Ana Gabriela Medina Blanco: Missing teen mom's body found naked in freezer with 50 stab wounds
A teenage mother's mutilated body was found in the freezer of her own home five months after she went missing. Identified as Ana Gabriela Medina Blanco, the woman is reported to have gone missing sometime in February this year. Blanco's family and loved ones didn't really worry after she went missing as she was known to keep relationships and visits strained. It was only when her ex-partner showed up to her home in Venezuela's Aragua state that the horrid discovery was made
News of this comes amidst a spate of domestic violence-related murders. This includes the sensational killing of pregnant Keishla Rodriguez, whom Puerto Rican boxer Felix Verdejo shot and threw into a lagoon before her body was found. Pennsylvania man Donald Meshey Jr was also recently arrested for killing his father and stuffing the body in the freezer. Just a week ago, another young mom from California was fatally shot in the head in front of her six-year-old girl. In Blanco's case too, it is her current partner that investigators are looking into.
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Stabbed 50 times with a screwdriver
Blanco was a 19-year-old mum to her four-year-old son, whom she shares with the ex-partner who discovered her body. Stuffed in the freezer, hands tied and head shoved between her knees, Blanco was found in the fetal position, stabbed 50 times all over the body with what cops think was a screwdriver,. Right after the father of Blanco's son made that discovery, police began looking for her current boyfriend, whom neighbors have identified only as Josue. The Sun reported neighbors calling the boyfriend "very jealous and abusive," and alleged that the cou[le would often be heard fighting with each other.
Blanco would reportedly often go on long travels away from her home state Aragua to Caracas and would usually not keep in touch with her family while on these trips, the publication adds. But after she had been missing for five months, her ex-partner went looking for clues to her home, where he smelled a putrid scent coming from the kitchen. That's when Blanco's naked body was found, on Thursday, July 29.
Police hunting 'jealous' new boyfriend
It was neighbours who reported that Blanco was last seen earlier this year. Her going off the radar while traveling was not considered abnormal by family or neighbors, as her stepfather told local media that he maintained sparse contact with Blanco, after moving to a different part of the country. After a while, her ex-partner decided to take matters into his own hand, and went to her home. Upon smelling the reek, he decided to check in the fridge first, and then the freezer where he found Blanco. Investigation into the matter is still on with authorities assessing fingerprints on the freezer for a potential match with the allegedly abusive boyfriend.
Daily Mail reports that amidst the Venezuelan economic collapse in President Nicolas Maduro's socialist state, murder rates have also increased. The independently-run Venezuelan Violence Observatory's (VVO) data shows that the homicide rate was 45.6 per 100,000 last year. With violent crimes rampant, 11,891 murders were recorded in 2020. In 2021, however, there have been a 30 percent decline compared to that.