How a Trusted Relationship Turned Deadly: The Catalina Gutiérrez Case

0:00Catalina Gutierrez, a 21 year old influencer from Argentina, had no idea that she had a target on her back as she lived her final days on this earth. She met with her friends, hung out with her family, studied as an architect. All the while her time was running out. It wouldn't be long before somebody would betray her trust in the worst way possible. In a matter of hours, people began noticing her absence. Not just her family or her friends, but her thousands of followers as well.

0:33Everyone panicking, wondering what could have happened to her. By the end of the night, an abandoned car would be found, and inside it, a horrifying scene that blew this case wide open. Outlaw. Hello and welcome to Outlaw Podcast. I'm Ellen O'Neill and in today's episode, we're in Cordoba, Argentina in 2024, where a manhunt has just begun after an architecture student vanished into thin air. But Catalina Gutierrez was not your ordinary student. She actually had over 100,000 followers across her social media pages at the time. And given her online presence and the amount of people following her every move, well, it was only adding to the fear. Had an obsessed follower with ulterior motives stalked her down?

1:29Had a jealous ex seen her happy in her new relationship and wanted her all to himself? Or did the person responsible for her disappearance sit somewhere in the middle of the two? Now, before we begin, I just want to give my usual disclaimer that I mean absolutely no harm or disrespect to anyone that we talk about in today's case. Our episodes are made with the utmost care to honor those who lost their lives and respect the profound grief that their loved ones enjoy. Given the nature of today's episode, we'll be covering some very sensitive topics including assault, stalking, murder, arson, discussion of taking ones own life and gender based violence.

2:13This episode is created with the hope to raise awareness to inspire change and further Victim Support. Viewer discretion is advised. Now it's time to dive into today's case, The story of a very normal girl with quite an extraordinary life that would end far too soon. But she's so much more than the true crime case that now surrounds her. So let me introduce you to the beautiful, intelligent Catalina Gutierrez. Catalina Gutierrez was born on February 7th, 2003 in Argentina.

2:47She was the second daughter to parents Eleanora and Marcella. And she had an older sister named Lucia who was like a built in best friend for life. They were a very close, very happy family. They had a family dog that they named Kitty, and maybe I'm picking up on a joke where there isn't one, but the concept of a dog being called Kitty is really funny to me. I love names like that. I had a friend in school who named her tiny little hamster Elephant, so it just tickled me when I first read about the dog named Kitty. But my God did Catalina adore this puppy. A girl and her first pet is like one of the purest bonds that I think could ever exist.

3:27And Catalina was an incredibly loving girl. She cared for everyone and everything. So flipping much and we're skipping ahead slightly here, but eventually, when Kitty the dog passed away much later in Catalina's life, she honored their bond and their time together with a beautiful simple line work tattoo, which was just gorgeous. The Gutierrez household was a very musical one. Kata's dad played the guitar and she'd always sing along with him since she was tiny.

3:57She had a beautiful voice and she just loved to perform for people. As she got older, Catalina picked up a guitar herself. Her dad taught her to play, and she began performing her own acoustic sets in bars and restaurants. She was booked and busy. She was just one those people who made things happen for herself, even from a teenager. She had drive, she was hard working, she was ambitious. She knew that she was destined for big things. She was very much inspired by her father, who was a very successful, very well respected architect. Since she was a little girl, she wanted to be just like him. She would sit there next to him for hours and hours, just sketching out buildings alongside him as he worked. And eventually, when the time came for her to go off to university, she would follow in his footsteps, studying architecture at the age of 18.

4:51She enrolled at the University of Cordoba in 2021 for a really quite intense course in architecture. It was a lot of late nights in the library, a lot of dedication. But this is kind of what Catalina was built for. You know, both her mum and dad were grafters and she wanted to make them proud. I mean, she already was making them proud purely down to the fact that she was growing up to be a brilliant human being. Catalina was kind, respectful, confident, loving, reliable.

5:21She really was everything that you would hope for your daughter to grow up and be. She maintained her passion for music throughout uni and of course when TikTok became a thing later on in her life, she would post her singing videos on there where she gained a pretty solid audience. We're talking over 100K followers on Instagram. I don't think she ever really intended on gaining that many followers. They just kind of found her. But people tuned in to watch her live her life and share her passions, her music, the architecture that she would visit and document just because they really liked her.

5:57Catalina ended up getting a few different brand deals, she would get things gifted from local companies and this was really exciting because she'd managed to make her her passions and her posting a little part time income to support her through uni, literally just by posting what made her happy. During this time, Catalina had been dating a boy from her hometown, but their relationship ended towards the end of 2022, when she would have been about 19 years old.

6:25I mean, at that age, you're changing so much in such a short space of time that relationships do tend to take a hit. You outgrow one another and instead you require someone who's more suited for the past that you're heading down. I mean, you don't require anyone, but you know what I mean? If you want a partner, it's got to be a bit more reliant to the newer version of you. So then halfway through 2023, Kata would have been 20 years old now when a new man entered her life.

6:53Well, he wasn't exactly new. His name was Ezekiel Garcia, known as Zaza. They'd met in uni and they'd been friends this whole time, but Zaza had a huge crush on Catalina practically from the moment that they met. It was like a slow burn, yearning crush. He was besotted by Miss Gutierrez, but obviously this whole entire time she'd had a boyfriend. But once that was no longer the case, Ezekiel shot his shot, shooted his shot. They dated casually for a while and by March 2024 Catalina was 21 years old and the two of them were in a committed relationship.

7:31Catalina had also gained this solid trio friend group there at uni. It was Kata and a girl named Ornella and a boy named Nestor and they were all on the same architecture course so it was quite perfect. They had so much in common, they totally understood each other. They would help one another study, and then they would all go out in the evenings to let off some steam. Katta was originally the shy one in the group, but that didn't last very long. She came out of her shell very quickly with them. Or Nella was seemingly like the mom of the group, she would offer rides to the others when they needed it. And Nestor, I guess you could say he was kind of like the glue, both for their little trio but also the connector to their wider circle.

8:17He was a social butterfly, he knew so many people and he was always introducing his friends to one another. Catalina was just so happy with this little life that she was building for herself. Everything was going so well, her studies, her social media, her relationships with her friends and her boyfriend. She was just as close to her family as she'd always been since she still lived at home through university. It was all quite perfect. But obviously things didn't stay so perfect for Catalina, otherwise we wouldn't be here today telling her story.

8:51And tragically, little did she know, her time on earth was running out. In Argentina, they have an annual celebration called Dia del Amigo Day of Friends. Friends Day. It's exactly what you'd imagine, a day to celebrate your friendships. It's on July 20th. But in 2024, Catalina and her friends decided to celebrate early on July 17th. So she spent the first half of the day just chilling out. She didn't have much work or studying to do. And so she really took advantage of that rare opportunity for rest, knowing that the hangout out later was probably going to take it out of there. So Catalina and the group had planned to go bowling that night at the local shopping mall.

9:31It was going to be her, Nestor and three other friends that were part of her slightly wider circle. Around 9:00 PM, she asks her mom if she could borrow her car, and off she goes. No one had any reason to think that this might be the last time that Catalina Gutierrez was ever seen or heard from. Only two hours later, just after 11:00 PM that night, Catalinas mum Eleanora gets a call from Catas boyfriend Ezekiel. He says, look, I'm worried. I've been calling Catalina for about an hour and she's not answering. The last time that he had heard from her was at 9:22 PM, when she'd sent him a voice note basically just letting him know that she was about to go and meet her friends. You know, just the usual update.

10:14She even told him that she was going to be leaving her car near his apartment to avoid the insane parking charges at the mall. But since then, she'd gone radio silent. And the fact that her boyfriend picked up on how odd this was within just two hours is really quite impressive. That is a man who knows his partner. He knows her patterns. He knows it's odd for her to not be in touch, or maybe he got a bad feeling about something. Even though it had only been an hour and a half since anyone had heard from her.

10:45Everyone was starting to worry now because she wasn't picking up her phone to anyone. Not her boyfriend, not her mum, not her sister Lucia. And it was ringing. It wasn't switched off, it wasn't out of battery like it was ringing all the way through to voicemail. She just wasn't picking it up. So her family immediately get Lucia to trace Catalina using her phones GPS location. Luckily it was switched on, but it revealed that she wasn't actually at the mall as per her plan.

11:13For the last 35 minutes, Catalina had seemingly just been at someones house and Lucia recognized the address as that of Katta's best friend, Nestor. Obviously this was a huge relief. She was with someone that she trusted, in a safe place that she'd been many times before. I mean, it was weird that she wasn't picking up her phone, but maybe they were all watching a movie or something. Maybe she'd left her phone in a different room in order to ease their minds. Eleanora pulled up Nestor's contact and began writing a text to him asking if Catalina was there and if she was OK. But halfway through writing this text, she thought it was just easy, easier to just call him and get immediate answers. He picked up and Eleanora began asking about Kata, but Nestor actually said that she wasn't there. In fact, he had no idea where she was. He said that they yeah, they were meant to meet up at the bowling alley, but Catalina had been a no show. She ghosted the rest of the friend group and never turned up to the plans.

12:10He reassured Eleonora that he was just as confused and concerned about the situation. He'd been trying to get a hold of her too, texting her for an hour prior when she failed to turn up saying what's up girl? And after no reply to that, he sent another text saying we're not doing anything. As it approached 10:00 PM, an hour after their planned meeting time, Nestor ended up texting another one of their friends that they were supposed to meet saying dude it's cancelled.

12:35I think too many people are upset. To which the friend said, oh really? But we were going to get together dude. While Dia del Amigo wasn't exactly a public holiday, it was still very widely celebrated, and the fact that everyone had made plans and they'd fallen through last minute left a lot of people disappointed, including Nestor himself. 10 minutes later, he sent another text to one of the groups saying, I'm leaving, man. Katta stood me up. And then he sent a voice note to another friend saying, hey, dude, I'm really pissed off. I don't know what's up.

13:07Like, no, she just didn't answer me. So whatever, I'm used to it by now. And then just after 10:00 PM, he calls Katta herself. She doesn't pick up. And so he leaves her a voicemail saying, hey, what's up, Katta? I just wanted to let you know I'm home. I don't know what's going on with you. I told the guy guys, it was cancelled, you weren't coming anymore. I'm not even going to show. I'm angry. All this time, Catalina's phone GPS was still right by Nestor's house. He said that this didn't make any sense and he just couldn't explain it, considering he hadn't seen her at all that night.

13:42She hadn't come to pick him up or to come visit him, so maybe it was some sort of glitch. Lucy had told him to just go outside and check for her anyway. Maybe she was parked up in her car outside, scared or upset that she'd pissed off all her friends. So Nestor goes outside and he says that he can't see Catalina or her car anywhere. He just couldn't explain why or how her location was showing up at his house, but by now it hadn't moved for over an hour. Nestor really wasn't much help for the family and now that it was getting late, everyone was getting desperate to know that Katta was safe.

14:17Her sister called up another one of the friends that she was supposed to meet up with for bowling that night, a girl named Augustina, and everything she said matched up with Nestor that Catalina had no showed for the plans. None of them had seen or heard from her since the plans were supposed to begin. It really was like a full ghosting. None of them had any level of info that the others didn't have, and by now it was reaching midnight and everyone was worried sick.

14:44Even though it had only been two hours since she'd last been heard from. The circumstances under which she had vanished were just not right. There just didn't seem to be many reasonable explanations for this. If not, one of her friends was with her, if her phone was unaccounted for. And actually by now texts had stopped delivering through to her phone, so it had either died or been switched off. And actually it seemed to be the latter, because at 11:46 PM, all of a sudden text went through and her location updated.

15:15It had been switched back on. Now it showed a totally different address, one that no one was familiar with. It was an area of town that Catalina didn't know very well. She never really had any reason to go over there, so why would she possibly be there right now, all alone at midnight? Everything was getting weirder and scarier, so Catalina's family wasted no time getting straight down to the police station and reporting her as a missing person. While they were there filling out the report, Catalina's phone location updated once again, and now it was in a totally different neighborhood, even further away from the previous locations. So, I mean, luckily they were at the police station now, so officers were immediately dispatched to that exact location to check it out.

15:59When they arrived, they found something. Catalina's mum's car was parked right there, right where the location said it would be, but it seemed empty and they couldn't see Catalina around it. It was parked in an odd location as well, like just off the road. And as they approached, things got even weirder. A peek into the inside showed clear signs of burning in the interior. Someone had seemingly tried to set this car on fire, and after that things went from weird and concerning to absolutely devastating. A look in the back seat revealed what looked to be a person laying across the seats, completely motionless and also partially burned.

16:45Police broke into the car as quickly as they could, and they pulled the person out to see if CPR could be performed, but it was too late. They'd been dead for a little while. No amount of effort could bring them back. And although police couldn't confirm anything right now, in this moment, they were pretty sure they knew exactly what they had just found. Back at the station, Eleanora was asked about what her daughter was wearing that night and what she usually carried with her. So her mom talked about her black patent leather wallet that she would hold all of her bank cards and her ID, and she said that her daughter had an iPhone 15 Pro with a pink Apple case. She always carried a geek bar vape. She was wearing high top vans when she left that day. All of these description points tragically lined up with the woman that they had just pulled from the car, deceased and burned.

17:38Right now they had no idea what had happened to her, but they could officially confirm that this was Catalina Gutierrez, a 21 year old woman with big dreams and such a promising life ahead of her. She was dearly loved by everyone that knew her. Gone far too soon. Now before we continue with Catalina's story, I just want to take a moment to talk about something that is sadly very, very relevant to this case. In Argentina, there is a growing movement called NI Una Menos, which translates to Not One Woman Less. It began in 2015 after a series of high profile femicides shocked the country, and it quickly grew into a nationwide movement, one that was calling for stronger protections for women and greater accountability when it comes to gender based violence.

18:25NI Una Menos has organized huge demonstrations across Argentina and Latin America, raising awareness about the reality that many women still face violence just for wanting independence, OR for ending relationships, or for simply just living life on their own terms. Catalina's story is of course very deeply personal to her family and her friends and the people that loved her, but it also sits within a much bigger conversation about what's happening across Argentina about violence against women. It's why movements like NI Una Menos continue to push for change.

19:01And since NI Una Menos is a movement and not strictly a charity, they direct any forms of donation through the Global Fund for Women, which we have linked down below in the description of this episode. If you have the means, please do consider donating to fund such a crucial cause. Women are dying at the hands of men every day all over the world and we need to be making as much noise about it as possible for our own safe and for that of our sisters, our mothers, aunties, friends. Alongside the link to the Global Fund for Women in the description, you'll also find our link tree that has all of our usual links to help lines, organizations and charities. So if you need any form of help, hopefully you can find it in our link tree.

19:45Or if you're looking to support some really incredible causes, then you can find a directory right there. And now let's pick back up where we left off in this case. Catalina's family have just been informed only hours after they last saw her that she has been found dead and burned in the back of their own family car. And now it was time for police to catch a killer. The case was very quickly determined to be a homicide. I mean, what reasonable explanation could there be for Catalina to be found burned in the back seat of her own car? Someone else had clearly done this to her. Forensic officers were called out to the crime scene to analyse the burned car.

20:26Mind you, it wasn't that burned. Clearly someone had tried to have the whole thing engulfed in flames because there were traces of alcohol all over the seats. They tried to put flammable fuel in there. Whoever had lit the flame had also tried their best to make the whole thing flammable enough to destroy all of the evidence, including Catalina's body inside. But the flames had seemingly died out before they could cause too much damage. Damage probably due to the fact that the windows of the car had been left closed. Flames need oxygen to grow and just to maintain, so that was probably what killed the fire off. Despite the extra fuel that was poured all over the seats, the only thing that really burned in there was a blanket. I believe it was wrapped around Catalina or maybe just used to cover her up.

21:13And this is what had given her burns to her neck and her arms, though it was determined that she was already dead when this happened. As this search of the crime scene continued, all of Catalina's loved ones had gathered at the police station. Her family were of course already there, but now they were joined by Catters boyfriend Ezekiel and a few of her friends, including Nestor and Augustina, who was supposed to be bowling with her that night. Everyone was in pure disbelief, and it was showing up differently in each person. Some were quieter, probably not speechless and unable to process what they were going through.

21:51Others were angry and loud, already feeling the sudden, very unfair loss of such a huge part of their lives. Especially Nestor, who had actually been angry at Catalina just hours prior to this, believing that she had just abandoned them and ghosted on plans. Now he was learning that her silence was actually because she had been murdered. He couldn't contain his anguish. He was clutching his head, throwing himself against the walls, screaming. Who was it?

22:21It can't be. Who could do this to Katta? Nestor and Catalina had always had a very, very close relationship. It was honestly more of a brother sister type bond than just a friendship. He spent so much of his time with her then it must have felt like losing a part of himself. He was trying to process the unimaginable, but actually, as Catalina's loved ones watched him carrying on and putting on this scene, they started to wonder how authentic it actually was.

22:51They'd never had much of a reason to doubt Nestor's intentions with Catalina, because he seemed like quite a respectful young man. He was friendly, he was familiar to her parents, he visited her house often, he played with her dog Kitty when she was still with them. Her mum and dad would invite him round for dinner a lot, knowing that he didn't have family in the area since he'd moved out there for uni. He had this brother sister dynamic with Catalina, and her parents treated it as such too.

23:17They treated him like an honorary son, inviting him to family get togethers and barbecues. But while he and Catalina had indeed been very, very close, their friendship wasn't exactly healthy. Katta's own boyfriend, Ezekiel, had always had a funny feeling about Nestor. He always spoke about Catalina like she was his whole entire world, and he would occasionally get jealous of her relationship with Ezekiel. And hey, maybe that could be explained away as like an awkward little crush that Nestor never wanted to tell anyone about. But Ezekiel wasn't the only one who had spotted some red flags. Cater's sister Lucia was well aware of some occasions where Nestor had been quite possessive and toxic with her sister. And it turns out Catalina hadn't been the only female friend to experience this side of him.

24:10Nestor seemingly had a pattern. The other girl in their trio friend group Remember Ornella. She had been through all of this with Nestor before he became almost like a controlling boyfriend. Despite their relationship only ever being platonic. Nothing was ever romantically charged, but he would want to know where she was at all times. He would want to be with her at all times. He was smothering. If she missed a call from him or took too long to respond to a text, he would fly off the handle or start guilt tripping her.

24:42It got to a point where he would was even tracking her location when she didn't respond so that he could bring it up to her and be like well you were just sat in class or you were just at home. Insinuating that she has no excuse to not be in constant contact with him, as if she doesn't have her own life. On one occasion, Ornella had left her phone at home and she was in class using her laptop to respond to him instead. Clearly, he determined that she was taking too long to text back and so he texted her having a go and she explained to him that she didn't have her phone on her at first that day. She had actually since gone home to collect it, but for the first half of the day she genuinely didn't have her phone on her and that's why she was being slow to respond. Well, Nestor immediately sent her a screenshot of her phone's location, which obviously now was with her in class, but it hadn't been along with a voice note that was almost 2 minutes long just berating her.

25:38He said don't lie to me if I see you in class with your cell phone. I asked someone who's there with you and they said yes, you're in the classroom with your cell phone. Like is he the fucking police? All of this for what? She doesn't owe him a text back, especially when she's busy in class, but he felt really entitled to the women around him and their time and their energy. Eventually on, Ella's friends began clocking onto this toxic friendship that she was in and they told her to get out.

26:07Just because it wasn't her boyfriend didn't mean that this wasn't becoming an abusive dynamic. Friends can be possessive and abusive too, so by the time of Catalina's murder and the night at the bowling alley, Ornella was pretty distanced from the group, hence why she wasn't a part of the bowling plans. But it wasn't just Ornella and Catalina that he had treated this way. There was a third young woman named Luna that he had seemingly had the exact same dynamic with. And what's interesting about these possessive friendships is that they truly were never anything more than just that. Possessive friendships.

26:44Who knows, maybe Nestor did have unspoken crushes on these women, but he never really made that known or obvious if it was the case. He really was just an overbearing friend, but he never approved of any of the men that these female friends would date. No man was ever good enough for them. He would even put the girls down for their choices in men and in dating, telling them that they just go for players or losers. So I mean, that could well have been some romantic jealousy in that I think above anything else, he really didn't see himself as worthy of the women in his life. They were all too good for him.

27:23So he tried to bring them down a peg, bring them down to his level, insulting their life choices, their dating choices, and keeping them close so that they couldn't be independent or shine too bright. When he had first met Catalina, he told one of his friends that he felt inferior to her, saying look at all the followers she has, I'm nowhere near that. Soon after they formed a friendship, Nestor's possessive tendencies latched on to Catalina as a new target.

27:51Now if she didn't respond quick enough, she would receive call after call from him. There was 1 occasion on an architecture trip where another student had asked Catalina if they could sit next to one another on the bus, but she had to politely turn them down, saying that Nestor had told her if she didn't sit with him he would get angry. So now after speaking with Catalina's loved ones and hearing all of their less than positive opinions of her best friend Nestor, he had officially become their number one suspect in her murder. Nestor Soto had been questioned by the police at the very beginning of this case, obviously, since he was supposed to be the last person to see her. And you know, the fact that her phone's GPS was pinging at his house for the first hour that she was gone. And he told police exactly what he had told Cater's mum, that she never showed up at his house to pick him up. And he eventually made his own way to the mall bowling alley. But when she still didn't show up there, he just ended up going home on his own.

28:52But now they had pulled him in for a secondary questioning. Now that he was a suspect and his story was changing, it's like he couldn't remember the exact details of what he told them the first time. So they asked him how he had gotten home from the mall when he decided to give up on the bowling plans and he said a taxi, but he couldn't give them the exact company. He couldn't remember if it was Uber or Cabathai or something else. He also couldn't give investigators a time that he had arrived back home barely even like a rough estimate.

29:24It became clear that his version of events just wasn't adding up, and there were a lot of little moments like this where holes began to appear in his story. The more he spoke, the less reliable he seemed, and clearly Nestor knew that too. He was getting nervous and quiet. There were times where he would fall silent, clearly, I guess trying to think of answers to the questions that they were were asking him. And then under that pressure, Nestor suddenly broke down. He looked at investigators and admitted what had happened. I killed her.

29:59I ruined Catalina's life. I ruined my life. I ruined the lives of our families. And I am very sorry. He went on to say that Catalina had been the love of his life. Mind you, he had never expressed any romantic feelings towards her whatsoever. Nobody had any knowledge that he felt this way. And I mean we we kind of could have guessed. Katta's boyfriend felt a weird vibe from him and that level of possession that he had over her really hinted to much more going on beneath the surface than just a brother sister type friendship. Obviously these feelings had never been reciprocated by Catalina.

30:37She was in a happy relationship with no romantic interest in Nestor and he probably knew that full well, hence why he never said anything or made a move. But maybe it had all gotten too much for him, pretending to just be friends, unable to have the one thing that he wanted more than anything. He could tell that she was never going to leave Ezekiel for him, so maybe he was thinking if he can't have her, no one can. So now Nestor Soto's suspect questioning had turned into an official confession and halfway through he told the police that he would like to go and find Catalina's father, Marcelo.

31:17When officers asked why, he said that her father should be the one to kill him for what he had done to his daughter. Not only is that batshit insane, but how incredibly misogynistic. As if Catalina was a possession of Marcelo's that Nestor had destroyed not a whole entire human being with her own life that he so evilly stole. Why should this be dealt with man to man rather than in a courthouse? Would he be saying that same thing if he'd killed a son of Marcelo's? Or is it because he only views women as the extension of a man? Of course the at least didn't let him go and find Marcello. Instead they made Nestor sit there and run them through his version of events.

32:02Now just a pre warning. This is a load of bullshit actually. Even when he is trying to tell the truth, Nestor Soto is never actually telling the full truth. He told investigators that Catalina had arrived at his house in what was meant to be a brief stop by just to pick him up, and together they would drive to the bowling alley. But before they could set off to the mall, Nestor said that the two of them got into an argument. He said that she was tense and cold.

32:31I told her I was going to change my clothes and she said come on asshole. On top of not inviting me, now I have to wait. We don't really know what is meant by not inviting me. Mind you, this only comes from Nestor's version of events and we believe most of it is horseshit, so it probably was never even said. But if it was true, maybe Catalina hadn't been involved in these bowling plans from the very start. Who knows. Nestor told the investigators.

32:57I answered her rudely and told her to leave. That's when she got angry and said, Nesty, you can be such an idiot and slapped me. He said that when Catalina slapped him, he hit her back, to which she said, you idiot, you hit me really hard. And from that point, a physical fight apparently broke out. Nestor said that Catalina fell backwards towards the kitchen and they both tumbled into the washing machine. They were both on the floor fighting. And he said that Catalina squeezed my Adam's apple and I passed out.

33:32Now, this is where things get weird because Nestor explained to investigators that he and Catalina apparently had this little game that they would play where she would grab his neck and squeeze it. In fact, they would do it to each other relatively often. What kind of game is that? If that's true, that would be so incredibly bizarre. But chances are he's lying through his teeth, isn't he? He said that after he woke up from being passed out, I grabbed her hands, pulled them free from his neck and put her in a rear naked chokehold. Now, this is a move that is often done in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu or MMA.

34:10It's quite brutal and it's meant to make the person pass out from restricting the blood flow to their brain. It's essentially A headlock with way more intensity and danger. It's also known as the lion killer, and Nestor even had the cheek to tell investigators that Catalina herself had taught him how to do it, which is not believed to be true at all. But this is what he said that he did to her. He continued to the investigators saying that after he put her in this chokehold, it hit me when I let go, the first thing I did was listen to see if she was still alive and I saw that she wasn't. He added that he only realized that she was dead when he tried to move her and she didn't scream or make any noise. Nestor told investigators that he was just caught up in the heat of the moment of this fight. The confrontation had spiraled out of control and in that chaos and panic and he had killed her.

35:06But then there he was, standing in his kitchen with the dead body of the girl that he called his best friend, his sister. He's now a murderer, and he knew that he had to start covering up what he had just done. He said that he immediately changed his clothes because he was nervous and hot and sweaty. And then he proceeded to move Catalina's body into the back seat of her own car so that he could figure out where to take her, where to dispose of her as if she wasn't a human being.

35:38He drove the car out to where it was eventually found. He doused the whole thing in alcohol. And then he set it alight, hoping that he could incinerate all the evidence of what he had just done, although, as we know, that failed. He told the officers that after he set the car on fire, he thought about taking his own life. In fact, he said, I wanted to kill myself. I didn't have the guts and while I can maybe believe that part to be true, the 1st 75% of that story seems like half truths and cover ups.

36:10So in the trial section of this episode, we'll break down what investigators actually believe happened that night when Catalina arrived at his house. But as far as Nestor goes, just 20 minutes into this questioning, police had heard enough. He was placed in handcuffs and taken into custody. So a date was set for Nestor Sotos murder trial. And in the meantime, he was being held in a prison ward without any form of bail being set. During this time, he very quickly became a target for the other inmates.

36:41They taunted him and implied that they would attack him if they could figure out which cell he was in. He reported this to the prison staff and was quickly shifted to another ward with lower risk inmates. All of this before he's even put on trial. The proceedings would eventually begin on February 27th, 2025. Nestor had been required to undergo a psychiatric evaluation that revealed absolutely no underlying mental illness or issues that could have led to the heinous acts that he committed. He was deemed mentally sane, fully aware of his actions, and completely fit to stand trial.

37:17The prosecution even mentioned as part of their argument that Nestor had grown up in a very happy, stable, loving environment. There were very few pressure points in his life that could have had such negative effects on him. They did say, however, that a narcissistic stance could be attributed to his personality. Now, this is not to be confused with narcissistic personality disorder. It was just kind of a trait that they acknowledged in him. He was narcissistic just as a person, and this would of course shape how he interacted with others. Everything in his world revolved around him, which I think gives even more context to his possessiveness. When his various female friends weren't answering his texts, he'd fly off the handle because to him, he is the center of the universe.

38:06He can't comprehend the fact that other people have whole entire lives outside of him. Detectives believe believe that by July 17th, the night of the murder, Nestors feelings for Catalina, along with his entitlement and frustration over not being able to have her, had all reached a climax. So now let's discuss the version of events that the prosecution presented to the court. They couldn't say for sure that this is exactly what happened, but based on all of the evidence that they have, it aligns much closer than the story that Nestor had given them. At 9:35 PM, Catalina arrived at Nestor's house in her mum's car. They believe a conversation may have transpired between the two of them outside, with Nestor somehow asking Catalina to come back into the house with him.

38:51Maybe he told her that he wasn't fully ready yet. It's believed that it only took 10 minutes or less for an argument to break out between the two. I mean, whether it was reciprocal or not, we don't know. Was it actually an argument with two sides, or was it Nestor going off at Catalina? Of course, we can't possibly know what the topic of the conflict was either, although it has been theorized that Nestor could have told her how he truly felt about her and she rejected him very quickly. The conflict went from verbal to physical, and Nestor struck Catalina at least four times in the head and the abdomen, it's believed just with his own fists. One of the blows to her head had immediately left her with a massive black eye, along with several other bruises all over her temple, her cheek, her jaw.

39:41He hadn't just struck her a few times, he had violently beaten her once. She was defenseless. He tightly bound her hands with three meters of Gray tape so that she couldn't get away from him. It's unclear if she had been rendered unconscious at this point. I mean, hopefully she was. Hopefully she wasn't aware of what was happening as Nestor climbed on top of her and proceeded to strangle her to death with a ligature. Her autopsy had revealed that she had been strangled with something almost 3 centimeters wide, which of course goes against Nestor's initial confession where he said that he performed this lion killer chokehold that he insisted that Catalina herself had taught him to do. All of this evidence, like from the autopsy and stuff, was very significant, improving Nestor's version of events to be lies. The way that he had described it, you know it like if he was being honest, then it could actually have been a spur of the moment killing.

40:43But now that the evidence proved that a ligature had been used, a weapon essentially, that immediately shows us that a lot more thought and time had gone into this murder. He had at least a good few seconds where he was looking around for something to strangle her with. At least a good few seconds to come to his senses and realize what he was doing to the woman that he called his best friend. In fact, never mind finding a weapon to strangle her with, he had had a similar brief break in the attack when he stopped to find the tape to tie her up. There were so many opportunities for him to stop himself, opportunities that he simply didn't take. Because in that moment, he wanted Catalina dead. He couldn't have her, and he knew that. And if he couldn't be with her, then she couldn't even be alive. This was a deliberate and fatal expression of control and violence.

41:42After he had committed the murder, Nestor proceeded to send a bunch of texts and voice notes to their mutual friends about how Catalina had ghosted him and never shown up to their plans. He knew that he now had to play the part of a concerned friend and give himself an alibi. And I think the most twisted part of all of that is that as part of this concerned friend role, he was angry at Catalina, knowing full well that he had just murdered her. He was leaving her texts, her voice notes being like, where are you?

42:13Why did you stand us up? During the trial, Catalina's mum, Eleanora took the stand to explain her family's dynamic with Nestor, and she told the court just how much they all trusted him, especially her daughter. To the point where on the night that Katta was found dead, Nasta turned up at the police station seeking comfort from her family. At first this didn't seem off since they treated him like I said, like an honorary family member, but now they knew for sure that he had killed her. It made them sick to their stomachs that they had reassured him and hugged him the whole entire night. He had even confided in Eleonora that night. I'm getting really nervous because the police are asking me so many questions.

42:58Like there is a special place in hell for someone who can kill a woman and then go to her mother to comfort and reassure him in the aftermath. But actually, Eleanora had a bad feeling about him from that exact point. She pulled her other daughter Lucia aside and told her. I'm going to say something that might be wrong. I suspect Nestor and Lucia was actually shocked at this and she replied. No, Mum, how can you suspect your friend you'll regret what you're saying for the rest of your life? Like, I can't even stress to you how unlikely Nestor's involvement seemed to everyone, even to Kata's own family, but Eleanora just knew.

43:41She just had a feeling. Mother's instinct, isn't it? During his trial, several other witnesses took the stand to tell different stories of moments where Nestor had gotten frustrated or violent. Ex girlfriends and former friends told of his domineering, possessive nature. One girl even took the stand telling a story of a time that she'd been at camp with Nestor and he had tried to force himself onto her. It all clearly paints a very dark picture of this man's patterns and how he views women.

44:13Nestor had an obsessive need for control, and when paired with his narcissistic tendencies and fragile emotional state, it had created a dangerous personality. And when he felt like he was being rejected, he decided to kill. Nestor was convicted of aggravated homicide involving gender based violence. This is what Argentina's legal system recognizes as femicide, and for this he was sentenced to life imprisonment, the harshest penalty in Argentine law.

44:45Catalinas murder wasn't an isolated act of violence. It was the culmination of jealousy, psychological domination, and deliberate actions to conceal the crime. It was gender based violence. It was femicide. The reason that this is important and likely why Nestor lied about this being a spur of the moment argument, you know, gone out of hand, is because in Argentina a homicide can get you a long prison sentence but not the maximum penalty of life in prison. However, when the crime does involve violence against a woman because of her gender or including any other aggravating factors such as control, jealousy, or attempts to conceal the ACT, it can be classed as femicide and this This is where the killer can get life imprisonment. In Catalinas case, prosecutors successfully showed the pattern of psychological control and possessiveness that characterized Nestors relationship with her as well as with other women.

45:45I arguing that his actions reflected A broader context of gender based violence and the justice system must take that seriously. Catalina's story is just one part of a deeply disturbing reality. Violence against women and girls is not rare, it's an epidemic. We cover so many of these cases because around the world, 10s of thousands of women are intentionally killed every year, and this is usually by the people closest to them. Globally and an estimated 50,000 plus women and girls were killed by intimate partners or family members in 2023 alone.

46:24And in Argentina, femicides continue at extremely concerning rates. A woman is killed because of her gender roughly every 35 hours. Catalina case should remind us that the most dangerous place for many women is not the streets or around strangers, but in the very homes and relationships where they should feel safest. In order for this to change, we need to keep talking about these cases, raising awareness and fighting for systemic change. Talk to your brothers, talk to your sons, your friends, especially if you're a man. We need allies since woman's voices are far too often dismissed or spoken over.

47:06Too often is inherent misogyny fobbed off as just banter or boys being boys. But it's literally killing women, killing your friends, your sisters, your mums. We need collective action to prevent more lives from being taken so unfairly. So as we come to the end of this episode, I want to take one last moment to remember Catalina Gutierrez for the beautiful girl that she was. So full of love for her family, her friends, animals. She was well on her way to not only live an incredible life as a talented architect, but to touch so many lives through her relatable social media posting that had already attracted so many young women who found comfort in Catalina.

47:53She was so kind, showering her friends with compliments and gifts and joy. She was someone who always put others first. From all of us here at Outlaw Podcast, we send our sincere condolences to the loved ones of Catalina Gutierrez and that is all we have for today's case. Thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of Outlaw Podcast. If you're watching on YouTube, please subscribe and please make sure you got the notification bell switched on, by the way, because I know the uploads have been quite sporadic lately, I am about to embark on my first few live podcast shows. So it's been a little bit hectic in Team Outlaw lately. We should be back to regular scheduled programming very soon, but in the meantime, make sure you've got our notifications on because we are on different days and it's a bit confusing. So make sure that you're there and please do leave a like or leave a comment on this case so that we can continue the conversation.

48:48I read every single comment and I appreciate every single one. And if you're listening to us on a podcast platform, again, leave us a comment. I know that they have comments on Spotify and stuff. I read every single one on there as well. Please make sure to rate the podcast 5 stars. Make sure you're following us on your podcast platform so that again, you don't miss our episodes. And with all of that being said, I will see you in the next episode.

49:11Bye.