Mother of teenager murdered in Havana called the police more than 20 times

Yanet Lorenzo Villalba, mother of Melani García Lorenzo, a 16-year-old girl murdered in the Havana municipality of Arroyo Naranjo, reported that the police did not properly address this criminal act, despite making 22 calls to the island’s emergency number.

The woman told the independent media outlet CubaNet that she began to call when one of the suspects entered her home and took the girl along with her two-year-old son.

“Starting at 1:00 in the morning I begin to call 106, and the operator tells me that the car was on its way. I made 22 calls, and at no point did the patrol show up,” the mother assured.

After waiting for a patrol until 3:55 a.m., she decided to go to the National Revolutionary Police (PNR) unit in Aguilera to try to report what happened, but she did not receive the expected response.

“An officer came out and after telling him what happened, he says: ‘I cannot guarantee that you can file the report right now because I have many cases ahead, of knives, drugs… You will leave here at 9:00 or 10:00 in the morning.’ I told him that I could not wait, because the aggressor had taken her, and I did not know where she was, nor in what condition,” she specified.

The mother then went to the Capri station, where an agent also warned her that she would have to wait hours due to the number of pending cases. She continued to insist for help, amid rumors that her daughter had been murdered until finally a colonel mobilized to the place she had indicated.

After a distressing wait that lasted approximately 12 hours, the body of Melani García Lorenzo was finally found at 4:00 p.m. on December 16th. Her lifeless body lay at number 160 Coliseo Street, between Woodbury and Cortés, in the area of La Corea, belonging to the municipality of Arroyo Naranjo.

According to the woman’s harrowing testimony, based on the Legal Medicine report, her daughter died from the brutal blows she received from the alleged aggressor, identified as Pedro Julio Serrate Corrales, just 22 years old, who committed this horrendous act in the same house where her father and a cousin were.

The young victim and her aggressor had been in a relationship for three years and shared the upbringing of a son, who is about to turn two years old on the upcoming 26th of December.

In an emotional interview by CubaNet, Lourdes Torres Villalba, the deceased’s aunt, called for justice and the imposition of the maximum penalty on those involved in the murder of her niece.

Determined, Torres Villalba expressed: “I know that the Police, the Technical Department of Investigations, and the authorities in general, are tirelessly working to solve this case as quickly as possible. I will not rest until I receive the call confirming that those responsible for this crime have been arrested.”