Trial into disappearance of missing five-year-old Loan begins

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.

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 several of Loan’s cousins.

A photograph taken during the gathering, which seemed destined to become a happy family memory, instead became one of the last images of the child before he disappeared.

Now, two years later, the search for answers about what happened to Loan and where he is today continues as a long-awaited trial into the child’s disappearance gets under way in Corrientes.

Seventeen defendants are standing trial in proceedings that combine the two investigations launched after the boy’s disappearance.

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

The merged case file runs to more than 90 volumes and around 900 pages of evidence.

Court

proceedings

The trial seeks to establish the responsibility of each defendant and reconstruct what happened to Loan. More than 180 witnesses are expected to testify during a lengthy trial. Among the most anticipated testimonies will be those given by Loan’s parents, José Peña and María Noguera.

The hearings are taking place at the National Gendarmerie’s (Border Guard) Escuadrón 48 in the city of Corrientes, where an extensive security perimeter has been established.

The Federal Oral Court is made up of judges Fermín Cerolini, Eduardo Belforte, from Formosa Province, and Simón Pedro Bracco, from Río Negro Province.

Proceedings opened on June 16 with three initial hearings scheduled over consecutive days before moving to a regular timetable of hearings every Wednesday and Thursday.

The opening days of the trial were disrupted when one of the defendants in the parallel case, psychologist Federico Rossi Colombo, failed to appear in court.

After judges initially declared him in contempt and ordered his arrest, Rossi Colombo later joined proceedings remotely, claiming he lacked the money to travel from Tucumán.

To avoid challenges to the validity of proceedings, the court ordered the first day’s actions to be repeated and formally restarted the trial with all defendants present.

Following the procedural restart, the court adjourned until June 24 and will resume with witness testimony expected to play a central role in reconstructing the events of June 13, 2024.

Defendants

Seven defendants – Laudelina Peña, Benítez, Walter Maciel, Caillava, Pérez, Millapi and Ramírez – are accused of the alleged abduction and concealment of Loan, whose whereabouts remain unknown.

Prosecutors argue that Loan did not become lost accidentally after the family lunch at his grandmother’s home, but was instead the victim of a premeditated abduction.

According to the prosecution, Millapi, Ramírez, Laudelina Peña and Benítez played roles in separating the boy from the rest of the group during a walk to a nearby orange grove, while Caillava and Pérez allegedly became involved at a later stage in the child’s removal and concealment.

Former police commissioner Walter Maciel is accused of helping conceal the disappearance during the initial search operation, including through the alleged falsification of official records.

The remaining defendants – the aforementioned Rossi Colombo, Nicolás Gabriel Soria, Elizabeth Cutaia, Alan Cañete, Delfina Taborda, Pablo Noguera, Pablo Núñez, Valeria López, Verónica Machuca Yuni and Leonardo Rubio – are being tried in the parallel investigation.

They face various charges linked to the alleged cover-up of the case, including unlawful deprivation of liberty, fraud against the public administration, concealment, perjury, breach of professional confidentiality, as well as lesser accusations such as supplying narcotics free of charge, resisting authority and the unlawful use of official insignia and professional titles.

GLOBAL attention

The case attracted international attention when Pope Francis referred to Loan during a general audience in January 2025, just months before his death.

The late Argentine pontiff voiced concern over the possibility that the child had been abducted for organ-trafficking, saying: “Some come back with a scar, others die. That’s why today I want to remember this boy, Loan.”

On Wednesday, María Belén Russo Cornara, a lawyer representing Loan’s parents, said they would begin giving testimony on June 25. She also confirmed to the press that the search for the little boy is still ongoing.

The investigation, which is being handled by Federal Judge Cristina Pozzer Penzo, “remains open,” she said.

Today, the pain felt by Loan’s family is shared by a country still waiting for answers about the missing child’s fate.

– TIMES with agencies

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