Jose Rafael Llenas Menicucci and Ileana Aybar de Llenas, the father and mother of the murdered 12-year-old Jose Rafael Llenas Aybar, held a press conference on Monday, 5 August, in which they attempted to clarify certain versions of the case in the news media and asked the next government of Leonel Fernandez to order the case to be reopened by the National Police.
Mr. Llenas Menicucci and Mrs. Aybar de Llenas said that despite some news reports to the contrary, their son did not spend time with his 19-year-old cousin Mario Jose Redondo Llenas, one of the confessed killers, on a regular basis. They also claimed that they have never met Juan Manuel Moline Rodriguez, the other confessed killer who is a friend of Mr. Redondo Llenas, nor Martin Luis Palma Meccia, the son of the former Argentine Ambassador to the Dominican Republic, Teresa Meccia de Palma. Mr. Palma Meccia’s name has been mentioned on various occasions during the questioning of Mr. Redondo Llenas as a possible participant in the crime.
Referring to Mr. Redondo Llenas’ original explanation to the police and the news media that he had attempted to kidnap young Jose Rafael and demand a ransom because of his “resentment” towards Mr. Llenas Minicucci stemming from a dispute over an inheritance, both parents said that the story was false.
Mr. Llenas Minicucci and Mrs. Llenas de Aybar complained that after the alleged culprits were discovered and detained just a few hours after the crime was committed on 3 May, the subsequent investigation has been conducted slowly and with the exclusion of key witnesses and evidence, referring specifically to the son of the former Argentine ambassador, from whom they asked the government to lift diplomatic immunity.
For Mr. Llenas Minicucci, the fact that Mr. Redondo Llenas said that “what is done is done, I don’t want to involve anyone else,” is a clear sign that others participated in the crime.
The Llenas-Aybar family also said that if the authorities do not conduct the investigation as “it should be undertaken”, they will start their own parallel investigation and bring private prosecutions against those they find to have been involved in the murder.
Finally, Jose Rafael Llenas Aybar’s parents told members of the news media that their son was “communicative”, and had never shown any physical or emotional signs that he had been sexually abused, as had been speculated after the crime. His father, however, did not rule out the possibility that before the murder, young Jose Rafael could have been sexually abused by one or both of the confessed killers.