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On Friday, September 15, 2017, Albacete celebrated its festivities.

Jairo Ronald Arcos's

wife

worked that night as a waitress and he was at home taking care of their two children, aged 11 and 4 at the time.

At 10:15 p.m. his mobile phone rang.

The same person repeated the call 25 minutes later. Ron then told his children that he was leaving home for a moment, that he would be back shortly.

There was no further news of his whereabouts until five days later his body was found.

He was floating in the

Júcar river

, before passing through the town of

Jorquera

, more than 30 kilometers from Albacete capital. On February 5, 2018, the National Police arrested the alleged perpetrator of the crime, the man who made those two calls.

The surprise in the city was capital when it transcended its identity.

It was about a local policeman,

JM P.

,

Better

known to all as

El Chule

.

Jairo Arcos

, the victim's father, always had him in his sights and played a game with him that he won despite the fact that, in his own words, it was "bluffing." Today, three years after the crime, he and his wife,

Marta Lucía

, although satisfied with the resolution of the case, they explain that they still need an epilogue to be totally calm: that the trial be dated and that he be convicted of murder.

"Let justice be done," says the mother through tears.

JMP

,

El Chule

, 55, rather small in stature but with a very athletic complexion, accumulates more than three decades of service in the Albacete Local Police force.

In the city he has always stood out for being "nervous", because he directed traffic with excessive gestures and blew the whistle louder than any other agent. On February 5 he was arrested and on February 6 he gave a statement and confessed.

He said that he was a habitual user of cocaine, that Ronald dispensed the drug to him and that he had contracted a debt of 1,900 euros with him.

He assured that Ronald pressured him to pay him, that he even threatened him and that he was afraid that he would divulge the

WhatsApp

conversations

in which they discussed the sale, since this could harm his work. On September 15 at night , he recounted, called Ronald, picked him up - a pizzeria camera recorded the moment he got into his car - and took him home.

Specifically to its storage room, located on the ground floor of the building, at the same height as the parking lot.

El Chule

showed him a computer, a television, a stereo ... Things with which he intended to pay off the debt.

Ronald told him that he wanted the money.-Well, I'm not going to give you the money.

El Chule

uttered this phrase, according to his confession, at the same time that he took a barbecue poker and hit Ronald with it.

He, who was already leaving the storage room, turned at that moment and the impact hit him square in the forehead.

He fell face down, then

El Chule

, always according to his statement, wrapped the body in a blanket and plastic, tied it with ropes, put it in the storage room, wiped the blood from the floor and the wall, washed himself and He went up to his apartment, where he lived with his wife and two children.

An accused cousin

A few days later, the neighbors complained about the bad smell coming out of the storage room and

El Chule

decided to get rid of the body.

He asked for help from a cousin of his, who is currently free with charges, accused of being a collaborator.

At dusk on September 19, four days after Ronald's disappearance,

El Chule

and his cousin took the body out of the storage room, put it in the trunk of the car and went to a bridge over the Júcar River, from where they threw it.

A citizen who passed by there the next day found it a few meters from the bridge, stuck in the undergrowth.

The body was still in

El Chule's

storage room

when Jairo Arcos, Ronald's father, came into action.

The only clue he had was that his son's wife had told him that perhaps that night he had met with that policeman and that indicated he held on.

With the excuse of dealing with a traffic ticket that had been given to Ronald's mother for parking the motorcycle wrong during the fair, he asked for a meeting and they met in person.

After talking about the complaint, Jairo threw the bluff.

This is how he reproduces the conversation they had.

"How much money did you give Ronald the other night?" Ventured the father, not knowing if they really had left for the transaction.

-I gave him 1,900 euros, -answered

El Chule

.

-Insurance?

-Yes, yes, I picked it up and then left it 20 meters from your house.

-Well, if you notice anything about Ronald, let me know, because he's missing.

-How?

asked

El Chule,

apparently surprised.

Jairo found it unlikely that something had happened to his son, big and brave, on that 20-meter journey to his home.

"I thought he had something to do with the loss of Ronald, but not that he had killed him," she says now.

In the pockets

On September 20, the police called Jairo to inform him of the discovery of the body.

He only had one question in mind.

-How much money did he have in his pockets?

"I can't tell you ..." replied the agent with whom he spoke.

-More than a thousand euros?

she insisted.

Ronald had 150 euros in his wallet, enough proof for Jairo that

El Chule was

lying.

So he made it known to the Police.

He called him again days later, again with the excuse of the fine.

"Due to the circumstances, due to the appearance of your son's corpse, it is better that we never see each other again," says Jairo who told him.

El Chule

never picked up the phone again.

The case is now pending a trial date.

The defense of

El Chule

, who is in provisional prison, asks for a sentence of ten months in prison for murder with the mitigating circumstances of outburst and insurmountable fear.

The victim's family wants him to be sentenced to 25 years in prison for murder.

"We have requested murder based on the shape and consistency of the weapon used, the speed of the attack, the forcefulness of the attack and the impossibility of defending the victim," explains

Emilio López Izquierdo

, the lawyer representing the Arcos family.

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