“You have already put the authorities on alert (…) and what they are going to achieve is that her body is going to be found in an alley.” That was one of the last warnings that Edgar Cordón received while trying to negotiate the release of his daughter. Litzy Amelia Cordónkidnapped on October 5, 2020 in Teculután, Zacapa.
A day later, the body of the young woman, 20 years old, was located among bushes in the Los Pasitos hamlet, in Los Puentes, Teculután.
Five years later, during the trial taking place in the High Risk Court B against Kevin Manolo Rivas Cordón, Litzy’s cousin and the only defendant in the case, the father recalled the calls the family received and the warning the kidnappers gave to prevent them from going to the security forces.
“That’s where the ordeal began”
Edgar Cordón recalled the kidnapping that occurred around 7:30 a.m. on October 5, 2020.
He reported that he returned to his home after leaving for a field where he was working with some people. When he arrived, his mother informed him that they had received a call.
“They told me that Litzy, the girl, has been kidnapped and that they are asking for a ransom of Q5 million,” he recalled.
Shortly after, calls started coming directly to the family’s phone.
Cordón assured that the speaker identified himself as a negotiator of the kidnapping and demanded immediate payment of the money.
“They were adamant that we pay them that money (…) because if not they were going to take her life,” he commented.
The kidnappers’ warning
The family decided to go to the National Civil Police and the Public Ministry to report the kidnapping and shortly afterward they received other calls.
At that time, the PNC Anti-Kidnapping Command was with Litzy’s family, but the authorities made a mistake: they activated an Isabel-Claudina alert due to the disappearance of the case, said one of those in charge of the investigation.
“When a kidnapping is reported, a missing persons alert should not be activated, for protocol and the safety of the victim,” said the MP source, who preferred not to be cited for this article.
That alert was made public and the neighbors began looking for the young university student.
The call that the Cordón family received after 4 p.m. was to tell them to no longer continue with the negotiation, because Litzy was going to die.
“What they are going to achieve is that her body is going to be found in an alley and such was what happened, that unfortunately the next day, on the 6th, Litzy’s body was found,” recalled the victim’s father.
The alert of a corpse in the bushes
On the morning of October 6, 2020, investigators notified the Anti-Kidnapping Command about the location of a body in Teculután.
“Unfortunately it was hers,” Litzy’s father said.
Cordón reported that he found his daughter “face up and among the mountains.”
“It was too difficult to witness that (…) I couldn’t stand it, I had to move from there,” he said.
The opinion of the National Institute of Forensic Sciences established that Litzy had bruises, signs of having been restrained by force and sexual abuse. The cause of death was asphyxiation due to strangulation.
The trial against Litzy’s cousin
The Public Ministry maintains that Litzy’s kidnapping and murder was planned and executed by Kevin Manolo Rivas Cordón, the victim’s cousin.
During the trial, the accused denied the accusations and assured that another cousin, Andy Cordón, confessed to having participated in the kidnapping and murder of the young university student.
Andy Cordón died violently. According to a report from the Volunteer Firefighters, he was murdered on January 14, 2023.
Investigators link him to the same criminal structure identified in the investigations into the death of relatives and friends of Kevin Rivas.
The judges’ journey
On May 19, 2026, judges of the High Risk Court B They visited the places linked to the investigation of the case in Teculután, Zacapa.
The procedure began at the home of Litzy’s aunt, in the Barranca Seca hamlet, where the young woman left on the morning of the kidnapping.
Then they visited the house under construction in the La Colina hamlet, Vega del Cobán village, where Litzy arrived every day to water plants and flowers around the house that she would inherit from her grandmother, who raised her.
The judges also inspected the place where Litzy’s motorcycle was located and the Los Pasitos hamlet, in Los Puentes, where the young woman’s body was found on October 6, 2020.
During the diligence, neighbors and family accompanied the tour and demanded justice for the crime.
