Facundo Macarrón spoke after the trial of his father for the crime of Nora Dalmasso: “Our great fear is that he may be imprisoned”

Marcelo Macarrón, a widower of Nora Dalmasso - who was murdered 15 years ago in her home in an exclusive country in the city of Río Cuarto, in Cordoba - began to be tried on Monday as the alleged mastermind of the murder of his wife in the oral court of his city, Rio Cuarto. His son, the 32-year-old diplomat Facundo Macarrón, who lives abroad, arrived in the country with his sister Valentina in recent days to accompany him in the process.

Coming out of the first day of the trial, Macarrón Jr. said that he is afraid that his father will be arrested: “It is our great fear, and the reason why we are so distressed. Of course he can be imprisoned. He was very distressed this weekend: he is a man who lost his wife, then they imputed me and now him.” He also trusted that his dad is on medication.

Sources close to the family assured Infobae that Facundo plans to testify as a witness next week. Also, that Marcelo himself would agree to be asked in the first hearings of the process “if he feels good in health”. Several of Dalmasso's friends who were summoned could also give their statement.

This morning, in a voice message sent to Radio Cadena 3, the young man - who was also charged in the case and later dismissed - again held the innocence of his father.

“We are in Rio Cuarto. We came a few days ago to accompany Dad in this hard time that we have to face as a family and we will stay to accompany him and also to testify as witnesses,” he said. “We are confident that everything will work out, we trust that both the judges and the popular juries will hand down a fair sentence that contemplates the innocence of our father in this process full of irregularities that has been without knowing who mom's murderer is, the real culprit, who is on the loose for more than 15 years.”

His father, Marcelo Macarrón, who was in Punta del Este playing golf the night of his wife's murder, is accused of hiring a hit man to kill Nora.

The court of Rio Cuarto, which will be judging him from Monday at 10 am, is composed of technical judges Daniel Antonio Vaudagna; Natacha Irina García, member of the Chamber; and Gustavo José Echenique Esteve, Judge of Criminal Execution. There are eight popular juries (four women and four men) and the prosecutor is Julio Marcelo Rivero. More than 300 people, including family members, friends of the victim and the accused, residents of the Villa Golf neighborhood, police officers and experts, were summoned to testify as part of the trial.

Prosecutor Luis Pizarro, the fifth and last of those investigated throughout the judicial process, closed the investigation in September 2019 and submitted the file to trial with the widower Macarrón as the only accused.

For Pizarro, the motive for the crime of “Norita” was motivated by “marital disagreements and economic issues”.

The body of Nora Dalmasso (51) - strangled in a mixed maneuver with a bow and hands - was found in the early morning of November 26, 2006 in her house in the exclusive Villa Golf neighborhood of Río Cuarto, in the south of the province of Córdoba, where she lived with traumatologist Macarrón, with whom she had two children, Facundo, who at the time lived in the capital, and Valentina, who was traveling at that time.

During the investigation, several hypotheses were followed, such as crime during a sexual game, sexual abuse followed by death, femicide and murder on commission, while experts determined that Nora died of asphyxiation and her half-naked body lay on her daughter's bed.

In the course of the case, in addition to the widower, the former adviser to the Government of Cordoba Rafael Magnasco, the painter Gastón Zárate and Facundo Macarrón were charged, although all of them were eventually dismissed.

The main element used to accuse his son and then the widower, who always acknowledged that before traveling he had sexual relations with his wife, was that experts found at the crime scene the genetic pattern of the Macarrón lineage (haplotype Y).

Macarrón was prosecuted in March 2016 by former prosecutor Daniel Miralles, who initially questioned the alibi he was at a golf tournament in Punta del Este when the murder occurred and charged him with “homicide qualified by the bond” alone.

When prosecutor Pizarro took over the case, he changed the hypothesis and considered that the widower hired a hit man to kill his wife while he was absent on his trip to Uruguay.

The crime for which he is accused is homicide qualified by the bond, alevosia, and price or remuneratory promise of his wife, as an “instigator”, which provides for life imprisonment.

The room where the trial will take place was opened shortly before 10 am on Monday with the arrival of the first lawyers. The defendant and his defense are expected to arrive shortly.

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