2 II. PROCEEDINGS BEFORE THE COMMISSION 5. The Inter-American Commission registered the petition under number P-247-07 and transmitted the relevant sections thereof to the State on April 17, 2008, granting it a period of two months to present information, in keeping with Article 30.3 of the Rules of Procedure of the IACHR. The State, by note of May 27, 2008, requested an extension of that deadline, which was granted by the IACHR on June 3, 2008. Subsequently, on October 17, 2008, the State’s reply was received. 6. During the processing of the complaint, communications were received from the petitioners on September 17, 2009, and March 18, 2010; these were transmitted to the State, respectively, on September 21, 2009, and April 5, 2010, for its observations. 7. For its part, the State presented communications on November 10, 2009, and May 21, III. POSITIONS OF THE PARTIES A. Position of the petitioners 2010. 8. The petitioners state that on January 10, 2004, Ms. Zoila Chimbó took her son, Mr. Luis Eduardo Guachalá Chimbó, to the Julio Endara public psychiatric hospital in the city of Quito (hereinafter also “the hospital”), where he was admitted after exhibiting physical and verbal aggressiveness, impulsive and argumentative behavior, insomnia, muteness, hallucinatory behavior, and convulsions. At the time of his admission, Mr. Guachalá Chimbó was 24 years old. 9. Two days later, on January 12, Ms. Zoila Chimbó returned to the hospital to visit her son; but he was not in the bed assigned to him or in any of the other places in the hospital where she was told he could be. Finally, the doctor assigned to his case allegedly told his mother that visiting him at that time was not advisable in that it could provoke anxiety attacks because he was recently admitted. On January 13, 15, and 16, Ms. Zoila Chimbó allegedly held telephone conversations with the doctor in charge of her son’s treatment, and on all three occasions the doctor allegedly assured her that Mr. Guachalá Chimbó was doing well. 10. On January 18, Ms. Zoila Chimbó returned to the hospital to visit her son and the doctor on duty allegedly told her that he had disappeared the previous day, January 17, 2004, at approximately 3:30 p.m.. The petitioners state that on that day another patient approached Ms. Zoila Chimbó and told her that her son had suffered a heart attack during Mass. 11. The petitioners allege that Mr. Luis Eduardo Guachalá Chimbó disappeared, that the Julio Endara Hospital has not issued information as to his whereabouts, and that only on January 19 did the hospital staff report the disappearance of the patient Guachalá Chimbó to the National Police. They state that Mr. Guachalá Chimbó did not leave the hospital of his own accord but, rather, was a victim of malpractice or other mistreatment and that the alleged facts have been concealed. 12. The petitioners state that on January 21, 2004, the mother of the alleged victim submitted a complaint of forced disappearance to the Judicial Police of Pichincha, which was later set aside by the inspector’s office in charge of the investigation, on August 29, 2005. In addition, on November 22, 2004, a writ of habeas corpus was pursued with the mayor of the Metropolitan Municipality of Quito; no reply was received from that official. Therefore, on April 19, 2005, considering the lack of response from the Mayor’s Office, the denial of habeas corpus was appealed to the Constitutional Tribunal; on July 6, 2006, the Tribunal ruled that an investigation for the purpose of locating a disappeared person cannot be closed until the case has been resolved. 13. The petitioners state that, despite this decision by the Constitutional Tribunal, the inspector’s office in charge of the investigation has issued no findings, the investigation has not progressed,