54 276. In the investigation into the death of Eduardo José Landaeta Mejías, the Commission notes that numerous irregularities were committed. The following merit notice: The authorities responsible for the investigation had no knowledge of the facts they were investigating nor of steps that had already been taken. The ignorance regarding the facts that were the subject of the investigation was such that, on two occasions – August 13, 1998 and March 2, 1999 – the authorities charged with the investigation issued orders that the deceased Eduardo José Landaeta be summoned to make a statement regarding what happened. This ignorance led to time spent in requesting and repeating tests that were already in the file, such as seeking information regarding the duties of officers Carlos Andrés Requena, Carlos Alexander Rojas, and Freddy Antonio Blanco, and seeking information regarding the criminal and police record of Eduardo José Landaeta. This ignorance is also evident in the fact that on November 7, 2005 the Transitory Prosecutor’s Office sent an official letter to the Maracay Medical Center asking for information regarding the medical care given by the so-called “Doctor Freddy Blanco,” who was actually one of the police officers investigated for having been part of the CSOP team that was to effect the transfer of Eduardo Landaeta to the CTPJ. On two occasions, six months apart, on August 13, 1998 and March 2, 1999, the Municipal Court issued the same order initiating the summary investigation. There have been extended periods of inactivity throughout the investigation. The file indicates that in some cases these periods of inactivity have lasted for up to three years. At other times, the inactivity has been due to delays in forwarding the file between prosecutors’ offices and judicial authorities who have heard the matter. An example of this is the six month delay in returning the file to the Transitory Prosecutor’s Office once the decision was made to reject the petition for dismissal on January 26, 2005. Inactivity during extended periods meant that an excessive amount of time was taken up asking for vitally important tests. Examples are the request to expand the autopsy eight years after it was performed, the request regarding the bullet trajectory eight years after the fact, and the request to exhume the body of Eduardo José Landaeta ten years after his death, despite the fact that the precariousness of the autopsy protocol was known from the outset of the investigation. The deleterious effects of the passage of time on the ability to seek certain evidence was obvious in the request made on February 26, 2004 regarding the emergency care provided by the Maracay Medical Center, when the center’s Director responded by indicating that they only kept records for five years. Some witnesses that seemed connected to the events from the start of the investigation were summoned to make statements between eight and ten years later. This is true of Officers Samuel Uzcátegi and Yasmira Thais Díaz. Many of the few measures sought and actually carried out by the respective institutions were designed to determine the victim’s police and criminal records. There were irregularities in the safeguarding of evidence essential to determining the facts. This was the case with the photographs taken of the visual inspection of the corpse of Eduardo José on the day he died, which were lost and could not be included in the file. Fifteen years after these events occurred, tests essential for determining the truth and assigning responsibility have not been conducted. This was recognized by the Fourth Court on November 9, 2004 in rejecting the petition for dismissal, precisely because vitally important technical evidence had not been produced. These omissions were also recognized by the Office of the Senior Prosecutor on July 14, 2005. Logical lines of investigation that were essential for determining the facts were not followed. For example, no investigative measure was taken regarding the death threats previously received by Eduardo José and his family. In addition, there was no investigation of the repeated assertions made by Eduardo José’s parents to the effect that a female officer at the Central