CRIME BY REGION
World archive / Ecuador / Juliana Campoverde
Solved / adjudicated

The Disappearance and Adjudicated Death of Juliana Campoverde

Juliana Campoverde Rodríguez, 18, disappeared in southern Quito on July 7, 2012. Six years later, prosecutors arrested evangelical pastor Jonathan Carrillo. A court convicted him of kidnapping resulting in death and imposed a 25-year sentence in 2019. The conviction was upheld on appeal in 2020, even though Juliana’s remains had not been recovered.

Editorial Ecuador artwork for the Juliana Campoverde case

Editorial country artwork only; it does not depict Juliana Campoverde, the convicted man or any search location.

DisappearedJuly 7, 2012
LocationLa Biloxi, southern Quito, Ecuador
VictimJuliana Campoverde Rodríguez, 18
Outcome25-year sentence upheld on appeal
Status note: This file is Solved / Adjudicated because a final criminal judgment established responsibility for kidnapping resulting in death. The archive also states clearly that Juliana’s remains have not been recovered and that the appellate court ordered the search to continue.

The disappearance

Juliana was last seen on July 7, 2012, in the La Biloxi sector of southern Quito. Her disappearance began a prolonged search led by her parents, Elizabeth Rodríguez and Absalón Campoverde, while the criminal investigation advanced slowly for years.

The case centered on Jonathan Carrillo, then a pastor connected to a church Juliana had attended. This page uses the full name where it is established by public judicial material; some official prosecution summaries abbreviate his surname in accordance with Ecuadorian publication practices.

A six-year investigation

Prosecutors arrested Carrillo on September 5, 2018, initially charging him with extortionate kidnapping. On November 10, he led investigators to a ravine in Bellavista where he said Juliana’s remains might be located. Searches and excavations did not recover her.

On November 30, the prosecution reformulated the charge as extortionate kidnapping resulting in death. Ecuador’s Attorney General later reported that investigators completed more than 1,242 investigative measures from 2017 onward. At trial, prosecutors presented 35 witnesses and 18 documentary exhibits.

The no-body prosecution

A judge sent Carrillo to trial on May 2, 2019. On July 17, the Pichincha Criminal Guarantees Court found him responsible as the direct perpetrator of kidnapping resulting in death and sentenced him to 25 years’ imprisonment.

The legal finding is described precisely. Carrillo was not convicted under a generic murder label; the adjudicated offense was kidnapping resulting in death under the law applicable to the 2012 facts. The judgment rested on the combined evidentiary record despite the absence of recovered remains.

Appeal and reparations

On June 11, 2020, a panel of the Pichincha Provincial Court rejected Carrillo’s appeal and upheld the 25-year term. It also expanded the reparations ordered by the trial court.

Those measures required authorities to keep searching for Juliana, establish a reward, provide institutional training and memorialize the case. The church organization connected to the congregation was directed to place a commemorative plaque. The judgment also awarded material reparation to Juliana’s parents.

Current status

The conviction became enforceable in December 2020. Yet a central humanitarian obligation remains unfinished: Juliana’s family still has not been able to recover her remains. The continued search is not an unresolved question about whether a conviction exists; it is an unfulfilled part of the truth and reparation ordered by the courts.

The case is significant in Ecuador because it showed that a coherent body of circumstantial evidence can support a conviction for a disappearance resulting in death, while also requiring the state to continue locating the victim.

Sources

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