From the very beginning of Nora Dalmasso’s case, the local reporters have been of the opinion that it was the husband, Dr. Marcelo Eduardo Macarron, who was the mastermind behind his wife’s murder. On 26th November 2006, Nora was found dead in her daughter’s room. The killer had used the belt of her nightgown to strangle her to death. During the preliminary investigation, the medical examiners reported that the murder couldn’t have been premeditated, and that it must have been a crime of passion. Their medical evidence further established that the victim wasn’t sexually assaulted or raped before being murdered. The injuries sustained on the victim’s body didn’t show any signs of struggle or self-defense. There were no biological traces of the perpetrator on her hands or under her nails. All this evidence suggested that the act was consensual, and the victim might have known the killer.
Marcelo became The Prime Suspect
Throughout the course of the investigation, journalists in Rio Cuarto had been raising questions; if the killer was someone supposedly close to the victim, then why hadn’t they been charging the person at the top of the suspect list, the widower, Marcelo Macarron? I guess the government heard those cries and directed their full attention to framing the husband, who had remained out of the spotlight due to his political connections, power, and affluence.
The DNA evidence had been the foundation of the entire murder case from the very beginning. The belt of Nora’s robe, the alleged murder weapon, had traces of Macarron DNA, which implied that the possible killer could either be Felix, the grandfather; Marcelo, the father; or Facundo, the son. The authorities at first suspected that it was the son, and the reporters made his life a living hell, but they were obviously wrong. To bring more credibility and accuracy to the DNA analysis, the Cordoba government sent the samples of the collected DNA to the FBI’s Quantico lab, which later established that the DNA sample came from Marcelo Macarron, therefore making him the prime suspect in the case.
Some ten years after the crime was committed, Public Prosecutor Daniel Miralles, who had been newly assigned to the case, charged Marcelo with his wife’s murder. The only issue with charging him was that Marcelo had a perfect alibi. On the day of his wife’s murder, he was in Punta del Este for a golf tournament, and the investigators alleged that he booked a private plane and traveled 890 km to Rio Cuarto to kill his wife and then took another flight to Punta del Este to finish his competition. Well, it was all very far-fetched, to say the least. When Daniel Miralles failed to do any justice to the case, the state attorney’s office replaced him with another public prosecutor, Luis Pizzarro. And with a new prosecutor came a new theory. Luis accused Marcelo of being an aider and abettor. He theorized that Marcelo had hired a hitman to kill his wife after he found out about her secret lover.
During the initial investigation, the authorities had found the victim’s mobile phone with some intimate texts on it, which revealed that Nora was having an affair with her husband’s friend, Guillermo Albarracin. The investigators and the media had speculated that perhaps Marcelo had read those texts and discovered his wife’s lover, which could have provoked him to commit the crime. But what was once again wrong with this hypothesis was the fact that the forensic team had already established that it wasn’t a premeditated murder nor the work of a professional. The crime was committed in the heat of the moment or due to an argument, and yes, to say it for the hundredth time, the victim knew the killer. So once again, even though the whole town and most of the people in the media believed that it was the husband who killed Nora Dalmasso, there wasn’t enough evidence to prove it.
Marcelo Was Found Innocent
During Nora Dalmasso’s murder trial, Julio Rivero, the trial prosecutor, told the court that they hadn’t been able to gather enough evidence to assert their claims and therefore requested the judge that Marcelo be acquitted of the charge of aggravated murder against him. In 2022, some sixteen years after the crime was committed, the widower was finally able to prove his innocence and grieve for the person he had lost. Though, there are still some people out there who believe it was Marcelo who killed his wife and has been able to escape justice through his influence. However, if you really have to make a wild guess, then one can entertain the possibility that the media was right to speculate that the victim had more than one lover. On the day of Nora’s murder, both her husband and her official lover were in Uruguay for the golf tournament, which could raise the possibility that a third lover, and the possible killer, was with her on the fateful day. The police didn’t find any signs of forced entry into the house, and there were no signs of struggle, but we will never know. The public prosecutors are and have been too busy framing the construction workers, as they are soft targets and may not be able to defend themselves in the end.
Marcelo Still Lives in Rio Cuarto
As of today, Marcelo continues living in the same family house in the Villa Golf neighborhood, which he had built with his late wife, and where she was brutally murdered. In Rio Cuarto, Marcelo has worked as a traumatologist for more than 40 years, and as the sources suggest, he has finally taken retirement. After the whole fiasco, Marcelo’s son, Facundo, left the country and currently works as a diplomatic attaché abroad. Marcelo’s daughter, who had gone to the US for her studies, has settled down in the country and started a new family. Marcelo often visits them in America and loves to spend time with his grandson (Valentina’s son).
