Mother confesses to killing the boy found in a suitcase

Mónica Juanatey Fernández, a 30-year old unmarried mother originally from Galicia but now resident in Maó, told investigating officers that, after drowning nine-year old César in the bath, she placed his body in a large suitcase (80x60 cm.) together with some of his personal effects, including clothes, a pencil case, a comic and a watch. She then threw the suitcase into scrubland near Binidalí where it was found last week by two brothers out collecting wood.

Clues

Police investigation of the suitcase's contents revealed the boy's partial name written inside the pencil case, some of the letters having been erased by the humidity. This, together with the comic, which was only published from 2007, gave the officers their first leads in the case.

The remains were sent to Palma for forensic analysis which revealed that they belonged to an adolescent boy aged between 8 and 13 years, and the police were able to start cross-referencing the known facts. Information on the boy was sought from the Policía Nacional, Guardia Civil and Interpol, but with no success, leaving the investigating team to deduce that the death had occurred within a family circle, hence the lack of a missing persons report, and that it could be a broken home or a family that had recently moved, as the child did not seem to have been missed either in school or by friends.

Although a lot of youngsters fitted the information available to the police, one had not renewed his identity card; César J.F., a boy born in 1999 and resident in Noia (A Coruña).

The officers contacted the maternal grandparents who told them that the boy was in Menorca with his mother. She, in turn, claimed that the boy was with his biological father and the grandparents. This inconsistency led to the police arresting Monica Juanatey on Friday afternoon. At first she denied having killed her son but, after making three statements to the police, she finally confessed to the alleged crime.

Police officers yesterday denied that the body had been cut into quarters, as had been earlier reported.

After spending the weekend in police cells at the Comisaría in Plaza Miranda, Maó, the suspect was taken before a judge yesterday, where she was remanded in custody on a charge of murder which could carry a 25-year prison sentence. She will be transferred to Palma to await trial by jury.

Background

Mónica Juanatey confessed to killing her son in early July 2008, when César was nine years old. She was unmarried and living with her parents in A Coruña when he was born and he was virtually brought up by his grandparents in the coastal town of Noia.

Acquaintances of Mónica described her life in Galicia as "messed up", although she had no criminal record. For a while she worked in a supermarket and then as part of a beach-cleaning gang.

At the end of 2007 she met the man with whom she now lives in Maó via a social networking site on the Internet. In March 2008 she decided to move to the island, look for work and start a new life, leaving her son with his biological father but later changing her mind and taking him to her parents' home. On 1st July 2008 César came to Maó to live with his mother who had not told her new partner that she had a son, but on his arrival, claimed that he was her nephew and was only staying with them for ten days. Police conclude that at the end of this period, the mother drowned her son in the bath. She then packed his body and belongings in the suitcase to convince her partner that César had returned to Galicia.

In order to avoid awkward questions she cut all contact with her family and pretended via the Internet that her son was well and had made his first communion in November 2008.