The discovery in a hard-to-reach field
Judicial sources confirmed that the body of Nancy Estela Godoy, a 52-year-old rural teacher, was discovered on Wednesday in the Esquina department of Corrientes province. Police taking part in the search operation located the remains in a field, partly submerged, and a bag holding belongings was found a short distance away. Officials said forensic examinations were still needed to formally confirm the identity, although everything pointed to the missing woman.[S1][S2][S4][S5]
The location is described as extremely difficult to reach, with poor telephone and satellite coverage. Prosecutors Javier Mosquera and María Andrea González traveled toward the site by helicopter, and the provincial security minister, Adán Gaya, was reported to be heading there as well. The body was found roughly 15 kilometers from the rural school where Godoy taught, in an area known as the zona cero of the search.[S1][S3][S4][S5][S6]
The discovery came after 19 days of searching. Godoy was last in contact with her family on October 7, when she sent a WhatsApp message from the school saying she had arrived safely at the El Curupí estancia. She was expected home in the southern access of Esquina on Friday, October 9, but bad weather and heavy rain had made the route to the main farmhouse impassable, and it was common for her to stay at the school.[S1][S4][S6]
Her son Sebastián filed the formal missing-person complaint on Thursday, October 15, after the long weekend for the October 12 holiday passed without any communication. Only from that point did the judiciary intervene. The search then concentrated on fields, wetlands and other hard-to-access sectors, using police officers, trained dogs, drones and mounted personnel.[S4][S6]
Five detainees and the charges they face
Five people linked to the rural establishment are detained. Ireneo Antonio Zarza, foreman of the El Curupí estancia, is accused as the alleged material perpetrator of the femicide and is considered the main suspect. Felipe Dionisio Sandoval, another foreman, and Sergio Nahuel Rojas, a puestero of the estancia, face co-authorship charges of femicide. Rosa Leguizamón, Rojas's partner, is charged with simple homicide as an author, a classification used because the gender-based aggravating factor cannot be applied to a woman.[S1][S2][S3][S4][S5][S6]
Ernesto Ezequiel Bordón, a peón at the property, is accused of false testimony. He was the first person arrested and the first to point to two rural workers as the perpetrators, though his defense later claimed that statement was made under alleged illegal pressure from provincial police officers. Judge Jorge Gustavo Vallejos ordered pretrial detention for all five until trial begins.[S1][S2][S3][S4][S5][S6]
Investigators searching the precarious dwelling where Zarza slept, less than 200 meters from Rural School No. 626 in the El Malezal paraje, found burned clothing, including a jacket that may have belonged to the teacher, along with knives. The items are being analyzed to determine whether they are connected to the case. A bozal was also reported among the items seized.[S2][S5][S6]
The prosecutors' central hypothesis is that the motive was a sexual attack. Genetic tests and other expert reports remain under comprehensive analysis and await results. The Public Prosecutor's Office said the situation of the detainees is being examined under current law, with full respect for constitutional guarantees and the presumption of innocence, without advancing definitive conclusions.[S1][S4]
A school abandoned and a route on horseback
Godoy worked as a substitute teacher and director at Rural School No. 626, located inside the El Curupí estancia near the town of Esquina. Reaching her job required an hour and a half on horseback. Leguizamón, Rojas's partner, usually accompanied her and brought her from the estancia's Puesto 9 to the school in the El Malezal paraje.[S1][S3][S4]
In a document dated August 15, the teacher recorded the conditions she found at the establishment. She reported that the school was totally abandoned, dirty and full of insects of every kind, that the toilets were filled with earth, and that a mother of two students helped her with cleaning tasks that took two days to make the place more or less habitable. She also noted the lack of drinking water and said she had found no school records since 2024.[S3]
Parents and neighbors told her that the previous teacher had gone between two and three years without giving classes. Godoy had arrived at the school about two months before her disappearance and, according to her relatives, took it upon herself to clean and prepare the building so that students could attend.[S3]
