Verónica's stepmother, convicted of mistreating the young woman for years and then desecrating her corpse, has finally surrendered this Tuesday and has gone to the Tahíche Penitentiary Center, after a search and arrest warrant was issued for her this Monday. Carmen Delia Tejera was sentenced to three and a half years in prison last October and after the sentence became final, the execution of the ruling began and her imprisonment was ordered.
As she did not voluntarily appear in Tahíche, Civil Guard agents went to her home this Monday, but found no trace of her, so she became wanted. Finally, at around 2 p.m. this Tuesday, she ended up going to the Tahíche prison on her own, as confirmed to La Voz by the Benemérita.
It was in February 2013 when the National Police found Verónica's remains, burned and hidden inside a bag in a wall of the Tinajo house where she lived, after her biological brother reported her disappearance. However, the circumstances of her death could never be clarified, so the charges for homicide were dropped, for which Carmen Delia Tejera was charged.
She burned the young woman's corpse, whom she mistreated "frequently"
However, the sentence issued by the Criminal Court number 1 of Arrecife considered it proven that Carmen Delia Tejera "frequently beat and subjected the daughter of her husband, Verónica Molina Lillo, who suffered a disability of 68%, to psychological abuse from the time she reached the age of majority" in 2003, until her death from an unknown cause in 2012".
According to the court, the accused "forced her stepdaughter to perform domestic tasks and field work, completely neglecting her hygiene and health needs, forcing her to remain hidden and locked in one of the annexes to the home, lacking the necessary health conditions".
Afterwards, once Verónica died, Carmen Delia Tejera "put her body in bags, buried her in a hole in the garden of the family home, and later in January 2013 she dug her up, burned her bones, and put them in a garbage bag inside a backpack that she hid in a crack in the annexes to the house".
Verónica's step-siblings were acquitted
Two of Carmen Delia Tejera's natural children and Verónica's step-siblings were also tried in the case, although they were acquitted as it was considered that their participation in the events had not been proven.
Regarding the young woman's death, although it was outside the case, the sentence cast doubt on the version in the investigation phase of the stepmother and her children, who blamed Verónica's father, who died shortly after being arrested. However, before dying, he testified before the agents, denying that he had raped, impregnated, killed or dismembered his daughter, and that he "did not understand" why his wife attributed those acts to him.
A "simulated" cognitive impairment
During the trial, which was held in September of last year, Verónica's stepmother refused to testify, and even her lawyer asked that the hearing be held without her, alleging that she had "cognitive impairment" and that she was not in a position to testify, a request that was rejected by the court.
In fact, the forensic study determined that Carmen Delia Tejera "did not present alterations in her judgment of reality, being aware of her actions and their consequences" and that her symptoms "did not correspond to any psychiatric pathology", not being able to rule out that it corresponds to a simulation.
