The mother who sold her son for revenge

The mother who sold her son for revenge: The murder of Elmer in Iquitos

A mother organized the kidnapping of her own 11-year-old son, provided his school route to the captors, and when she was informed that he had been murdered, her only concern was to destroy the chips from the cell phones. On May 9, 2019, Elmer disappeared in Iquitos in what seemed to be an impossible crime: the family itself was the architect of the plan.

In this episode, we explore how Arlen designed every detail of the kidnapping, from placing contact numbers in her son's backpack the night before to withholding the ransom money while her accomplices crumbled under greed. We reconstruct the internal breakdown between Lester, Cásculo, and Belson that ended in asphyxiation, the discovery of the black sack next to the cemetery, and the coldness of a mother who never cried during the search.

Victim: Elmer (11 years)
Date: May 9, 2019
Location: Iquitos, Peru
Status: Sentenced (life imprisonment, June 2022)

- Arlen placed a phone number in Elmer's backpack the night before the kidnapping, proving premeditation of 24 hours.
- Security cameras located Lester at payphones exactly when the captors called the family.
- Arlen withheld 4,500 of 5,000 soles from the ransom, causing the financial breakdown that triggered the asphyxiation murder.
- The mother did not cry during three days of searching; the only tears came when they found the body.

Elmer, Iquitos, family murder, kidnapping, 2019, criminal minds, investigation, homicide, true crime, forensic, revenge, justice, true crime Spanish

To listen ad-free and access premium episodes, start your 30-day free trial at obomedia.com

OBOMEDIA presents true crime storiesa true crime podcast built on real cases.

Every true crime story in our crime files follows the crime investigation from the missing person report to the trial: investigators and police building a murder case, a police investigation gone cold, justice for the victim and those who survived.

We open the unsolved murder, the cold case reopened decades later, the mysterious death, the disappearance, the serial killer, the family murder, the murder mystery; the missing persons a missing woman, a missing girl, a missing man found dead and the missing and murdered.

From the infamous case to the unsolved case, from classic true crime to dark true crime and disturbing true crime: true crime reports, real crime stories, real murder cases, true murder stories and unsolved mysteries one true crime case at a time, from the OBOMEDIA true crime vault.

© 2026 Created with OBOMEDIA technology. All rights reserved. This episode and its content (audio, text and related materials) are the property of their respective creator and are distributed under the OBOMEDIA name on platforms such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and Pocket Casts. Reproduction, distribution, editing or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission is prohibited. For permissions, licensing and business inquirie