Colombian Father’s 30-year Pursuit of Justice for his Daughter’s Murder Finally Ends

Jaime Saade, a fugitive from Colombian justice for 30 years, was extradited from Brazil and arrived at El Dorado International Airport in Bogota, Colombia, on Thursday, April 11. The man, who was convicted in 1996 for the sexual abuse and subsequent murder of young Nancy Mestre, is now under the jurisdiction of the First Sentencing Court of his hometown, Barranquilla, where he was transferred later that day.

In the early hours of January 1, 1994, Saade, after celebrating the New Year with Mestre, his girlfriend at the time, committed the crime and managed to flee to Brazil in the following days. The murder did not go unpunished in Colombia’s judicial system, since in 1996 a judge sentenced him to 27 years in prison for the crimes.

Colombian father’s 30-year pursuit of Jaime Saade

With the perpetrator on the run, the sentence was not enforced until 2023, when, thanks to a relentless search by the young woman’s father, Martin Mestre, he and other investigators managed to locate him. Saade was hiding under the identity of Henrique Dos Santos Abdala in Belo Horizonte.

The breakthrough in the search came in late 2019 when Mestre and two investigating colonels discovered clues in chats among the criminal’s relatives. The city of Belo Horizonte was a key finding in tracking down Saade. Once located, he was followed to a bar, and after analyzing fingerprints on a glass he drank from, his identity was confirmed.

The judicial journey of Nancy Mestre’s murderer

In 2020, Saade was arrested, and his case reached the Brazilian Supreme Court, where a debate ensued over his extradition. After a long discussion of legal technicalities regarding the statute of limitations on his sentence, the court found that he was also accused of forgery and use of illegal documents. Having committed another crime, this interrupted the statute of limitations on the first. Consequently, in March 2023, the Supreme Court approved his extradition.

Jaime Saade was admitted to El Bosque Penitentiary in Barranquilla shortly after 11 pm on April 11. According to Raul Romero, the Mestre family’s lawyer, in an interview with the news program Noticias Caracol, the convicted man would only serve 16 of the 24 years to which the sentence was reduced. This is because of the time spent in detention in Brazil, in addition to the fact that only the crime of homicide was considered, and also due to the statute of limitations on his sentence.