To her friends and family in the Chilean capital of Santiago, 25-year old Silvana Garrido was a radiant, happy and beautiful woman full of life and love for her three-year-old daughter.
They were immediately suspicious when they were told that she had died by suicide.
“From the first instance, her family and closest friends believed it was a femicide perpetrated by her partner,” says Francisca Millán Zapata of AML Women’s Defence, who represented Ms Garrido’s family in court.
Ms Millán Zapata says that the police and prosecutors did not take the concerns of Ms Garrido’s family and friends seriously, instead opting to believe the version of events put forward by the victim’s ex-partner, Fernando Flores.
The family had to “fight ruthlessly” for four years to achieve justice, she says. But in April 2023, Fernando Flores was found guilty of pushing her to her death from her 23rd-floor apartment. He was sentenced to life in prison.
