo Suárez (60) were sentenced to life imprisonment, in September 2002.
Ricardo Panadero is the fourth officer from Buenos Aires implicated in the femicide of Natalia Melmann. Photo: The Capital
The defenseless girl left the Amadeus nightclub when she was intercepted by Gustavo “El Gallo” Fernández, who forced her into a police patrol car, around 7, and handed her over to do whatever they wanted.
“Naty” was taken to a house at the southern end of Miramar, in the Copacabana neighborhood, where she was raped and strangled with a shoelace by five men.
Natalia Melmann was 15 years old.
The police then transferred the body to the Florentino Ameghino nursery, where it was found half buried four days later.
“When I was waking up today, I was dreaming that they were little and I woke up seeing how life went by,” Melmann tells Clarín, with a slow voice.
Natalia is always in his memory, in his memories, despite the fact that they took her so quickly, in such a cruel way.
Gustavo Melmann and Laura Calampuca, united by pain and a tireless fight.
“I think there is enough evidence to convict Panadero,” says Natalia’s father, who points out that they found “a pubic hair on the adolescent’s body that gives a 97.5 probability that it belongs to him; it does not give more because the bacteria ate the DNA of that pubic hair, otherwise there would be 100%, and what was compared from the other participants gives 100%.
The family had moved from Buenos Aires to Miramar in 1991. “We went to have a better quality of life, to have our place in the world, so that our children could live in full freedom,” remarks Melmann, who returned to the Capital after suffered numerous threats and intimidation by the Police. The assassins were a few meters away, because they were given temporary exits.
Gustavo “El Gallo” Fernández, in the 2002 trial.
“After 22 years, we have Natalia alive in the people’s struggle,” comforts the victim’s father, who comments that his children faced “with great pain” what happened to their sister, “as each one could : one of them went abroad, my daughter is living in Buenos Aires, Nahuel is living in another city as well”.
“In Miramar we experienced many threats, a lot of carrion, a lot of discredit for the family. They threw cars at us, they made us live very ugly moments, everyone left, including I had to leave the city, it was unbearable to live there,” he highlights. .
Former police officers Oscar Echenique, Ricardo Anselmini and Ricardo Suárez, in the 2002 trial. They were sentenced to life.
In Natalia’s body they found a fifth DNA that, according to Melmann, “was never investigated.” For this reason, they presented a brief in the Supreme Court of Justice of the province.
However, he does not believe that the case has all those responsible convicted while he is alive. “Now I am 67 years old, it is likely that he will be dead when all this is discovered,” he closes.
the trial
The trial against Panadero -who had been acquitted in 2018 but the ruling was annulled by Cassation- takes place in the Oral Criminal Court (TOC) 4 of Mar del Plata, made up of judges Néstor Conti, Mariana Irianni and Juan Galarreta.
The day they found the body. Gustavo Melmann, accompanying the coffin of his daughter.
At the first hearing, a witness whose identity was reserved, who was 13 years old at the time of the crime, claimed to have seen four policemen force the 15-year-old teenager into a patrol car at the intersection of streets 6 and 35.
The prosecutor is Ana María Caro and the lawyers for the victim’s family are Federico Paruolo and Yamil Castro Bianchi. They all asked for life.
The private defense of Panadero is in charge of Lautaro Resúa, who requested the “free acquittal” of the former police officer. This Wednesday, from 10.30, the fate of him will be known. And if the Melmann-Calampuca family can have a breather in this moving fight.
EMJ
