Wilson Eduardo Castro Tapia, 41, was found dead in the prison hospital of the Complejo Penitenciario Biobío, known as El Manzano, in Concepción. He was in pretrial detention for the double femicide of his partner and her 15-year-old daughter, committed on September 18 in Villarrica, in the Región de la Araucanía (Araucanía Region).
La Tercera reported that Gendarmería (Chile's prison service) announced the death on Friday afternoon. Radio Biobío and T13, however, place both the announcement and the discovery on Saturday, October 17. The available sources do not give the exact time of the event.
According to a statement from Gendarmería's Biobío Regional Directorate, staff at the facility "found the inmate without vital signs" in the prison hospital. Initial inquiries indicate the death was by hanging, and the involvement of third parties has been preliminarily ruled out.
Gendarmería said its officers activated institutional protocols and notified the Ministerio Público (Public Prosecutor's Office). The institution added that it secured the scene and is cooperating with the authorities by making the case records available to them.
The Fiscalía assigned inquiries to the Homicide Brigade of the Policía de Investigaciones (PDI, Chile's investigative police) and to the Servicio Médico Legal (SML, the national forensic medical service). Both agencies are to establish the circumstances and cause of death.
Castro Tapia was an imputado, meaning he was under formal investigation, and had not been tried. Pretrial detention is a precautionary measure that keeps a person in custody while the investigation proceeds, before any verdict.
After the September crime, experts from the Temuco Homicide Brigade and the Criminalistics Laboratory determined that the victims were killed with a blunt object, allegedly an axe.
At the first hearing before the Juzgado de Garantía de Villarrica (Villarrica pretrial court), prosecutor José Ramírez said the accused had allegedly admitted his involvement to his mother shortly before Carabineros (Chile's national police) arrested him. According to the prosecutor, he allegedly told her: "Mom, I'm a monster, I've come to say goodbye".
The sources do not report what will happen to the criminal case following the death of the accused. The results of the SML autopsy and the PDI inquiries will determine the official cause of death.
If you need psychological support, you can dial *4141, the Ministerio de Salud's (Ministry of Health) free suicide prevention line. To report violence against women, Carabineros' hotline is 149.
