The Cellist in the Back of the Teatro Colón
While I was in Buenos Aires last April the city was gripped by a brutal murder of a woman who was found in a niche behind the Teatro Colón the famous opera house.
She had had her neck slit and she was not wearing much. There was no identification on her. The Clarín newspaper reported that the Policía Federal inspector assigned to the case, Manrique Duarte went on the record that the woman was around 32 and that she had calloused fingers and two strange little red marks on her upper inner thighs.
With no leads Duarte went to the administration of the Teatro Colón for help. One of the administrators, Fernando Velazco volunteered and was taken to the the Morgue Judicial between Viamonte and Junin streets.
He inspected the corpse and immediately told Duarte that the woman was a cello player which explained the callous marks on her fingers. Then pointing at the two little red mark on her inner thighs he said, “She was a baroque cello player.”
Duarte’s expression went blank upon hearing this. So Velazco added, “ Baroque cellos do not have an endpin so the musician has to hold thighs tightly around the instruments. Cellos have little edges that stick out. If the cellist practices a lot those marks will become permanent.”
A later edition of the Clarín identified the woman as Julia Tisol who had recently appeared at a concert at the Colón which featured ciacconas by the early baroque composer Tarquino Merula.
What is a most amazing coincidence is that months before I had photographed a Seattle baroque cellist and when I noticed her cello pressing on her thighs I asked her if she had marks. Her answer was, “Yes”.
Meanwhile Velazco has been dubbed the Argentine Holmes and his photograph has appeared in countless magazine articles.
The perpetrator of the heinous killing has not been caught to date.
Originally published at blog.alexwaterhousehayward.com.
