A deadbeat singer, whose wife supported him financially, was arrested for throwing her to her death from an eighth floor.
Gloria María Mesías Medrano landed in the inner courtyard of her block of flats with a thud on 8 October last year.
At first, her death appeared to be suicide.
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But evidence quickly began mounting against her husband, Rafael Alejandro Urdaneta Álvarez.
Gloria, 33, worked in business administration in the hospitality and tourism sector.
She was successful at her job and supported her husband financially.
She paid for his education and allowed him to focus on his music career, according to reports.
Despite the economic asymmetry, the couple’s relationship appeared stable.
But it soon emerged that Gloria had been begging her husband to change career and start contributing financially.
However, Rafael refused.
A turning point in the investigation came when it emerged that Gloria had taken out two life insurance policies.
Both named Rafael as the primary beneficiary.
Detectives believe Gloria had been thinking about a divorce, which may have triggered her husband’s alleged actions.
They say that shortly before her fall, she sent messages to her brother saying: “Help me.”
Her brother told their mum, who rushed to the couple’s home in Lima, Peru, only to find Gloria dead.
Rafael appeared distressed and claimed to his mother-in-law that Gloria had jumped.
But it later emerged that he looked calm and indifferent when he took the lift down to check on Gloria’s body minutes earlier.
Rafael, from Venezuela, and Gloria had been together for more than a decade, as reported by Need To Know.
For nine months after her death, he carried on with his normal routine.
He was arrested in June, but the case was widely reported in local media on Tuesday (26 Nov).
During questioning, he maintained that Gloria had committed suicide, but the police did not believe him.
Rafael was formally accused of femicide and remanded into custody.
His nine-month detention period expires in March next year.
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