Justice appears to have caught up with the main suspect in the brutal femicide of Argentine model Agostina Jalabert. Juan Manuel Reverter, her ex-boyfriend who had been on the run since February 2023, was arrested in the last few hours in the United States, specifically in the state of Oregon. The capture occurred around 7:30 a.m. in Deschutes, in an operation that combined efforts from the United States Marshals Service, Interpol Washington, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Border Patrol.
The news hit the Jalabert family like a bucket of cold water, after three years of waiting for this moment. «Three years counted in hours waiting for justice. The day has come. We were never going to stop fighting for you,» posted an ecstatic Camila and Candela Jalabert, Agostina’s sisters, on their social media. A cry of relief after a long and painful wait.
Reverter had been wanted since February 18, 2023, when Agostina’s lifeless body was found in her apartment in Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, Mexico. In January of this year, Interpol had issued a red notice against him, describing the chilling details of the crime: «The victim and the accused were at her home in Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, where the suspect began to hit the victim in the face and body, applying pressure to the neck, until he took her life. He then took a belt and tied it around the victim’s neck to simulate a suicide.»
The family always suspected that the story was not as Reverter told it. «We waited a long time for this moment, basically since it happened. There were many people who helped us. There was a great effort from everyone, forensic teams we hired and lawyers who selflessly helped us to reverse the initial hypothesis that it had been a suicide,» said Germán Jalabert, the victim’s uncle. «We always suspected that the story was not as the now-wanted man told it. Fortunately, the case progressed, there was a lot of evidence gathering, and a change of prosecutor led to the arrest warrant and international capture order,» he added.
Agostina, a 31-year-old model from Carmen de Patagones, had traveled to Mexico six months before her death to continue her modeling career. Her sister Candela initially accompanied her, but later Reverter moved there with the intention of reconciling the relationship. It was Candela who found the lifeless body in the early hours of February 18, 2023. «Candela arrived at the building at 6 a.m. and the access code to the apartment did not work. She went to the building guard, where she was informed that during the night there had been disturbances in the apartment, where Agostina’s boyfriend had also moved in. They told her that the police had been called twice,» recounted the victim’s father, Edgardo Jalabert. After that conversation, the sister returned to the apartment and banged on the door until Reverter opened it. «He asked her where Agostina was, and she, surprised, told him that Agostina was with him. The little dog led her to the bathroom door, where they found Agostina hanging from the towel rack where hand towels are placed,» the father added.
The initial investigation pointed to suicide, but the family’s persistence and the change of prosecutor led Mexican justice to reorient the case toward femicide. Now, with Reverter in custody in the United States, his extradition to Mexico is expected so he can face justice. The Jalabert family can finally breathe: the manhunt is over.
para mi ya era hora q este forro caiga pero ojo estos zurdos de mierda seguro lo bancan viva la justicia lastima q no le den perpetua a todos los asesinos firma elverdulero69
Che, para mí este machito asesino es la punta del iceberg. Ojalá se pudra en la cárcel, pero esto huele a que el sistema patriarcal lo protegió hasta que las hermanas de Agostina hicieron justicia por mano propia. ¡Vivan las pibas que luchan! Ahora falta que caigan todos los cómplices.