A 13-year-old boy from a small town in Argentina has been accused of killing his best friend and leaving his body in an abandoned house.
Security camera footage obtained by the authorities shows the boy and his victim—14-year-old Joaquín Sperani— walking out of their school grounds on June 29 and entering an abandoned house nearby. Both kids look happy and walk side by side, according to what authorities shared with local reporters in Laboulaye, Argentina.
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After they entered the house, only one of the boys came out and returned to school for the afternoon, according to officials. The bike that Sperani rode to school every morning remained tied to the school’s fence for the rest of the day. When his parents noticed he had not returned from school, they contacted the police to report his disappearance, according to news reports.
Authorities spent two days searching for Sperani, during which time his alleged killer apparently fed false information to them about his friend’s whereabouts. It wasn’t until three days later that Sperani’s body was found by neighbors and relatives of the victim.
“We were walking with two of his cousins and we passed an abandoned house. We went inside and as soon as we entered, we saw the corpse. The cousins started screaming. It was like a horror movie. I saw the body and I couldn’t believe it. After that, we called the police and they took us out of the place,” a local resident told the media.
After Sperani’s body was found, his best friend and alleged killer confessed to the authorities that he committed the crime, according to local reports.
The teen is currently being held in a juvenile detention center, but due to his age he cannot be criminally charged. The motive behind the killing remains unclear.
Sperani died from a head trauma that killed him instantly after receiving at least 10 blows to the head, according to preliminary autopsy data.
“That boy is a psychopath. He was a lifelong friend of Joaquín. They went to elementary school together. They were there at each other’s birthday parties,” the victim’s mother, Mariela Flores, told the news agency Télam.
“I don’t understand it. It is very hard to grasp, I just don’t get it. I want to know why he did it, but I don’t have the answer,” said Martin Sperani, the victim’s father.
Flores believes the attacker “was in love” with his son, according to local news reports from the trial.
“I have a feeling that there is more to it and that he [the alleged killer] was not the only one responsible, that there were more involved,” Flores told reporters. “I want to see the full footage, I want to know who he crossed paths with.”
Sperani was buried on Monday but his remains were exhumed a day later so that they could be included in the official investigation. His family called for a march on the streets of Laboulaye to demand justice for his son.
