The Disappearance and Death of Tomás Bravo

Tomás Bravo Gutiérrez was three years old when he disappeared from the rural Caripilún area of Arauco on February 17, 2021. His disappearance prompted a major search involving police, rescue teams and volunteers. On February 26, after nine days, his body was found roughly two kilometers from the area where he had last been seen.

Disappearance and recovery

Tomás had gone out with his great-uncle, Jorge Escobar Escobar, while animals were being gathered in the rural area. Escobar reported that Tomás disappeared during that outing. When the child's body was recovered nine days later, prosecutors immediately focused on the possibility of third-party involvement and detained Escobar.

Those initial prosecutorial statements were preliminary. They did not amount to proof that Escobar caused Tomás's death, and the later judicial record is essential to understanding the case.

The first criminal theory

In early March 2021, prosecutors attempted to proceed against Escobar on a theory of aggravated homicide. The investigation became complicated by conflicting forensic interpretations and by the evidentiary standard required to sustain that accusation.

Later scientific work led prosecutors to state publicly that they had ruled out an accidental death and were investigating third-party involvement. Over time, however, the precise medical and criminal theories changed. Crime by Region therefore does not present any one early forensic hypothesis as a final adjudicated cause.

The 2025 trial

Years after the disappearance, prosecutors brought Escobar to trial on a different charge: abandonment of a child under ten in a solitary place resulting in death. The trial took place before the Criminal Oral Court in Cañete.

In July 2025, the court acquitted Jorge Escobar. The judgment concluded that the prosecution had not proved the objective elements of abandonment and that the defense had introduced reasonable doubt, including the possibility that a third person could have been involved in Tomás's disappearance.

On September 26, 2025, the Concepción Court of Appeals unanimously rejected the prosecution's effort to annul the acquittal. Reporting on the ruling described the acquittal as final for that prosecution. This page therefore does not call Escobar guilty of abandonment, homicide or any other offense arising from that adjudicated case.

A separate investigation remains open

The acquittal did not establish who was responsible for Tomás's disappearance and death. A separate investigative branch under the Los Ríos Regional Prosecutor's Office remained open after the 2025 judgment.

In March 2026, Chilean reporting documented new forensic work in the Caripilún area and stated that the Los Ríos investigation was still active. In August 2026, further reporting said that investigation had not been formally closed and that prosecutors were considering how and where it should continue after changes in regional leadership.

Because no person has been convicted of causing Tomás's death and an active investigative branch remains unresolved, the case is classified here as Unsolved / Partial.

Investigative controversy

The case also generated scrutiny of the investigation itself. During the 2025 trial, a forensic doctor testified that an early prosecutor had pressed her to alter an initial cause-of-death assessment. That allegation led to a separate investigation of the former prosecutor. In August 2026, prosecutors moved to close that separate matter after concluding that the evidence did not establish a criminal offense.

Those institutional disputes are relevant to understanding why the case became so contested, but they do not establish who caused Tomás's death. The archive separates alleged investigative misconduct from the still-unresolved underlying case.

Timeline

1. February 17, 2021
   Tomás disappears

   The three-year-old vanishes in the rural Caripilún area of Arauco.

2. February 26, 2021
   Body recovered

   Search teams find Tomás dead roughly two kilometers from the area where he had last been seen.

3. March 2021
   Early homicide theory

   Prosecutors seek to proceed against Jorge Escobar under an aggravated-homicide theory; the case later changes substantially.

4. 2023–2025
   Separate investigative branch develops

   A Los Ríos prosecution team examines additional theories and evidence concerning the disappearance and death.

5. July 2025
   Escobar acquitted

   The Cañete oral criminal court acquits him of abandonment of a child resulting in death.

6. September 26, 2025
   Acquittal confirmed

   The Concepción Court of Appeals rejects the prosecution's nullity request.

7. 2026
   Investigation remains open

   The separate Los Ríos branch continues investigative work; no perpetrator has been convicted.