Arrest made in killing of Colombian trans woman Sara Millerey González that was caught on video
Police in Colombia have arrested a suspect in the killing of Sara Millerey González, a transgender woman who was raped, beaten, and had her legs, hands, and arms broken before she was tossed into a ravine.
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Juan Camilo Muñoz Gaviria, alias Teta, and a reputed member of the El Mesa drug trafficking gang, was arrested Wednesday, the Spanish-language Vanguardia reports. He was captured by a special task force created by the country's national police and prosecutors in response to the outrage over the crime.
Millerey González, 32, was raped, had her hands, arms, and legs broken, then was thrown into a stream in a deep ravine to drown in Colombia on April 4, LawyerMonthly reports. Rather than helping, some witnesses recorded her on video trying in vain to escape the ravine and stream, which they later posted to social media. She was killed in Bello, Antioquia, a high-crime area that was once the turf of the late drug trafficker and narco terrorist Pablo Escobar.
Police said they were able to track Muñoz Gaviria's movements from the scene of the crime to his eventual arrest. They have released little further information about the suspect and the crime as the investigation is ongoing. Police are reportedly looking for at least one other man as a possible suspect but believe up to five men may be implicated in the Millerey González's death.
'In an investigative action coordinated by the Attorney General's Office, CTI personnel and the police arrested one of the alleged perpetrators of the murder of a trans woman, whose given name was Sara Millerey González, in Bello, Antioquia, on April 5," Colombian prosecutors announced on social media. "In the coming hours, he will be brought before a judge, and a local prosecutor will charge him with aggravated homicide and torture.'
Millerey González's mother, Sandra, told the Spanish-language news El País, last month that she saw many people watching and filming her daughter, but nobody was trying to save her. Sandra also said she was prevented from entering the fast-moving stream.
Millerey González was eventually rescued by first responders and taken to a local hospital.
"Mom, I'm going to die,' Sandra said her daughter told her after she was pulled from the stream.
Although Millerey González suffered a punctured lung as well as her broken bones during the attack, Sandra said the hospital didn't consider her an emergency because she wasn't shot.
'I knelt down and hugged her and told her that I loved her very much," Sandra recalled. "I told her she was going to be with God because no one in heaven was going to humiliate or discriminate against her for being her.'
Millerey González suffered two cardiac arrests the following morning, with the second proving fatal. She asked her mother to bury her in a white dress, but the mortician said a closed-casket funeral was more appropriate due to the severity of injuries to her face and extremities.
The public, activists, and politicians quickly responded to news of the attack.
'What happened in Bello is fascism,' President Gustavo Petro said in a post to X. 'Fascism is the violent erasure of human difference — be it political, religious, ethnic, or sexual. There are Nazis in Colombia.'
Bello Mayor Lorena González Ospina also issued a post to social media, expressing outrage and a resolve to bring her killers to justice.
'I raise my voice as mayor but above all as a human being to reject with total forcefulness the murder of Sara Millerey, a trans woman victim of a heinous and hateful act,' González Ospina said in a post to social media. 'Sara was violated, her arms and legs were broken, and she was thrown into the river.'
Authorities are still offering a reward of 50m pesos (around $11,000) for any information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killers of Sara Millerey González.
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