Report: Cristian Godoy García. DJA, 65, was murdered, beaten and stabbed twice. On April 4, he was found lying in bed in his home in Béccar, in the San Isidro district of Buenos Aires province. Two days later, a 29-year-old man was arrested for the crime. A perfume was the key that led the investigation to the alleged perpetrator. They are calling for the crime to be investigated as a hate crime. “We express our dismay and condemnation of this latest act of violence against a member of our community. We ask the Public Prosecutor's Office of the Province of Buenos Aires and the Judiciary to thoroughly investigate this murder as an aggravated hate crime based on sexual orientation Darío Arias, a member of the organization Conurbanos por la Diversidad (Suburbanites for Diversity) , told Presentes . He added: “In this specific case, we are talking about a gay man, an elderly adult, from a neighborhood in the greater Buenos Aires area, and many times these crimes go unnoticed .”

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DJA lived alone in an apartment on Marconi Street, number 400, which he rented to an 83-year-old retiree. It was the woman who decided to enter the apartment after several days in which the man did not answer the doorbell or her phone calls. There she found DJA's lifeless body on the mattress, surrounded by a pool of blood. The woman immediately called 911. Police officers from the 5th Precinct in Beccar confirmed that There were no indications that the apartment had been forced open., as confirmed to Presentes.

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The case was classified as homicide. by prosecutor Claudio Scapolan, of the Functional Unit of Instruction for Complex Crimes of the Criminal Area of ​​the Judicial Department of San Isidro. From that judicial body, they confirmed to this agency that Anitori was murdered with two stab wounds and that A man whose initials are AG was arrested through the investigations carried out on the victim's cell phone.Investigators confirmed that the victim and the alleged perpetrator had been communicating via Facebook for several days and had arranged to meet.                                                          Illustration: Charo Roque 

A perfume, the key to the investigation

During the raid on the suspect's home at 200 Payró Street in San Fernando (Buenos Aires Province), police said they found a perfume that matched an empty box found at the victim's house. They seized two knives, a cell phone, and other belongings of DJA. According to judicial sources who spoke to this publication, this evidence was conclusive in confirming that the victim and AG had met and in ordering the arrest.

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The image that caused outrage

María owns a store located two blocks from where Anitori lived. She had been a friend of his and had employed him at her store a few years ago. She is angry about the media coverage of the case: “They used the image of a blood-stained mattress that had been dumped on the sidewalk in DJA. I don't understand why. They talk about him being elderly and retired. Couldn't they at least find a photo of him? Besides, Jorge wasn't elderly,” she said. The woman was referring to the Images that were shown on a television channelThe treatment provided by the press was also stigmatizing, prejudiced, and morbid: «"Grandfather stabbed to death in gay lovers' passion drama," was the headline of the news story in a national newspaper. 

The figures of hate

According to the report from the National Observatory of LGBT Hate Crimes, in 2017 Thirteen people were murdered: eleven were transgender women, one was a transgender man, and one was a cisgender gay man. The study also indicates an increase in violence against the LGBT community.

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Arias emphasized that the increase in violence and hate crimes against LGBT people, combined with “the dismantling of protection policies and access to justice for our community, puts us at risk.” In Argentina, Law 26.791, passed on November 14, 2012, amended various sections of Article 80 of the Penal Code. Among these, section 4 incorporated hatred based on a person's sexual orientation, gender identity, and/or gender expression as an aggravating factor in homicides.