The horror before the crime
The double femicide in Córdoba shook two countries. Luna Giardina, 26, and her mother, Mariel Zamudio, were found dead in their home in the Villa Serrana neighborhood. The prime suspect is Pablo Laurta, Luna's ex-partner and father of her child, who was arrested after trying to flee with the child.
But the story didn't begin in Córdoba. According to accounts collected by Argentine media, Luna had escaped months earlier from a situation of extreme violence in Uruguay. For three years, she lived locked away in a house she shared with Laurta, subjected to physical, psychological, and sexual abuse.
A neighbor of the victims revealed that Laurta controlled every aspect of Luna's life. "He kept her locked up, fed her whatever he wanted, and raped her repeatedly," she told TN. Mariel, the mother, also knew what was happening. She was the one who helped her daughter escape.
“She had no life”
The same neighbor reported that, once in Córdoba, Luna lived in fear. “He hardly went out. Laurta appeared to him several times. My husband and I protected her as best we could,” she said. On one occasion, the accused even climbed onto the roof of the house. He used a ladder that, they suspect, someone provided him. “We believe someone was passing on information about them,” the witness added.
On the Saturday of the crime, neighbors alerted the police about a gunshot. The official response took almost 12 hours. “The panic button was off, but the police never came. The system failed from the start,” the woman lamented.
Double femicide in Córdoba: previous complaints and systemic omissions
According to judicial sources, Luna had filed a complaint against Laurta in Uruguay three years earlier. In her statement, she described a relationship marked by control and violence. “He manipulated me, forced me to do things I didn't want to do. He wouldn't let me work or use social media. When I was pregnant, he would slap me, saying 'they weren't blows,'” she wrote.
She also expressed concern about Laurta's social media posts, where he justified femicides and criticized the justice system for "favoring women." In one of them, he commented on a news story about a man who killed his ex-wife: "The surprising thing is that these outcomes aren't even more common."
The escape and the capture
After the crime, Laurta fled with her son. She requested a car through an app in Concordia and headed to Entre Ríos. They were found in a hotel, where the wallet of the driver who had taken him was also found. The vehicle was found burned, and days later, it was confirmed that the dismembered body found in the area belonged to the driver, Martín Palacio.
