MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine police confirms gun confiscated was used to kill French tourists

Judge Perez had genetic samples sent to Buenos Aires for DNA testing

The Argentine Police investigating the double-murder case of the French tourists in Salta confirmed Wednesday that the gun confiscated last Saturday from the six people arrested in connection with the crime, was the weapon used to kill the young French women, a Salta court spokesperson said.

“The results of the tests put on the weapon seized from those who were detained, came up positive. The carbine 22-Caliber gun which was confiscated last Saturday, was the one used in the homicide” Báez said, in reference to the murders of the French tourists, Cassandre Bouvier (29 years) and Houria Mounmi (24).

The spokesperson also stated that the new findings were communicated by Salta police to Martín Pérez, the judge in charge of the case.

The bodies of the young women were found on July 29 in the tourist reserve of Quebrada de San Lorenzo, 12 km northeast of Salta capital.

On Tuesday it was reported that genetic samples extracted from the six suspects had been submitted to the School of Biochemistry at the University of Buenos Aires.

Judicial sources said that the decision was made by Judge Martín Pérez, who ordered the samples be sent to Buenos Aires so they could be compared with the ones extracted from the bodies of Ms Bouvier and Ms Moumni.

A digital camera and a cell phone belonging to one of the victims were found in the house of the girlfriend of one of the suspects.

DNA studies will allow investigators to identify the genetic profile of the perpetrators of the murders, since they will be crosschecked with hair and semen samples found on the body of one of the victims.