The femicide of Erica Aponte is an unfortunate example of the risks that female victims of violence run. The 26-year-old mother sought help because she thought her partner of more than 10 years, Cristian Rincon, might hurt her. However, the action of the authorities was not sufficient and what they feared happened.
One of Erica’s best friends revealed that Christian felt “obsessive love” for her. This young woman knew Erika from school and lived their relationship closely. “Amidst everything he was a good person, at first he was very detailed (…) but when the child was born, everything changed.”
According to this woman’s story, Christian went to the extent of controlling and torturing her. The young woman indicated that about 20 days ago, Erica told her that she had found out that he had been unfaithful to her and therefore decided to leave him.
In context: “The female murderer planned to viciously attack Erica”: The mayor details the murder at Unicentro
The infidelity of Erika Aponte’s femicide
Erica was two weeks away from leaving Christian for infidelity. Although she had been a victim of various forms of violence before, this would have been the trigger to avoid it.
The friend said he told her what he had discovered and that he had also spoken “with the girl” and given her photos and messages that confirmed she had a relationship with Cristian.
A few days later he confronted her, released her and went to see his father. After this episode, Christian’s aggressive attitude became more intense.
On 7 May, Kristian went to the Unicentro shopping center to scare her when she got off work. Against her will, he took her at one point on his motorcycle and when she dropped him off, he sent her a message saying that if she didn’t come back to him, he was going to kill himself.
For more than 10 years, Erika was a victim of constant abuse, assault and harassment by her partner. By the time he decided to break the barrier of silence, it was too late.
The Tragic Death of Erica Aponte
The 26-year-old realized he was in danger, so he made a “life call” where he explained his situation in detail, but Cristian’s passion got in the way and didn’t allow him to save himself.
Erika was scared and knew that her son’s father could hurt her. Although she had no protection at work, she tried to continue with her life as normal, but Cristian must have already calculated where and at what moment she might be most vulnerable to attack him.
The victim of this sordid case must have had an argument with his former partner, who in the midst of the argument pulled out a gun and threatened to shoot him. Erica reacted quickly and tried to run away from the pizzeria where she used to work.
As she ran, the man followed her and, in front of dozens of people, fired the weapon twice at her without killing her. Unfortunately, Erika found herself sandwiched between chairs and tables at another food establishment a few meters from her workplace, and there the man fired twice again, while her back was turned.
The woman fell to the ground, and in a moment of desperation Cristian pressed the trigger at her head level, but the gun did not fire, he crouched next to Erika’s body and did it again, missing again on the third attempt. . He eventually shot himself in the head and was left lying on the floor next to his son’s mother.
