The reasons that motivated Fernando Sierra to sexually abuse and murder 10-year-old Felipe Romero last weekend still remains a mystery. The only thing that is known at the moment is that Sierra maintained a close relationship with the child and apparently had plans of adoption.
As Felipe’s mother, Alexandra Perez told the publication El País, Sierra already had all the papers to start the procedures in adopting the child. “Juan Sosa, the technical director in Felipe’s group in the informed me that Fernando told him that he was doing the papers to adopt Felipe. I also learned that Fernando’s mother was saying that Felipe was her grandson and that soon she was going to live with them,” she revealed.
It was for that exact reason that Perez consulted a psychologist, since she felt that the relationship between the child and the coach was not appropriate especially with Felipe calling him “dad.” In fact, on July 10th, when Father’s Day is celebrated in the country, the boy sent Fernando a message saying: “Happy Father’s Day, I love you Daddy, I hope you’re always with me.”
After the psychologist advised Perez not to leave the child alone with Sierra, the mother made the decision to speak with him. “I never told Sierra that he could not see Felipe. I told him that my son was going to continue going to soccer practice, but that the psychologist advised that he should not continue to see him alone. I told him that I was going to take the child to practice not to use Whatsapp any more to communicate with my son,” Perez told El País. “He told me, ‘I understand, I understand’, but I saw that he had a horrible face. You could see in the look he gave me that he didn’t like what I said.”
Perez also said that on different occasions Sierra took the child without her consent. One day when she challenged Sierra and told him he had to respect her because she was the child’s mother, the coach burst into tears and said, “If you take Felipe away, I’ll kill myself.”
And with that statement, after kidnapping the child, he ended his life. Sierra kidnapped and murdered the young boy and then committed suicide. The young man was holding the boy, wearing no shoes, and was armed with a 22-caliber weapon, according to Lavalleja Police Chief, Eduardo Martinez.
Early in the investigation, the authorities determined that the child had been sexually abused for some time and also found that at the scene of the crime there were tranquilizers that were probably given to the child before killing him. It is expected in the following days they continue the interrogations with the relatives of both families, as well as school employees.