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Prosecutor Probes Two Violent City Bell Cases: Highway Officer Held, Psychiatrist’s Killing Unsolved

Forensic reconstruction—cameras, cell data, autopsy—now guides UFI No. 11 under Álvaro Garganta.

Overview

  • Jonathan Andrés Peralta, a 32-year-old highway police sergeant, was arrested and processed on charges of kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault and armed robbery, then declined to testify during his investigative hearing.
  • Detectives seized his service weapon, a vehicle with fake plates and his cellphone, which will undergo geolocation and content analysis to test the victim’s timeline.
  • The complainant reported being forced into her car in City Bell, driven about 30 minutes to Parque Pereyra Iraola and assaulted; her vehicle and phone remain missing.
  • In a separate investigation, psychiatrist Virginia Franco was found dead in her City Bell home, with an autopsy citing hypovolemic shock from multiple cutting wounds and injuries consistent with defense.
  • Garganta’s office is reviewing security footage, antenna records and a released witness’s phone in the Franco case, which has no arrests and is treated as a homicide in the context of a robbery, according to court reporting.