Kriti MehrotraIt was in September 1990 when everything turned upside down for the Morales family as 17-year-old Maria Soledad Morales was found dead in a ditch in one of the worst ways imaginable. As explored in Netflix’s ‘Breaking the Silence: The Maria Soledad Case,’ they never imagined they would have to deal with such an ordeal, mainly since they hail from a relatively small town, but they did, and it shattered their hearts. Though, as per reports, this was especially painful for her parents – Ada and Elías Morales.
Maria Hailed From an Ordinary, Working Class Background
While it’s unclear precisely when Ada came across Elías, fell in love, and tied the knot with him, we do know they were happily married with a family of their own by the time the late 1990s rolled around. In fact, while she primarily served as a homemaker and he was a government employee until he had to quit and live off of opening for their own to provide for their 7 kids. “She was very sweet, very respectful, almost timid,” Ad once said. “She was not an exceptional student, but she applied herself well. Everyone always said I had such a lovely girl.”
Ada and Elias live in a modest house on the outskirts of the city, as the latter was on disability from the provincial highway department, but they were happy until Mari suddenly disappeared. According to the former, it wasn’t like her daughter to go out on the weekends or leave someplace without informing them, but she was out on a fateful day as it was a school event. That”s why they had even allowed her to spend the night at a friend’s place, with the teen promising she would return home the following day by 4 pm.
Therefore, when Maria failed to show up at the promised time, and they learned from her friend’s that she had indeed changed her plan, Ada and Elias knew something was terribly wrong. They thus spent the entire weekend searching for her before showing up at her school, too, in the hopes of learning some extra information from her classmates who were there that fateful night. But alas, before he could get any answers, he got a call that a girl’s body had been found – he was asked to identify her since she had been so badly mutilated she was unrecognizable, so he did so with a scar on her hand.
Maria’s Parents Continued to Fight for Justice
The fact Maria’s funeral fell on her 18th birthday was both ironic and heartbreaking for her parents as they couldn’t even imagine saying goodbye to her, but they knew they had to. They also wanted justice for their little girl, so while they heard rumors and were sure of what had happened within days, they kept things rilled by participating in silent marches and even addressing the president for help. Ultimately, they did receive it, but it was quite complex because they did not believe everyone responsible was apprehended. Only two people were convicted, but it is believed there were other accomplices, too.
Therefore, despite the years to go by, Ada and Elias continued talking about their daughter’s case not just in the hopes of maybe getting her true justice one day but also opening up the conversation to the concept of femicide. The former, in particular, has since seemingly become involved as an advocate for abuse victims, all the while continuing to reside in the home she and her husband had built for themselves on the outskirts of Catamarca, Argentina. As for Elias, he unfortunately passed away back in 2017, two decades after his daughter’s killers were convicted and sentenced.
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