the company to another location and the body of Óscar Tabares remained in the village of Toledo. 30 This version was repeated by another soldier on January 27, 2003, and July 2, 2003, 31 and this soldier added that the day after the events, a group of soldiers went back to the place where they had been encamped, but they didn’t find anything. However, he stated that he went to the village a couple of days later and that a villager told him the body of Óscar Tabares was “on the lower side of the path” and that “[...] yesterday they buried it on the pipeline side about 20 meters below the path.” 32 44. In March of 1998, María Elena Toro, her husband Holmar Gallego, and her brother Iván Toro went to San Juanito, Meta. On that visit, the locals told them that on the night of December 28, 1997, there was an explosion, then some shots fired, and that by the morning the troops had left. They also said that they had not seen anyone escape and had not seen any cadavers. From there, they also went to the place where the “Tigre” Company had been encamped in order to inspect it. There they found a buried canvas tent—of which Ms. Toro later gave a piece to the Prosecutor's Office 33—about two meters long, stained with blood and perforated by splinters, and they also found the underclothes of Óscar Tabares inside his quarters. While they were there, in response to a tip from a local, they went to a ravine where they found a camouflaged military uniform that was bloody, damaged, and missing the name, but they left it where they had found it. 34 45. In her search for information on her son’s whereabouts, María Elena Toro communicated with the Inspector General’s Office, the Ombudsman's Office, the Prosecutor's Office, the National and International Red Cross, and the High Commissioner for Peace in Colombia. 35 Moreover, several domestic proceedings were initiated. Nevertheless, the whereabouts of Óscar Iván Tabares Toro—or of his remains—are still unknown today. C. Domestic proceedings C.1. Military criminal investigation of Óscar Iván Tabares Toro 46. In response to a December 29, 1997, report by the lieutenant of the “Tigre” Company, the military justice system initiated an investigation of Óscar Tabares for attempted homicide, which was to be handled by Military Criminal Court of Instruction 47. 36 On June 25, 1998, Military Criminal Court of Instruction 47 concluded that there had been a grenade explosion, a struggle between serviceman Cf. Addition to statement by María Elena Toro, February 6, 1998, supra. On January 27, 2003, and July 2, 2003, a former soldier came to the Prosecutor's Office to give his statement; he had retired from the army on December 31, 1998. In his statement, he attested that: (a) several members of the company had been removed from the army after the events and that the lieutenant of the “Tigre” Company treated the soldiers badly; (b) after the grenade explosion, shots were heard, and “the lieutenant and corporal were shooting at serviceman Tabares;” (c) the explosion was not inside the lieutenant's and corporal's quarters but rather outside “as if to scare them,��� but they were not in their quarters when it happened because they had been warned beforehand. He clarified that Tabares’s quarters were very close to those of the lieutenant and the corporal; (d) the shots were fired at Tabares, and “he yelled right after the shots rang out;” (e) the day before the events, as the lieutenant already knew what was going to happen, he “ordered his non-commissioned officers to kill Tabares and anyone who helped him;” (f) after Óscar Tabares was shot, he ran away “as if he were drunk,” passed by his quarters, got tangled up and fell, dropped a bloody grenade there, propped himself up and was smeared in blood, and then got up “and fled downhill from there;” and (g) the lieutenant and the corporal gave the order to collect the equipment and papers of serviceman Tabares. Cf. Statement record of HGC before the Prosecutor’s Office, Bogotá, on January 27, 2003 (evidence file, folios 290–299), and Addition to statement record of HGC, Bogotá, on July 2, 2003 (folios 301–310). 32 Cf. Addition to statement record of HGC, Bogotá, on July 2, 2003, supra. 33 On October 31, 2011, a report confirmed that María Elena Toro had turned over a piece of green cloth to the investigators at the Prosecutor's Office as part of the civilian criminal proceedings. That piece was sent to the Technical Information Unit (CTI) of the Prosecutor’s Office to be analyzed, but the results were inconclusive. Cf. Report No. 638759 by a criminal investigator of the Prosecutor General of the Nation on October 31, 2011 (evidence file, folios 3136–3164); Statement and records of Specialized Prosecutor 20 of the National Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Unit, December 5, 2011, and March 20, 2012 (evidence file, folios 3166–3168); and Genetics Expert Report No. 685393GE of June 20, 2012 (evidence file, folios 3170–3173). 34 Cf. Statement of María Elena Toro before the Court at public hearing, supra, and Statement of María Elena Toro before the Regional Prosecutor's Office, November 17, 1998, supra. 35 Cf. Statement of María Elena Toro before the Court at public hearing, supra. 36 Cf. Decision of Military Criminal Court of Instruction 47 of June 25, 1998, supra. 30 31 11