The Femicide of Michel Dayana González

Michel Dayana González

Michel Dayana González was a 15-year-old girl living in Cali. On the evening of December 7, 2023, she disappeared while walking in the San Judas area during the city's traditional holiday celebrations. Her family reported her missing and searches quickly focused on a vehicle workshop near the route she had taken.

Police later identified Harold Andrey Echeverry Orozco, who worked as a security guard at the workshop, as the principal suspect. The criminal investigation concluded that Michel was killed inside the premises. This page does not reproduce the graphic details circulated in some coverage because they are not needed to explain the evidence or the judicial result.

The flight from Cali

After authorities began examining the workshop, Echeverry left Cali using a motorcycle that investigators said had been stolen from the business. The National Police launched what it called Operación Justicia, combining interviews, technical intelligence, road controls and border monitoring while tracing his movement away from Valle del Cauca.

On December 11, 2023, police located and arrested him in Villavicencio, Meta. The police announcement at the time correctly described him as the alleged perpetrator because a criminal conviction had not yet been entered.

Charges and admission of responsibility

Prosecutors charged Echeverry with aggravated femicide and aggravated qualified theft in connection with the motorcycle used during his escape. During the criminal proceedings he accepted the charges. That admission materially changed his legal status from suspect to defendant accepting responsibility, but the final sentence still required judicial approval.

The femicide charge is important to state accurately. Colombian authorities did not prosecute the case merely as a generic homicide; the conviction expressly reflected the legal classification of aggravated femicide.

The 47-year sentence

On February 3, 2024, a judge in Cali sentenced Harold Echeverry to 47 years in prison for aggravated femicide and aggravated qualified theft. Reporting on the judgment identified the Cali sectional prosecutor's office as confirming the sentence and noted that he was being held in a high-security prison.

The sentence resolved the Michel Dayana case at the trial level through Echeverry's accepted responsibility. Later criminal proceedings concerning separate allegations of sexual violence against other women are distinct cases and are not treated here as proof about Michel's killing beyond the conviction already entered.

Why the capture record matters

The investigation moved rapidly from a missing-child search to a nationwide manhunt. The National Police's own account records the use of citizen information, interviews, technical intelligence and controls near international borders before Echeverry was found in Villavicencio. That official chronology provides a useful separation between what police believed while searching for a suspect and what was later established by the criminal judgment.

Timeline

Current status

The Michel Dayana González case is solved / adjudicated for this archive. Harold Andrey Echeverry Orozco accepted aggravated-femicide and theft charges and was sentenced to 47 years in prison. This classification is based on the entered conviction; separate later prosecutions involving other alleged victims do not alter the status of Michel's case.

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