The teenager Agostina Vega, 14 years old, disappeared on May 23 after 10:30 p.m., in the Argentine city of Córdoba.

Her parents, relatives, neighbors and authorities searched for her for a week without rest.

This Saturday they found her dismembered in an open field on the outskirts of the city. His case has shocked his community and the entire country.

This weekend there were protests to demand justice for her death in several locations and feminist groups have called for new demonstrations.

The police arrested her mother's ex-partner, Claudio Barrelier, 33, as the only suspect for her femicide.

This Tuesday, the country's prosecutor's office expanded the initial accusation of homicide to homicide aggravated by gender violence.

The autopsy determined that the teenager died of asphyxiation and, according to preliminary information, “possible signs of sexual abuse” were found.

Due to the state of the body, however, it was not possible to carry out a conclusive examination in that sense and it is expected that more detailed analyzes will be known in the coming days.

The disappearance

According to the story of the mother, Melisa Heredia, that Saturday Agostina was playing with her 7-year-old brother.

Then, they both went to look for some empanadas at their grandfather's business, close to the house where they lived.

“When her brother returned, I asked him if Agostina was in her grandfather's business and he replied: 'No, ma, Agostina is not there,'” Heredia stated, according to the newspaper La Nación.

The woman claims that after realizing her daughter was missing, she called her around 10:30 p.m. “It rang four times and then never again,” he said.

"Be strong, my love. Hold on a little longer, we will find you. All of Córdoba is looking for you," Heredia said after her disappearance.

But he would never see her alive again.

Ariel, the key witness

The last person to see Agostina, before her disappearance, was the taxi driver who took her to meet her alleged perpetrator.

This is Ariel, who has told the local media in detail everything he saw that night.

The teenager stopped him and asked him to take her to the intersection of Juan del Campillo and Fragueiro streets, in the Cofico neighborhood, where Claudio Barrelier was waiting for her.

“I asked him how old he was and he told me he was 14,” he said.

"I asked him why he was going there. He told me that he was going to meet his mother's boyfriend and that they were going to surprise him," he added.

But everything seemed stranger when they met Barrelier.

"When she sees him, she tells me 'That guy is coming to pay you'. I see him in a black jacket. He approaches me and asks me how much it is. When I told him $11,300, he told me it wasn't enough, that he had $9,500. It seemed suspicious to me that he didn't look at my face. He stood on his side and leaned between the front and back doors of the car with his right shoulder. I looked at his face, but he was hooded. He gave me a dollar because I couldn't arrived,” Ariel said.

Later he would find out that Agostina had disappeared. "I was on my cell phone, I saw the photo of the girl and I realized that it is the one I took the night before. I searched through social media and managed to contact the mother and left her my number," he said.

One of the key elements that linked Barrelier to the disappearance of the young woman was a video captured by security cameras.

In the images Agostina was seen entering the 33-year-old man's house on the same night he disappeared.

The property would then be raided in search of evidence.

The end of the search

It was a few hours after a week had passed since her disappearance that Agostina's body was found in Ampliación Ferreyra, a sector that had been under investigation by the authorities for more than 24 hours.

According to the news outlet Infobae, the minor's father, prosecutor Raúl Garzón, and the province's Minister of Security, Juan Pablo Quintero, arrived at the property, which covers approximately 240 hectares.

At the scene it was found that the young woman was dismembered by her perpetrator and buried in various areas of the property.

According to the local press, the operation included sniffer dogs, helicopters, drones and a deployment of more than 200 police officers.

Prosecutor Garzón assured in a press conference that the crime would have occurred between 11:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 23, and one or two in the morning on Sunday, the 24th.

"It still remains to be clarified why Agostina was in that house that day. The investigation is by no means finished. Both the family environment and the non-family environment are a matter of investigation. At the moment there are no more defendants, but those who may be will be due to the progress and endorsement of the investigation," said the judicial official this Sunday.

According to the province's Security Minister, Juan Pablo Quintero, in an interview with the Todo Noticias (TN) channel, there was a clue that was key to finding Agostina's whereabouts.

With the hypothesis that Barrelier was involved in his disappearance already on the table, on Monday the experts found a search that located the man in a house in the Cofico neighborhood, aboard a Ford Ka.

On Wednesday, Quintero explained, they confirmed that that same vehicle had arrived at the Ampliación Ferreyra neighborhood, where the human remains would later be found.

“At that time we were still optimistic about finding her alive, but we maintained absolute secrecy so as not to hinder the investigation,” said the Secretary of State.

Following the path of that car was “the key clue,” according to the authority.

Then, they managed to locate the accused in the same place for at least 40 minutes, thanks to his phone signals.

That was the reference point that would later trace the property where Agostina was found.

“I am exempt from giving details out of respect for the family, but we find ourselves with the worst scenario,” added the minister, who added that the now accused “lied from the first moment.”

“He didn't have the same luck”

Barrelier had a previous criminal record, which has caused the case to generate even more outrage in Argentina.

In May 2025 he was arrested after a complaint for aggravated unlawful deprivation of liberty.

According to the testimonies incorporated into the investigative file reported by local media, residents of Barrelier would have rescued a young woman who came out from her house half-naked, tied up and asking for help.

The man was charged in that case, but was released on bail and was required to appear periodically before the prosecutor's office.

The young woman who reported him spoke with Argentine media - who reserved her identity - and stated that she hopes that justice will be done in Agostina's case.

“I think she wasn't as lucky as I was to get out,” he said.

This precedent has been highlighted by feminist groups, who warn that the Argentine justice system does not timely protect victims in cases of gender violence.

After being arrested this weekend, Barrelier reportedly expressed intentions to take his own life inside the Bouwer Penitentiary Complex.

Given this, he had to be assisted by establishment staff.

"I'm still in shock. It's hard for me to believe all this. I don't want to turn on the television," the defendant's mother, Viviana Brizuela, told the press.

"I thought he was innocent. I didn't raise him with those values. I raised him with education, with principles," he added.

According to a report by the Observatory of Gender Violence Now That Yes They See Us and the National University of Delta, there were 99 fatal victims of sexist violence in Argentina between January 1 and May 24, 2026.