A young influencer was murdered by her boyfriend in a remote desert area before her body was burned and her remains hidden beneath huge rocks, a court has heard.
Andrés Sutar Araya has been sentenced to life imprisonment over the death of his partner, Javiera Jiménez Galleguillos, in northern Chile.
The Antofagasta Oral Criminal Court unanimously found him guilty of murdering the 23-year-old in August 2022.
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The court heard that Sutar drove from Calama to Antofagasta in the early hours of 26 August to meet Javiera, who was staying at a friend’s house.
The pair had reportedly been arguing through WhatsApp messages and voice notes over his delay in picking her up.
Javiera then got into his truck, and they drove through different parts of the city before heading towards isolated desert roads near the B-400 route.
There, the couple had an argument which ended with Sutar attacking Javiera, as reported by Need To Know.
The court found that he had inflicted a fatal traumatic brain injury to the right side of her head.
He then burned her body, buried the remains in an isolated spot and covered them with large rocks to make them harder to find.
After the killing, Sutar allegedly went further by deliberately misleading Javiera’s desperate family and friends about what had happened.
The judgment said: “The accused showed contempt for the anguish of those searching for her, deliberately adding to their pain.”
He allegedly gave them “false and inaccurate information” about Javiera’s whereabouts, her condition and whether she was alive.
Her remains were not found until 12 January 2024 – around a year and five months after she disappeared.
Sutar, then 23, had been arrested in Bolivia earlier that month before being transferred back to Chile. He later provided information that led investigators to the remains.
Javiera, who was from Calama, had more than 100,000 followers on social media, and her disappearance sparked an extensive search.
She was studying to become a dental technician while working for a pension fund company and selling clothes on the side.
She had been living alone before her disappearance and was planning to move into a new home with her mother, Gladys Galleguillos.
She had also been in a relationship with Sutar for around six months and had a pet dog, which Gladys went to collect from his home shortly after Javiera disappeared.
Gladys had described her daughter as “kind-hearted”.
Gladys believes Sutar killed Javiera after she discovered his alleged links to a copper-theft gang and tried to end their relationship.
Sutar is already serving a 16-year sentence for two violent robberies.
His life sentence for Javiera’s murder will begin after he has completed that sentence.
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