Tucumán authorities detain four relatives after baby found dead in irrigation canal

Authorities in Tucumán, Argentina, have detained four family members following the death of an eighteen-month-old boy, Brandon Eliseo Rearte. The child was found dead in an irrigation canal in the Marapa locality, within the Juan Bautista Alberdi department, after a search operation involving police, firefighters, and local residents.

The Homicide Unit of the Concepción Judicial Center, led by prosecutor Luciana Cecoti, is investigating the case as a ‘death of doubtful circumstances’. The four individuals taken into preventive custody include the child's parents, Michel Aylen Chumba (20) and Fabio Antonio Rearte (24), an aunt, Micaela Luciana Rearte (28), and her partner, Víctor Gustavo Cabana (43).

While one preliminary hypothesis suggests the child may have accidentally fallen into the canal and been carried by the current, investigators are awaiting autopsy results to determine the exact cause of death. Forensic teams, including criminalistics and legal medicine specialists, have processed the scene to reconstruct the events.