26 years later, the family of Estela Toro and Leonela Torres gets justice

It was all for money. That was mentioned in November 2022 by Arlex Torres Jr., son of Estela Toro and brother of Leonela Torres, who were murdered at close range in Playa Mendoza in 1997. Today, 26 years later, the family will see justice after the arrest of the perpetrator of the crime, Rubiel Díaz, who fell in La Guajira.

At the time, this publishing house spoke to Arlex Torres, who was only 11 years old at the time. He assured that authorities found his stepfather guilty of the murders after verifying through forensic evidence that the 38 caliber revolver with safe conduct from Díaz Londoño it would have been used to kill both women.

“That man was my family’s lawyer and over time he became my mother’s friend. After the investigation, Legal Medicine ruled that Rubiel’s firearm was involved in the bullet wounds my mother and sister had in the head (…) also that the wound he (Rubiel Díaz Londoño) received on the left side Apparently it was by himself in good spirits,” he said.

Arlex Jr. said that “when they got hurt he didn’t help them, but went to a friend’s house to buy time to make sure they died.” But what was the reason for committing this heinous crime against those who were his relatives? The son and brother of the victims assured all that it was for “money”.

Estela owned several businesses in Barranquilla, Cartagena and Manizales, where she came from. belonged to his possessions two discotheques located on the Vía al Mar called Oh! Curramba and Baja Beach. The woman was the widow of the famous rejoneador Arlex Torres, who disappeared and was murdered in Caldas in 1989, inheriting his wealth.

“The CTI revealed that the man (victim) made my mother and my sister sign broad and sufficient powers, one of the successors to the great fortune left by my father, to sell and transfer to third parties livestock farms, businesses, homes, hotels and businesses. In addition to stealing the patrimony that matched us, he also stole jewelry (…) All this evidence is on file,” he added.

Rubiel Díaz was imprisoned in March 1998, but was released the following year and has been on the run from justice ever since. The trial against him as a possible perpetrator of the double murder continued and in 2001 he became one sentenced to 18 years of imprisonment by the Sixth Penal Court of the Barranquilla Circuit, this under the crime of willful homicide.