A desperate question asked by the victim’s brother to the perpetrator

Everything is painted Questions. Also Hernan Rodrigo. He is a “broken” man and is tired of “life hurts so much”. He says he doesn’t know what it was a year and six months ago (from the day his brother died). Get a full night’s sleep. If he wasn’t awakened by emergency calls about his father’s medical problems, he was plagued with questions. “Why did he do that? Why such a horrible death? What was going on in his head? How could he do that?” he repeats relentlessly.

On May 16, 2022, neurologist Melchor Rodrigo (43) died after going to dinner at the home of his patient, Felipe Pettinado (30), son of former sumo saxophonist, radio and TV presenter Roberto.

Belgrano Apartment on the 22nd floor is complete Consumed by flames: Fire destroyed everything. The place was unrecognizable. Everything was warm in the living room, kitchen, bathroom and balcony.

It was only a year later that the Office of the National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor no. 25 He was indicted in a “death by fire” case investigating the death of a surgeon. Pettinado refused to testify when subpoenaed. They processed him Now the defense has appealed to the prosecutor, so they are waiting for the council’s decision.

Accusation Ambiguous: In terms of justice, it is not clear that Melkor Rodrigo died in the fire. Intentional. In a statement released a few days after the accusation became known, prosecutor Martin Mainardi clarified: “On May 16, 2022, Rodrigo was in the apartment of Felipe Pettinado, located at 2300 Aguilar Street in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Belgrano, when a fire broke out. Causing his death,” he began.

And he contended: “For this reason, what is being investigated is A Fire followed by deathIt covers, as criminal presumptions, from accidental fire (the death of a person) caused by arson caused intentionally and having the same effect, or intentional death, and by arson caused by fire.”

The ambiguity is painful for the victim’s family, who have been waiting for answers for a year and a half: “I don’t want Pettinado to go to prison because he’s going to prison, it’s not a wish,” he says.

“The prosecutor didn’t charge him with murder, but with arson. But I don’t agree, they’re not 8-year-olds. If you’re adults, if you start a flame with a lighter, it’s not my intention to set you on fire, if you say he messed up and set the house on fire. “It would be different. Here was the intent to kill. What did he think was going to happen? The outcome was obvious,” he surmises.

For Hernán, “Pettinado will not tell the truth” is his greatest torment: Not knowing.

“I want to know the truth. I’ll respect him more if he tells what happened. I swear, let us know that even after the punishment, it won’t change anything, but he has to tell me. The truth. Skinny, what was in your head to do that? “Nothing? Without lying, explain to me what happened! “The family has a right to know,” he repeated as a plea.

A man whose car was stolen from his doorstep in Boulogne days ago has fondly remembered his younger brother. He was the godfather of their 8-year-old son and an important figure to his parents.

“You can’t understand from this side from someone who looks at his brother with love, and you can’t understand why. What motivates such an act?. What was your madness or your great pain, you could have felt to do such a beastly thing. I have it Final question “I must do before I die: tell me why, why you did that,” he insists.

Hernán Rodrigo’s mother died when he was 7 years old. The eldest brother in the family, when he was 14 years old. And five days ago his father, Tomás Rodrigo, died of grief over the loss of his youngest son.

Tomás Melchor Rodrigo is an economist. He lived in America and remarried Melkor’s mother, Beatriz, with whom he had two children. A month and a half after the death of her youngest son, she suffered an irreversible stroke.

“It was going in and out of the hospital, and any time the phone rang because he had fallen, because he was disintegrating,” recalled Hernán, who shared the attention between his father and his brothers.

About five months ago he was a Chapter Two And he never changed again. “My dad was a great man, but he was a genius, he was a genius, he drove, he came, he came, he traveled, he did everything, he was wonderful, my brother’s obsession was his parents, he lived with them, they were good. But this is what I have been hearing since day one: My father will die without knowing what happened to his son, that’s why he asked the investigating authorities to speed up. It happened. He died without justice,” he lamented.

Hernon still hears him complaining as he lies in bed. Those demands echo when he wakes up at night. And scenes of him crying over Melsioor. In the end Thomas Rodrigo died unknowingly.

A fire broke out in the apartment around 11.30 pm. Pettinado went into the hallway and called for help to put out the flames, and reconstructed the indictment to rescue his friend Mainardi.

After putting out the fire, firefighters found Rodrigo’s lifeless body in the bedroom of the Pettinado apartment, with burns on the lower part of his legs.

A post-mortem examination carried out by the Medical Examiner’s Office determined that the cause of death was the result of “severe burns over 90% of the body surface” and “congestion, edema and pulmonary haemorrhage”.

Toxicology reports conducted on the day of the incident revealed that the victim was Consumed benzodiazepines and methylphenidate, drugs that cause central nervous system depression when taken in high doses. These data, combined with the effects of carbon monoxide and hypoxia created by the inhalation of fire and smoke with different substances, led medical experts to conclude that the fire may have occurred. sum of effects It caused respiratory depression, cardiotoxicity and may have caused sudden death at the start of the fire.

For the prosecution, these statements and other evidence allowed it to conclude that the drugs in Rodrigo’s body “would have produced a state of unconsciousness.” Without any possibility of reaction Encountering First Contact with Flames”.

“While there is no doubt that (Pettinado) insisted that they help his friend, we must conclude that there is no evidence that he did anything at the start of the fire to try to rescue Melgor Rodrigo from the fire he himself created,” his indictment stated.

In addition, the prosecutor announced that Pettinado’s “investigation will be deepened into the falsification of drugs” from which he bought drugs, for which it is believed that he used prescription books from a clinic and the seal of his former doctor. ., and he would have completed the prescription with his signature.