Julio Amílcar Martínez Murillo had built a routine between the capital and the east of the country. Dentist, A family man and owner of a clinic in El Jocotillo, Villa Canales, Guatemala, he dedicated his Wednesdays to providing low-cost care. The rest of the week he supervised a sanatorium in Agua Blanca, Jutiapa.
On May 28, 2025, he left his home, located on the route to El Salvador, heading to his clinic. On the way he stopped at a shopping center to buy breakfast. That seemingly everyday moment was recorded on video surveillance cameras.
According to the investigation by the Public Ministry (MP), three vehicles were following him. When he parked, a pickup truck was placed a short distance away. In these images, investigators identified Alejandro Girón Castañeda, who, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, had been a friend of the dentist for more than 12 years.
Girón Castañeda was driving the pick-up truck and was traveling accompanied by another unidentified person. In the other two vehicles, alleged members of the structure indicated by the investigating entity were traveling.
After the purchase, Martínez Murillo continued his journey to El Jocotillo. The fiscal hypothesis indicates that it was blocked after kilometer 38, in a desolate area.
At that time, the dentist had a phone call with his secretary in Agua Blanca, with whom he communicated every Wednesday to report on the sanatorium’s medical services. That conversation became one of the last evidence of contact.
During the call, Martínez Murillo asked another person to move a vehicle that was blocking the passage—it is believed that it was at kilometer 38, route to El Jocotillo. Seconds later, the voice of a third party was heard who ordered him, in an authoritarian tone, to continue driving. Communication was interrupted.
“Drive, drive, drive, you son of a bitch…” was heard for the last time on the call.
Quick search
The alert arose immediately. The secretary contacted the dentist’s sister, who began the search along with other family members.
On the route to El Jocotillo, the sister went out to look for him, observed Martínez Murillo’s pick-up truck going in the opposite direction and decided to follow him.
Minutes later, he found the vehicle abandoned at the entrance to a residential area on the route to San José Pinula. Since then, Martínez Murillo’s whereabouts have been unknown.
Investigators from the National Civil Police (PNC) began working on the case since the dentist’s abandoned vehicle was found.
With the progress of the investigation, the Public Ministry has outlined a structure with defined roles, and points to Girón Castañeda as the alleged intellectual author.
Among the alleged collaborators are his domestic employee, Anelsi Adelí Quiñones Corado – a fugitive – and Ubaldo Tzul Castillo, identified as a trusted messenger.
Also mentioned are Juan Oswaldo Tzul Hernández, son of Tzul Castillo, and Paola Isabel Díaz Ramírez de Tzul, wife of Tzul Hernández. As a negotiator, the Prosecutor’s Office places Carlos Antonio González y González, who would have made the calls to the dentist’s family – he is the cousin of Anelsi Adelí Quiñones Corado.
Revealing audios
One of the central elements of the case is an audio in which Martínez Murillo talks with his wife and asks her to raise money for his release. According to the investigation, the kidnappers demanded Q5 million.
The figure coincides with the value of a land that the dentist was about to sell in El Jocotillo, which, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, could have been a relevant factor in the event.
Call during plagiarism
Julio Amílcar Martínez Murillo:
But let your dad get it, I’m going to pay for it, because if I need it to be given now because if by tomorrow at 10 o’clock there isn’t any – the money -, I’m not going to see you again, princess.
Get it my life, get it. Tell your neighbor or brother-in-law, everyone. I am going to pay that money one way or another.
Wife:
My heaven, but I already asked them, my love, and they don’t want to give me, my heaven.
Julio Amílcar Martínez Murillo:
It can’t be, my life. The trucks have to be sold for a very low price.
Wife:
My sweet love, I’m really already, my sweetheart, I swear I’ve already looked for all the money. My love, love, I love you.
Julio Amílcar Martínez Murillo:
My love, tell my daughters that I love them.
Wife:
My love, I love you, my heaven.
Call from jail
In another hearing, an intercepted call made on September 12, 2025 from the Mariscal Zavala prison was reproduced, days after the capture of Girón Castañeda.
In that communication, held with Quiñones Corado, Girón Castañeda told him not to surrender to justice and to ignore the recommendation of a lawyer who suggested he appear before a court. During the conversation, both denied their participation in the kidnapping.
The 22-minute call also includes a warning about using a borrowed phone inside the prison. (Some words in the audio were modified out of respect for our audience).
Conversation from Mariscal
Alejandro Girón Castañeda:
Hello. How are you doing?
Anelsy Adeli Quiñonez Corado:
Fine, thanks. And how are you?
Alejandro Girón Castañeda:
Well, caged
Anelsy Adeli Quiñonez Corado:
Unfortunately. How they are accusing those false things.
Alejandro Girón Castañeda:
The truth is yes, although you have to be careful. I’m not going to blame you because no one is, but don’t go to the Law or anything. Here the one who ruined it was his relative.
Anelsy Adeli Quiñonez Corado:
Right?
Alejandro Girón Castañeda:
Here the one who ruined it was his companion from there, the relative. They have all the recordings, they have all the chats of you and him. Even his relative wanted to put me down. And he showed the photos that you had sent him where the uniforms were, and my weapons.
Anelsy Adeli Quiñonez Corado:
As?
Alejandro Girón Castañeda:
His phone was tapped. And there are all her conversations with him, none of which is true because nothing happened, but there is a lot of evidence to harm her, Adeli. So, that’s where all this gossip comes from. Because, well, both you and we have been calm, but he was involved in everything.
Anelsy Adeli Quiñonez Corado:
But I took photos of him – the cousin – at no time did I send him photos.
Alejandro Girón Castañeda:
They took the photos where the police suits and weapons were. The mistake was having taken your phone number that you had registered in your name. And the one who got her involved in this was precisely Julio’s wife, by name -Adeli-.
Anelsy Adeli Quiñonez Corado:
And how did you know me – the dentist’s wife – who was your worker?
Alejandro Girón Castañeda:
Notice that it wasn’t more because of the name, because they were lost. Because the one who was caught was his relative. And on top of that they want to harm us with things that he had done with the previous group. So, imagine how delicate.
Anelsy Adeli Quiñonez Corado:
For the great púchica!
Alejandro Girón Castañeda:
So, don’t think about what you wrote… Adeli. With him – Carlos González – neither you nor I nor absolutely anyone have anything to do with him.
Anelsy Adeli Quiñonez Corado:
Yes of course.
Alejandro Girón Castañeda:
But he – Carlos González – took it with a bang and look where he has us.
Anelsy Adeli Quiñonez Corado:
But did she already get together with him or what?
Alejandro Girón Castañeda:
I saw him in Torre de Tribunales, I didn’t even know who he was.
He approached me and said: “I am Adeli’s cousin.”
Anelsy Adeli Quiñonez Corado:
Yeah.
Alejandro Girón Castañeda:
They have me as his boss – Carlos González – and I don’t know him. And they brought out – in the audience – all the chats that you had had. And on top of that, he, with his other friends, had planned to talk to you and had some chats about where I lived, what I did. And the chats that they grabbed him were that they were going to pick me up, collect a ransom and give me a flat.
Anelsy Adeli Quiñonez Corado:
But how strange, because I never had any communication with him about himself.
Alejandro Girón Castañeda:
No, they were chats of him with his other friends. With you only the chats about how much you had to charge and where you moved. So, even though the lawyers tell you to present me – to the Court – because it can be of some use, it is a lie. You have the noose around your neck, as much as I do. As advice, I tell you, it is a mistake to turn yourself in because they are going to harm you.
Anelsy Adeli Quiñonez Corado:
Since I had no one to talk to, what I wanted was to fix this situation.
Alejandro Girón Castañeda:
It’s just that nobody knows anything, because we didn’t do anything, least of all my brother. I got someone to lend me a phone and I am in Mariscal and here I am detained. The lawyers are running around, but it’s all about money.
Anelsy Adeli Quiñonez Corado:
But where do I get money from now?
Alejandro Girón Castañeda:
Just now they asked me for 325 thousand to fix things.
Anelsy Adeli Quiñonez Corado:
But, my well. If you fix your things, do you fix mine too?
Alejandro Girón Castañeda:
I would give my face just for you.
Anelsy Adeli Quiñonez Corado:
I have doubts, because he – Carlos González – at no time knew who you were.
Alejandro Girón Castañeda:
But he had photos of me.
Anelsy Adeli Quiñonez Corado:
And how did you take them?
Alejandro Girón Castañeda:
I don’t know. Maybe the police or the news from Monteverde.
Anelsy Adeli Quiñonez Corado:
Clear.
Alejandro Girón Castañeda:
They captured him earlier in zone 5 and had his phone tapped.
Anelsy Adeli Quiñonez Corado:
Yeah.
Alejandro Girón Castañeda:
Computers, weapons, things were stolen in my house.
Anelsy Adeli Quiñonez Corado:
Oh, no, my God.
Alejandro Girón Castañeda:
And they want to take my house. That’s why I tell you not to take out phones in your name.
Anelsy Adeli Quiñonez Corado:
But what do I do if they are looking for me with drones.
Alejandro Girón Castañeda:
Don’t go out. Do not use phones in your name.
Anelsy Adeli Quiñonez Corado:
And what do I do?
Alejandro Girón Castañeda:
Move location. Go to your sister, the girl’s sister.
Anelsy Adeli Quiñonez Corado:
I can’t, there are checkpoints.
Alejandro Girón Castañeda:
Right now they are no longer following up.
Anelsy Adeli Quiñonez Corado:
Sure?
Alejandro Girón Castañeda:
Yeah.
Anelsy Adeli Quiñonez Corado:
And at the hearing they mentioned my name?
Alejandro Girón Castañeda:
If they mention it, obviously I did not testify.
Anelsy Adeli Quiñonez Corado:
A lawyer told me to appear spontaneously and testify as a domestic worker.
Alejandro Girón Castañeda:
That’s a lie. If she shows up, they arrest her.
Anelsy Adeli Quiñonez Corado:
I’m going to see how I get money.
Alejandro Girón Castañeda:
I need too.
Anelsy Adeli Quiñonez Corado:
Let’s talk later.
Alejandro Girón Castañeda:
Yes, send me another number.
Anelsy Adeli Quiñonez Corado:
Alright.
Alejandro Girón Castañeda:
Take care of yourself.
Other indications
Added to these elements are the findings during the capture of Girón Castañeda. In his property, the Police seized drones, computers and PNC uniforms, evidence that is part of the fiscal analysis.
Furthermore, in the same telephone communication, Girón Castañeda mentions having collected money with the purpose of bribing judicial authorities when the case was in a first statement hearing.
The hearings continue in the High Risk Court B, where the Prosecutor’s Office presents the evidence that supports the accusation.
While the case moves forward in court, one question remains open: what happened to Martínez Murillo?
