Two years on, Argentina still searches for answers in missing child case

June 13, 2024, was the last day five-year-old Loan Danilo Peña was seen alive.

The boy vanished after travelling with his father to his grandmother Catalina's home in the rural community of El Algarrobal, near the town of Nueve de Julio in Corrientes Province, for what should have been an ordinary family lunch.

Days before the start of a court case with 17 defendants in the dock, seven of whom are accused of the alleged abduction and concealment of the child, the search for answers about what happened to Loan and where he is today continues.

The day Loan and his father travelled to El Algarrobal for lunch, they were not alone. Also present that afternoon were former municipal official María Victoria Caillava; former Navy captain Carlos Pérez; the boy's aunt, Laudelina Peña; her husband, Antonio Bernardino Benítez; Mónica del Carmen Millapi; and her husband, Daniel ‘Fierrito’ Ramírez, as well as Loan's cousins.

A photograph taken during lunch, which seemed destined to become a happy memory for Loan, instead became an unforgettable one for the boy's parents.

Today, their pain is felt by an entire country that continues to demand his safe return.

Anniversary

This Saturday marks two years since Loan’s disappearance. Although his current whereabouts remain unknown, the trial in which 17 defendants must answer before the courts is imminent.

Caillava, Pérez, Peña, Benítez, Millapi, Ramírez and former police commissioner Walter Maciel will be tried for the alleged abduction and concealment of Loan.

During the same court proceedings, those charged in the parallel investigation will also stand trial. They face a range of charges, including unlawful deprivation of liberty, fraud against the public administration, concealment, perjury, breach of professional confidentiality, supplying narcotics free of charge, resisting authority and the unlawful use of official insignia and professional titles.

The accused are Federico Rossi Colombo, Nicolás Soria, Elizabeth Cutaia, Alan Cañete, Delfina Taborda, Pablo Noguera, Pablo Núñez, Valeria López, Verónica Machuca Yuni and Leonardo Rubio.

Accusation

The Noticias Argentinas news agency obtained access to the case file concluding the investigation, a case that still raises more questions than answers. In it, Mariano Enrique de Guzmán, head of the Federal Prosecutor's Office in Goya, together with María Alejandra Mángano and PROTEX boss Marcelo Colombo, the head of the national anti-trafficking prosecutor's office, outlined key findings from the inquiry.

"We can state that, following the lunch held at Catalina Peña's home on June 13, 2024, Antonio Benítez, Daniel Ramírez, Mónica Millapi and Laudelina Peña – taking advantage of the fact that José Peña and the child's grandmother were still sitting at the table talking with Carlos Pérez and Victoria Caillava – removed the child from his father's custody, using as a pretext the idea of going to pick oranges with the other children," reads a nearly 130-page court filing.

According to the document, an incident then occurred in the orange grove "which triggered the abduction of the child, who was subsequently taken away from the area and concealed, a situation that persists to this day.”

“It is suspected that the Ford Ranger belonging to Pérez and Caillava was used for this purpose, as traces of the child's scent were found in the vehicle,” it continues.

The reconstruction of events states that Loan and his cousins went to the orange grove and that the alleged abduction took place between 1.52pm and 2.25pm.

The only confirmed trace of Loan found during the investigation was a left boot he was wearing on the day of the lunch. Investigators concluded it had been planted in a muddy area, while contradictory accounts of its discovery were given by Laudelina and Macarena Peña, and by Maciel.

After searching more than 25,000 hectares, investigators concluded that Loan "did not become lost, as claimed by the individuals whose prosecution we are seeking here, nor was he abandoned. Rather, a scene was staged to make it appear that this had occurred."

‘Coordinated manner’

The overall analysis of the evidence gathered so far, prosecutors argued, allows them to conclude that Benítez, Laudelina Peña, Ramírez, Millapi, Caillava, Pérez and Maciel "acted in a coordinated manner in the abduction and subsequent concealment of Loan," who has still not been found two years after the case began.

Argentina’s national Sofia Alert system for missing children retains an active profile for Loanand, in January this year, President Javier Milei’s government, through the National Security Ministry, confirmed that the reward for information had been increased to 20 million pesos (around US$14,000). Authorities also released an updated image of the boy generated using Artificial Intelligence.

Loan's parents, María Noguera and José Peña, opened the doors of their home to Noticias Argentinas this week, speaking not only about the case but also about what Loan was like and what they miss most about him.

Twenty-four months after his disappearance, they all agree on one thing: "the house is silent" without Loan.

About the trial

The trial: Two cases into one

Two years after the mysterious disappearance of five-year-old Loan Danilo Peña, the long-awaited trial into the circumstances surrounding the case is set to begin. On June 16, judges in Corrientes will open proceedings combining the two investigations launched after his disappearance, with 17 defendants in the dock.

The decision to unify the investigations was taken because the facts and evidence are closely linked. This will allow the court to examine, in a single trial, both the main investigation into the alleged abduction and concealment of the child and a parallel case concerning the alleged obstruction of the inquiry.

The Federal Oral Court will be made up of judges Fermín Cerolini, Eduardo Belforte, from Formosa Province, and Simón Pedro Bracco, from Río Negro Province. The trial will begin with three initial hearings on June 16, 17 and 18. Proceedings will then continue every Wednesday and Thursday, a schedule that has drawn criticism for its slow pace. Court officials, however, say the timetable had to be adjusted to ensure the trial could begin as soon as possible.

Hearings will take place at the National Gendarmerie's Escuadrón 48 in the city of Corrientes, where an extensive security perimeter will be established. Following the merger of the two investigations, the case file now runs to more than 90 volumes and around 900 pages of evidence.

In the main case, Laudelina Peña, Walter Maciel, María Victoria Caillava, Carlos Pérez, Mónica Millapi, Antonio Benítez and Daniel Ramírez will stand trial, accused of the alleged abduction and concealment of Loan.

Federico Rossi Colombo, Nicolás Gabriel Soria, Elizabeth Cutaia, Alan Cañete, Delfina Taborda, Pablo Noguera, Pablo Núñez, Valeria López, Verónica Machuca Yuni and Leonardo Rubio will be tried in the parallel investigation. They face a range of charges linked to the alleged cover-up and diversion of the inquiry.

The trial will seek to establish the responsibility of each defendant and reconstruct what happened to Loan, whose whereabouts remain unknown two years after his disappearance.

The missing boy’s parents, María and José, have continued to press for progress in both the investigation and the prosecution. A number of demonstrations have taken place to demand answers about the Loan’s disappearance.

Loan’s shocking disappearance drew global attention, with Pope Francis mentioning Loan's disappearance during a general audience in January 2025, just a few months before the Catholic leader’s death.

The late Argentine pontiff voiced concerns over the possibility that Loan was abducted for organ-trafficking, stating: “Some come back with a scar, others die. That's why today I want to remember this boy, Loan.”

Who’s in the dock?

Seventeen people have been charged in connection with the disappearance of Loan Danilo Peña, the child whose alleged abduction and concealment reaches its second anniversary this Saturday, June 13.

The first group of defendants includes Loan's aunt, Laudelina Peña; Laudelina’s husband, Antonio Bernardino Benítez; former police commissioner Walter Maciel; former municipal official María Victoria Caillava; former Navy captain Carlos Pérez; Mónica del Carmen Millapi; and her husband, Daniel ‘Fierrito’ Ramírez.

The second group comprises Federico Rossi Colombo, Nicolás Soria, Elizabeth Cutaia, Alan Cañete, Delfina Taborda, Pablo Noguera, Pablo Núñez, Valeria López, Verónica Machuca Yuni and Leonardo Rubio.

The first seven defendants face trial on charges relating to the alleged abduction and concealment of the boy, whose whereabouts remain unknown.

The remaining defendants face charges including unlawful deprivation of liberty, fraud against the public administration, concealment, perjury, breach of professional confidentiality, supplying narcotics free of charge, resisting authority and the unlawful use of official insignia and professional titles.