Famous & rich Mexican writer dies in 1986,but her much younger male friend tells everybody she's still alive & keeps living in mansion,for 13 years,3 bodies now found in grave
Joe1orbit
Odd news item out of Mexico, that just MIGHT involve a triple murder. A very
reclusive but wealthy writer and choreographer named Nellie Campobello
disappeared from public view way back in 1985. A so-called "friend" and
literary representative of hers named Claudio Fuentes told everybody that she
had simply gone into "seclusion", and he was going to handle her affairs.
Recently, a GRAVE containing THREE bodies was found. One of the bodies is
Nellie's. Cops say the grave in 13 years old, which would mean that Nellie died
in 1986 or so, just after this Claudio guy started saying that she had gone
into "seclusion". Now, Claudio Fuentes has been arrested. He is charged with
lying to police, but cops think he is a much more sinister figure, and PROBABLY
played a role in KILLING Nellie, or if not, at least in stealing her
multi-million dollar treasure of wealthy art and artifacts.
One of the bodies was buried in a proper coffin. The other two bodies were
simply stuffed into BAGS. It has NOT been conclusively determined whether
Nellie or the 2 other dead bodies were actively murdered. According to a death
certificate, Nellie died of a heart attack in 1986, at the age of 86. She was
pretty old, and PROBABLY died of natural causes. A university professor who
interviewed Nellie just a year or two befor she died is now stirring up the
pot, claiming that Nellie was under the "control" of this man, that he kept her
prisoner inside her mansion, and that: ""He was interested in making money out
of her. To wring the last drop of financial advantage out of her estate, they
had to keep her `alive," And so after Nellie died, this man decided to lie and
keep up the false charade that she was still alive.
Last year, Claudio filed a police report, stating that Nellie's artwork had
been STOLEN. He then filed a missing person's report on Nellie, even though she
had been DEAD for 13 years. Sounds like he was trying to get some kind of cash
insurance settlement, both on the "stolen" artwork and on a life insurance
policy.
Police found some artwork in the mansion, but think that other pieces were
probably sold by Claudio, over the past 13 years. He is only being held on
"suspicion" of criminal wrongdoing, and police have 60 days to try and come up
with evidence of murder, kidnapping, criminal fraud, etc..., or else they'll
have to let Claudio go. Autopsies on all three bodies will be done in the
coming days.
Kind of an intriguing case, especially with the 3 dead bodies buried
together. Claudio certainly hit the jackpot, in terms of hooking up and winning
the trust of this RICH old woman. But I fear he got a little TOO greedy in the
past two years, in terms of trying to collect insurance money. He SHOULD have
just stuck with selling the paintings and other valuables on the black market.
Still, it's impressive how he got away with "pretending" that his benefactor
was still alive, for all these 13 years.
Take care, JOE
The following appears courtesy of today's Associated Press news wire:
Mystery of writer's disappearance deepens: 3 bodies found in grave
January 7, 1999
By Adolfo Garza, Associated Press
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Authorities thought they had solved a mystery when they
found the 13-year-old grave of a writer and choreographer who, according to her
representative, had been leading a reclusive life.
But the grave, they now say, didn't hold one body: It held three.
Prosecutors aren't sure who any of the remains belong to, or what happened to a
treasure trove of 1930s art owned by Nellie Campobello, who hadn't been seen in
public since 1985.
But they have arrested Claudio Fuentes, the man accused of keeping Campobello a
virtual captive in her run-down Mexico City mansion — and of telling police she
was still alive even though he had signed her death certificate more than a
decade earlier.
The unknowns in the case — which Mexican writer Carlos Monsivais called "a
gothic horror story ... a tale of cynicism, arrogance and moral monstrosity'' —
just kept going deeper, like the grave in a rural cemetery north of Mexico
City.
Marked by a simple stone cross bearing Campobello's initials, the grave yielded
one body in a coffin and then two more in bags when authorities started digging
in late December.
Rural cemeteries in Mexico usually don't keep burial records and families
sometimes put more than one corpse in a family grave, so it's hard to tell why
the bodies might be there, or who they are.
The only problem is that Campobello — author of two novels, credited with
researching and reviving Mexican folk dance in the 1930s and 1940s — didn't
have much family.
Just a sister who died before her, and — perhaps — an illegitimate daughter who
had died as a child decades before, suggested Northern Arizona University
professor Irene Matthews, one of the last people to have spoken to Campobello.
Matthews described interviewing Campobello in 1984 and said Fuentes "had her
under his control.'' According to the death certificate Fuentes signed as a
witness, Campobello died of a heart attack at age 86 on July 9, 1986.
"He was interested in making money out of her. ... To wring the last drop of
financial advantage out of her estate, they had to keep her `alive,''' Matthews
said in a telephone interview.
Fuentes kept pretending Campobello was alive, leading a quiet life in
neighboring Hidalgo state and speaking only to him, and in 1997 filed a police
report claiming the artworks had been stolen.
Earlier this year, Fuentes even filed a missing person report on Campobello.
Fuentes, whose wife held a power-of-attorney for Campobello, was arrested in
Mexico City carrying a bus ticket to Hidalgo. "From there he was probably
headed somewhere else,'' Mexico City prosecutor Patricia Bugarin said
Wednesday.
He was placed under house arrest on suspicion of kidnapping and making false
statements to police.
As for the artworks — Matthews describes seeing "canvases rolled up and stored
in corners'' of the crumbling mansion — police don't have any clues, though
Matthews suspects the paintings were sold or at least offered for sale.
The artwork, which Monsivais described as "national treasures,'' presumably
include a 1936 painting by Campobello's friend, muralist Jose Clemente Orozco,
commemorating the death of Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca.
Prosecutors said they can hold Fuentes for up to 60 days on suspicion —
apparently hoping that witnesses may step forward or autopsies on the bodies
may help solve the mystery.