Romero left, at approximately 4:30 a.m. of the same day, March 20, 1999, Walter Munárriz remained at the police station in the custody of the State.14 35. Since then, there has been no word as to his fate or whereabouts. 36. Marcos Leónidas Sierras Tueros, who on the day of the events was detained at the Lircay police station, told personnel of the Office of the People’s Defender that early in the morning on that day, he heard the cries of a person saying “don’t hit me anymore,” and was able to distinguish the voices of the aggressors as noncommissioned officers Cuaresma Ramos and Ángeles Ramos as the aggressors. He added that he and Raúl Donayres Huamán, were coerced into declaring to the Provincial Prosecutor and to any other official that nothing had happened that morning.15 According to the report of the Office of the People’s Defender, “Raúl Donayres Huamán, who was detained until March 25, at one point in time approached the Office’s driver and told him that he wanted to provide information on the facts, and that he would telephone him […], since he did not feel safe in that city, and quickly added that on the day of the events, he heard moans coming from the Prevention Office, and that noncommissioned PNP SO2 Cuaresma Ramos was an arrogant, short-tempered person.”16 The Commission does not have any information as to whether the Office of the People’s Defender subsequently interviewed Raúl Donayres Huamán. 37. In an interview with the Human Rights Commission (COMISEDH), Mrs. Gladys Escobar, the mother of the alleged victim, stated that on that same day of March 20, 1999, between 8:00 and 8:30 in the morning, as she was walking to work, she encountered the brother of the owner of “Los Manolos” Hotel, who informed her that her son Walter Munárriz Escobar had been detained in the early morning hours, but that “they must have released him,” he said, because my sister Maura did not press charges against him because she knows him.”17 During that same interview, Mrs. Escobar said that at two o’clock in the afternoon of that same day, when she could not find her son, she imagined that he must have gone with his two younger brothers to Huancavelica. At midnight when her two younger sons returned without Walter, Mrs. Escobar Candiotti, together with another older son, “went to make inquiries, we asked his friends, and even asked people in the area of the police station and nobody had seen him, my son had vanished, and so, even more worried, I went back to the police and said sir, I cannot find my son anywhere.” Mrs. Escobar explained that at the police station, they told her that her son had left there at 5 a.m. and she asked if she could look around the station, where she found two persons in detention, but not her son. 18 The State did not dispute either the fact that Walter Munárriz Escobar’s mother had appeared in person at the Lircay police station or her account of what she had been told. 38. The State said that two persons, Juan Martín Silva González and Lucinda Ponce Saforas, saw Walter Munárriz Escobar in the vicinity of the Lircay police station at around 5:15 a.m. on that Saturday March 20, 1999. Both persons gave a statement to the judicial authorities. Although in its judgment of May 25, 2004, the Huancavelica Joint Superior Court referred to those testimonies as “exonerating” evidence, the Commission takes note that the same Court had previously dismissed it. The Superior Court, in its judgment of February 15, 2001, stated: […] the exonerating testimonies […] do not have a basis in truth, as it is neither homogeneous, consistent, nor uniform […] has been completely discredited with the judicial inspection on page five hundred fifty-one, in which, based on the principle of immediacy, it was categorically demonstrated that it is materially impossible to distinguish and identify a person from the distance indicated by the witnesses in question […]. 19 14 Annex 3. Copy of the judgment of May 25, 2004. Annex to State Memorandum No. 7-5-M/066 of February 9, 2006. 15 Annex 5, Preliminary report of the Office of the People’s Defender. Annex to the initial petition. 16 Annex 6, Report of the Office of the People’s Defender of March 29, 1999. Annex 20 of the initial petition. 17 Annex 7. COMISEDH interview with Mrs. Gladys Escobar Candiotti on April 29, 1999. Annex 39 the initial petition. 18 Annex 7. COMISEDH interview with Mrs. Gladys Escobar Candiotti on April 29, 1999. Annex 39 the initial petition. 19 Annex 8. Judgment of February 15, 2001. Annex to State Communication. Note No. 7-5-M/066 of February 9, 2006 7