Peruvian woman murders mother as she forbade her to see boyfriend

Lima, Feb 15 (IANS/EFE) A 22-year-old woman planned and carried out the murder of her mother with the help of her boyfriend and another acquaintance because the victim, a well-known lawyer, was opposed to her romantic relationship, Peruvian police said.

The head of the Criminal Division of the National Police, Gen. Cesar Guardia, said at a press conference that the murder in January of attorney Elizabeth Vasquez was carried out by her daughter Elizabeth Espino, the young woman’s boyfriend Fernando Gonzalez, 24, and a friend of his, Jorge Eduardo Cornejo, 21.

Guardia said that “the trio arranged, planned and carried out the crime, in which each person had his/her part”.

The daughter is facing between 15 and 35 years in prison, as are her accomplices, according to court sources.

Guardia said that the murder was conceived and planned starting last year because the lawyer opposed the relationship her daughter began in 2008 with Gonzalez, a young man without any known profession, and the couple discussed it constantly.

Although the victim’s only daughter initially had told police that her mother left her house after receiving a telephone call on the morning of Jan 27, investigators found traces of blood in the garage at the home and focussed their inquiry on the woman’s closest associates, including family members.

The beaten and strangled body of the victim was found inside the trunk of her car some distance from the home and her ex-husband, former anti-drug prosecutor Alejandro Espino, expressed his suspicions that it was a revenge-killing.

Police said that on the day of the murder, the daughter let the two men into the apartment and they waited until her mother returned from work and then attacked her when she got out of the shower, before turning in for the night.

The daughter confessed the crime to police, saying that she was “tired of her rules, do this, do that, don’t get together with that boy”, local media reported.

–IANS/EFE