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[REVISION HISTORY]

Remains of missing Quito student Lizeth Bunshi identified

Updated 4 times since CLSTR started tracking revisions of this situation.

What changed

2026-08-26 04:28 UTC → 2026-08-27 01:23 UTC · added removed

Investigators continue the search for missing Quito student Lizeth Bunshi, who vanished on 18 July 2026. After the rescue of Doménica Palacios, authorities reconstructed Bunshi’s last movements: she left her El Tingo home with boyfriend Darío, took a taxi to a bar in San Rafael, then to a hostel in Los Chillos before entering the Machángara River with suspect Cristian Villavicencio, who later emerged alone. Villavicencio remains in preventive detention for involuntary disappearance. A seven-day operation led by Captain Freddy Oña of the Quito fire service has deployed fire-brigade teams, National Police, Special Operations and Intervention and Rescue units, using drones, trained dogs, aerial surveys and terrain scans. The search now covers a 135-km stretch of the Machángara River from Cumandá to the Manduriaco dam, concentrating on bends, sediment deposits and woody debris where a body could be trapped. On 31 July, relatives of Bunshi gathered outside the Fiscalía General del Estado, represented by lawyer Freddy Ron, to demand a faster, more thorough search, the addition of international forensic assistance to digitally reconstruct the incident, and formal charges against the five people who were with Bunshi on the night of her disappearance. The protest underscores growing pressure on authorities to maintain search resources and address legal questions surrounding private CCTV footage in disappearance investigations. In late August, On 25 August 2026, the Ecuadorian Prosecutor's Office confirmed that remains found in of the 28-year-old stylist were recovered from the Guápulo sector of the Machángara River belong to Bunshi. after a 37-day disappearance. Due to advanced decomposition, identification was finalized the Fiscalía General del Estado confirmed her identity via forensic dentistry, specifically noting dental orthodontic brackets. Following the recovery of While the body, autopsy has not yet provided conclusive details regarding the victim's family and lawyer Freddy Ron are seeking to reformulate charges against Villavicencio to feminicide, citing reports exact cause of death, authorities have characterized it as a dispute and aggressive behavior prior to her disappearance. “violent death.”

Versions

  1. 2026-08-27 01:23 UTC Remains of missing Quito student Lizeth Bunshi identified
  2. 2026-08-26 04:28 UTC Remains of missing Quito student Lizeth Bunshi identified
  3. 2026-08-01 03:33 UTC Quito disappearances investigations
  4. 2026-07-27 21:07 UTC Quito disappearances investigations
  5. 2026-07-26 19:18 UTC Quito disappearances investigations

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