An eight-year-old girl who was found barely alive in an Argentinian forest revealed the identity of her rapist and killer just moments before she died.
Fabiana Sirino had disappeared while on her way home from school in the town of 25 de Mayo, in the Misiones Province, Argentina, on Friday November 15.
Her worried parents and other family members began a search for the missing girl, and it was her 11-year-old big sister who ultimately found her suffering from serious injuries about 200 metres from their house, in a wooded area.
Fabiana’s parents told local news outlet Cronica that their eldest daughter ‘saw her [Fabiana] lying there and ran out screaming: ‘Daddy, run! Fabiana is dead!”.
The young girl, who had been brutally raped and had at least 13 stab wounds, was still alive when her parents got to her, and was rushed to hospital.
According to her father, not named, Fabiana revealed that the family’s neighbour Marcelo Daniel Muller, 34, nicknamed Nanico, was her attacker..
‘Nanico did that to me’, Fabiana reportedly whispered to her father while on the way to hospital.
She also tearfully told her parents: ‘Look at me, I’m going to die. My heart hurts’ as she took her final breaths.
Fabiana Sirino, 8, poses in undated photo. She was raped and murdered by her neighbour, Marcelo Daniel Muller, 34, alias ‘Nanico’, in Misiones, Argentina, on Friday, 15 November, 2024
Photo shows Marcelo Daniel Muller, 34, alias “Nanico”, undated. He allegedly raped and killed eight-year-old Fabiana Sirino
Muller has since been arrested on suspicion of murder and remains in police custody.
According to the girl’s heartbroken mother, also unnamed, she had spoken to Muller the day before the incident, and told that he had wanted to sell her machete and a flashlight.
Muller also appeared at the scene, shortly after the rape, supposedly to help find Fabiana.
Her father said: ‘He came running. He was shirtless, wearing shorts and black sneakers, all sweaty. He asked what had happened.’
Neighbours also told the authorities that they had seen Muller hanging around the young girl’s school in the past few days.
According to the autopsy, Fabiana’s main cause of death was ‘hypovolemic shock’, caused by severe blood loss.
Fabiana’s school is just 1.2 miles from her home.
She would reportedly walk part of the way home with her cousins and the last leg of the trip she would walk alone.
Fabiana managed to identify her attacker moments before she died
Her mother tearfully told local media: ‘She was such a loving girl, with her whole life ahead of her.’
She added: ‘I have no words to explain how there are such evil people in this world, to do so much evil to a girl of only eight years old.
‘We want justice to be done. And for the other children to be looked after, so that it doesn’t happen again.’
Forensic experts, a biochemist, a police doctor and personnel from the local police station worked at the scene where the victim was found.
The investigation is ongoing.
On Saturday, Fabiana’s loved ones gathered in front of the local police station to demand justice for the little girl, according to Infobae.
Meanwhile, Argentinians have taken to social media to condemn the horrific act.
One X user wrote: ‘Fabiana Sirino was 8 years old. She was raped and murdered!!!!! 8 YEARS OLD! Why did the son of a b***h do it? Because yes, because he felt like it, because he could’.
Others tweeted: ‘Justice for Fabiana Sirino’.
Fabiana’s murder is the latest case of femicide to rock Argentina.
Earlier this month, 20-year-old Sofia Delgado was reported missing after she failed to return home from a shopping trip in the town of San Lorenzo.
On Friday, her remains were found inside a bag on the side of the road. So far, five people have been arrested in connection to her murder.
Femicide is a serious issue in Argentina and the wider Latin American region, according to the United Nations.
The Women’s Office of the Supreme Court of Justice in Argentina says one woman is killed every 32 hours.
