Aahana Swrup
In presenting a harrowing story about a real-life unresolved tragedy ‘Someone Has to Know’ takes a dramatizing approach. The series fictionalizes versions of real-life people and events to tell the story about a young man in Chile who disappeared seemingly into thin air. Julio Montoya Font goes out clubbing with his friends, but never makes it back home. In the aftermath, his family, made up of mother Vanessa and brother Eric, must hold the authorities accountable and demand answers for an otherwise dead-end case.
In the story, Chief Montero and his team of detectives, which includes a young cop named Julian Carrasco from Santiago, arrive at the local town two weeks after Julio’s initial disappearance. However, the investigation keeps them in the area well into a year as the mystery builds and builds, but without any explanations. The show’s depiction of the police investigation into Julio’s case mirrors the real-life unraveling of the Jorge Matute Johns case, which was opened in 1999 and remains unsolved at the time of writing. As such, some sliver of realism inevitably remains attached to the characters helming the on-screen investigation.
Chief Montero is a Fictional Character Whose Investigation Finds a Basis in Real-Life
Despite retaining notable inspiration in the real-life criminal case of Jorge Matute Johns, ‘Someone Has to Know’ maintains a clear distance from the biographical tag. One of the ways the show ensures this is by fictionalizing the characters in its story, swapping out the real-life individuals’ actual names for fabricated ones. Reportedly, part of the reason behind this change stems from the opposition Jorge Matute Johns’ real-life family has to the show’s production. As such, instead of direct depictions of the real people involved in the real case, the show ends up presenting slightly fictionalized counterparts. This is significantly true for Chief Montero, the detective who is transferred from Santiago to helm the Montoya case. However, the character’s closest point of resemblance isn’t one of the detectives involved in the real-life case.
The Jorge Matute Johns case has charted a tumultuous journey from November 1999, the time of the victim’s disappearance, to the present day. Over the years, many detectives and law enforcement officers have undertaken the investigation with varying results. However, these investigators largely remain out of the global public eye. Yet, one concerned party’s real-life influence on the case presents a considerable parallel to the on-screen narrative of Montero. In the Jorge Matute Johns case, Carola Rivas, a visiting minister, took over the investigation in November 2014. In the next couple of years, he investigated new witnesses and detained two suspects, Cristian Montes, connected to the nightclub from where Jorge went missing, and his partner, Cherie. Eventually, these two individuals were released with no conviction in the murder case.
It was during Rivas’ control over the investigation that a new report confirmed traces of a new drug in the victim’s system, pitching the theory of death via pentobarbital poisoning. However, the minister has still not been able to solve the case fully and bring convictions for the crime. Admittedly, there are a number of differences between Rivas and Montero, including their glaringly distinct involvement in the timeline of the off-screen and on-screen case. Even so, many of the investigative beats of Montero’s storyline find a counterpart in the actual investigation into Jorge’s case. Similarly, the fictitious detective’s dramatized storyline finds a natural parallel in the real-life investigations that took place before Rivas’ arrival. As such, the character proves to be a conglomerate of multiple off-screen influences.
Det. Carrasco and His Colleagues Parallel the Real Santiago Homicide Brigade
In the show, Montero brings a group of detectives with him whose sole dedication is reserved for the investigation into Julio’s case. One of these officers is Carrasco, who eventually works within an undercover capacity. He assimilates with the local youth population, who are peers of Julio, and subsequently more likely to be witnesses, accessories, or even perpetrators. In real life, it’s difficult to find a direct parallel for this character in the limited reports available about the Jorge Matute Johns case. Yet, given the scale of the operation, it’s entirely plausible for some undercover work to have taken place over the course of the multi-year investigation.
However, Carrasco and his colleagues highlight a notable aspect of the real-life investigation into the missing-person-turned-murder case. Reportedly, after Carola Rivas took over the case, a simultaneous investigation progressed in Santiago, Chile, by the Homicide Brigade. Under this investigation, several interrogations took place. Since ‘Someone Has to Know’ coalesces multiple years of investigation into the Jorge Matute Johns case into little over a year, the different beats of official investigative work also get compressed within one group. Detective Carrasco and his squad are representative of the same fictionalized amalgamation that is used to highlight realistic beats of the real-life investigations without directly recreating them.
Read More: Is Vanessa Based on Jorge Matute’s Real Mother? Where is Maria Teresa Johns Today?
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