Two individuals who were detained at La Joyita Penitentiary serving their sentences have been transferred to El Renacer. The defense argues that the supposed victim appears registered in proceedings with the Electoral Tribunal, which, in their opinion, raises doubts about whether the person identified as deceased actually died. There is no death certificate, but there are also no procedures. In turn, the Electoral Tribunal clarified that there is no death certificate record for that person and that, according to their archives, they do not record any identity procedures since 1985, the year they obtained their last ID card, known as a polaroid ID, a document that has been out of circulation for decades. According to the official, after reviewing the information, it was confirmed that the person has not made subsequent procedures or exercised their right to vote, which is part of the administrative analysis that the institution maintains on the case. The official also clarified that neither the Electoral Tribunal nor the Civil Registry can register a death of their own accord, since Law 31 of the Civil Registry of Panama, in its article 62, establishes that every death must be declared within 48 hours by relatives or by competent authorities that have knowledge of the death. In this sense, he indicated that due to the lack of a formal death registration, the person appears in the system as alive. However, he specified that the certification issued recently corresponds to a residence certification, not a death record. According to the information presented, this certification was requested on September 17 of last year, and it is the document that has generated debate around the status of the person linked to the judicial case. The defense says: 'Now there are two proofs of life'. The defense maintains that Marisol Barría has two proceedings before the Electoral Tribunal in recent years, specifically one on December 14, 2022, which she had presented, and another on September 17, 2025, mentioned by the official from the Electoral Tribunal. For the lawyers, both constitute evidence that the person would have recent activity within the institutional system. They also indicate that there is no death certificate accrediting Barría's death, and that the family members themselves would not have recognized the body at the time of the process. On April 6, a review hearing will be held at the Accusatory Penal System of La Chorrera for the process by which the brothers César and Eloy Ávila were convicted for the murder of Marisol Barría, which occurred 28 years ago in La Pesa de La Chorrera. The case is known as 'The living dead'. The case erupted after the defense of the brothers, led by lawyers Eliécer Plicett and Norma González, requested the authorities of the Public Ministry and the Judicial Branch to review the sentence in light of evidence they claim shows the victim would be alive. The case dates back to 1997, when a woman was murdered and, after the investigation, the Ávila brothers were convicted for aggravated intentional homicide. They also point out that the DNA tests carried out on the parents—Mrs. Digna Rodríguez and Mr. Francisco Barría—yielded negative results, which, in their opinion, excludes the biological relationship with the remains analyzed. The defense emphasizes that the Ávila brothers were convicted for the murder of Barría and not of another person, so they insist that the case must be based on the correct identification of the victim.
