THE ROJAS CASE
Introduction
Since forensic science studies are in a move, there have been ancient times since its importance was to be proven. Fingerprints have been a major individualization characteristic which extremely contributes for proving one’s identity and also how humans are unique from each other. Fingerprints have been the proof of an individual’s identity in China perhaps as early as 300 B.C. followed by Japan, India and many other parts of the world. The first ever crime to be solved using the fingerprints was in the town of Necochea near Buenos Aires, Argentina in the year 1892. Let’s dive back to the time to find out how the criminal was tracked using the not-so-believable the then fingerprint evidence.
Incident
A family of three, Francisca Rojas and her children Ponciano Carbello Rojas and Teresa Carbello Rojas lived in the town of Necochea near Buenos Aires, Argentina. Francisca was a single mother and had hardships in managing her life alone. To accompany her was her lover. She dreamt of a happy family with her children and her lover.
On 19th June, 1892, Francisca’s children were found dead in their house. Next day, the police officials reported the crime scene and the interrogation begin soon. It was claimed by Francisca that they were attacked by her neighbour, Pedro Ramón Velázquez. The bodies of her children had succumbed injuries and that Francisca also had a cut on her throat. She blamed Pedro because she contended the fact that Pedro was jealous of her lover. She told the police that Pedro wanted to marry her in the past to which she refused and as revenge, he murdered the children.
Police interrogation
Pedro was arrested after Francisca accused him for the murder of her children. The police and the local authorities brutally beat Pedro trying to institute a confession for the murder. Even after a lot of questioning and interrogation, no confession was established by Pedro.
Parallel inventions of fingerprints
Juan Vucatich, a leading fingerprint researcher was employed as a statistician with the central police department located at La Plata, Argentina. For this time, he was working on his own classification system for fingerprints and recorded fingerprints of the then criminals.
Since the Rojas case was a big deal and no major clues were detected of the murder, an Inspector, Eduardo Alvarez was brought in from La Plata to conduct the pending investigation. As Eduardo was working at La Plata, he was aware of the fact that fingerprints might contribute to individualization of any suspect from the crime scene. He was conscious about what kind of evidences must be looked for, at the crime scene. Soon, Eduardo was taken to the crime site for a thorough search of some meaningful and important evidences. Within no time, he was able to notice bloody thumbprints on the bedroom door. Also to be brought to your knowledge, Eduardo was trained by Juan Vucatich on how to compare fingerprints. He collected the bloody print from the door and compared it with the thumbprints of Pedro and also with that of Francisca Rojas.
Confessions
Eduardo recorded the fingerprints of the suspects and compared the fingerprints of suspects with the recovered bloody thumbprint. He came to a conclusion just after he compared the prints. Francisca was called by the police officials for the declaration of truth. When she was confronted by the officials and was told that her thumbprints perfectly matched with the recovered bloody thumbprint from the crime scene, within a moment, she confessed for the crime she had committed.
In her defense earlier, Francisca informed the police officers that she didn’t even touch the bodies of her children. She later declared that Pedro was innocent and that she has committed the murder of her children just to improve the slightest chances of getting married to her lover. As her lover was always dismissal of her children and had a condition to accept her only without the children, she decided to get rid of them. She also confessed that the cut on her throat was self-inflicted. Later, it was found that Pedro have had an alibi and was not guilty of the accused charges.
Verdict
Francisca Rojas was pressed with the charges of murder of both her children and was sentenced to imprisonment of life.
Conclusion
The Rojas case became a classic and the first ever criminal case to be solved using the fingerprint evidence. Fingerprints were the only valuable piece of evidence at the crime scene that led to the confession of the murders. Also Argentina becomes the first country to rely solely on fingerprints for the identification and individualization of any person.
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