Gay Colombian priests allegedly planned own murders

Feb 14, 2012, 20:47 GMT

Bogota - The case of two Colombian Roman Catholic priests who were murdered last year took a twist Tuesday, when it became known that investigators believe they planned their own deaths and hired hitmen to kill them.

The Bogota daily El Tiempo reported that the priests hired the killers for about 8,400 dollars.

Public prosecutor Patricia Larrota said Tuesday that the priests, who were apparently romantically involved with each other, had decided to commit suicide because one of them had been diagnosed with syphilis and HIV.

They went to Chicamocha Canyon in northeastern Colombia with the intention to jump to their deaths, but they could not do it: due to a large number of suicides at the site, officials in Santander province had put up barriers.

'Since there were retaining rails, they could not (jump), so the only option they found then was to find a person who ended their lives,' Larrota said.

The priests, Rafael Reatiga and Richard Piffano, were found dead inside a car on January 27, 2011. The authorities first suspected a robbery, since the two men had drawn a large amount of money from the bank a day earlier, when they went missing, and the cash was never found.

But the hypothesis lost credibility once the two priests, both aged 30, were found to have settled private matters and cancelled all their appointments after January 26. One of them cancelled christenings he was supposed to officiate, while the other registered all his property in his mother's name.

Investigators tracked down calls made by the two priests in the hours before they were shot. They came to a gang of hitmen and arrested two of its members, who were formally charged with the crimes Tuesday.

The authorities caught a signal from one of the priests' cellphones and arrested the man who was using it. He confessed to having taken part in the killings, while the other suspect denied having been involved.

Investigators have established that the two priests were regulars in nightclubs popular with the gay community.

The families of the priests reject the hypothesis of a homosexual relationship and a suicide and demand that the bodies be exhumed to prove the two were murdered in a robbery.