Rafa, the teenage student who was found dead in a dam on the day of his 16th birthday, yesterday, September 1, was seen off with white balloons that went up into the sky and others tied to the main door of Conalep II.
“Goodbye, Rafita!” said an adult woman, through tears, holding one of the three helium balloons that was carried away by the wind on Sunday afternoon, after the mass in the Transfiguration of the Lord parish dedicated to the student. It was an event organized solely by civil society, which came together to search, demand, and help during the more than 37 hours it took to find him. During the mass, he was mentioned at least five times in the dedications for the faithful departed by the priest Abraham Fonseca, who lamented the death. He also said that in the previous celebration, at 10:30 in the morning, the community also prayed for Rafa, in solidarity with his family, who did not attend the event because, in addition to not knowing that it would take place, they were making preparations for his funeral service.
The storm and the way home
On Friday, August 30, 2024, around 7:20 p.m. (when dismissal time is 7:40), Conalep Juárez Campus II (located at 5650 Enebro Street, in the Ampliación Aeropuerto neighborhood) let its students out, in the face of a storm that brought widespread rain that accumulated 20 millimeters in the city, the latter according to State Civil Protection. The teenager, like others, was looking to go home, but a current on Tapioca Street, the result of the accumulation of natural water channels, caused that road to become impassable, even for cars. There were some stranded, including a white pickup truck near the intersection with Candelilla Street. Those who have their children studying at Conalep or at any nearby school had to navigate their way through the streams, causing their delay, as was the case with Rafa’s family. He decided to start the journey home, to help his aunts pick him up safely. According to a version on Instagram that went viral locally, from an alleged direct witness of what happened, Rafa wanted to cross and joined a group of students from Colegio de Bachilleres number 7 (located on Hiedra Street, almost at the intersection with Cártamo). “We didn’t know the boy we were with (Rafael). He asked me if he could cross with us, he took me by the hand and he saved me from all the times I fell. He never let me be carried away (by the current) until he fell and begged me to let him go.” “He promised me that he would come out okay, and the last thing he did was smile at me. I will never forget that beautiful and last smile. He saved me and I couldn’t do anything for him,” read the story, deleted shortly before noon on Saturday. Rafael looked after the girl –whose social media username will be kept confidential because she is a person under 18 years old– and smiled at her, only to hit the white van that was on Tapioca and Candelilla moments later. Someone recorded this part of the event and shared it. In the video, you can see how someone who was presumed to be Rafa hit the van with the force of the current that drags him along. It was recorded from the perspective of teenagers on board a vehicle (it was noticeable that they were filming with a glass in front, in motion and sheltered from the rain), who were laughing at the scene. This is what made the person who told his version of the events clarify that “we weren’t playing; we were trying to get back to our home.” These weren’t laughs from those who were terrified for their well-being, but from witnesses who thought the situation was hilarious without knowing what would happen next. Rafa is then seen raising his hand, and then nothing. The brown water continued, crossed Paseo de la Victoria Avenue and reached the entrance to the Mahle factory, whose open doors allowed the water to pass through. There it entered through “some grid traps in the factory, which are there to absorb the water so it doesn’t harm them, but because of the amount of water and the fact that they were filled with garbage that impeded the flow, they removed the traps so the water could flow,” according to Sergio Rodríguez, director of Municipal Civil Protection. Rafa’s body entered a 4×4 meter channel with interior concrete columns, which leads to the dam.
The search
The search began at around 9:30 p.m., according to the former Fire Chief, Rodriguez. Although it was said at one point that it would be stopped due to darkness, the General Directorate of Civil Protection stressed that the work was never stopped. On Saturday at 7:00 a.m., 20 firefighters, aided by three small boats without motors, got on, rowed, and used long tools or ropes with a weighted end to search the bottom for any sign of a foreign body in the dam, and even a small motor pump to drain a well and access the dam. At 12:15, a cell phone was located and presented to the family, who ruled out that it was his. At approximately 4:30 p.m., new news emerged: they had found a gray backpack floating. It contained notebooks, books, and supplies in the name of Rafael Antonio Rodriguez Ibarra, reported the municipal government of Juarez. The family recognized it, it belonged to their little boy. Around 5:00 p.m., people upset by a rumor that the search had stopped until Monday went to the intersection of Paseo de la Victoria and Tapioca to block the passage of vehicles in all directions. The community joined in protest, which caused traffic chaos and then the municipal president, Cruz Pérez Cuéllar, went to the site around 6:30 p.m. to explain that at no time was this ordered, but that they would continue the search without rest. “We don’t want his backpack, we want Rafa,” was one of the slogans during the blockade of protesters. Around 7:30 p.m., personnel from the Municipal Board of Water and Sanitation (JMAS) came with three motor pumps, one low flow and two high flow, artificial lights and 16 workers, managers and district coordinators from the departments of Sewerage, Drinking Water and Signaling to support the search. They reduced the water in the dam by about 80 centimeters, directing the flow to drain 2-A. Then, without rest, the work continued, and by Sunday morning there were already 25 firefighters, 100 municipal police officers who were supported by drones and jet skis, elements of the Department of Cleanliness, state Civil Protection, the JMAS, and organized civil society that supported the rescuers with food. Rafael Antonio Rodríguez Ibarra was found at approximately 8:30 in the morning, in a deep area of the dam between Via Natura and Paseo de la Victoria streets. His body was at the bottom of one of the parts of the enormous lake, but with special tools the firefighters removed the bottom and then it floated. They recovered it, put it on a small boat and covered it with a brown jacket from the firefighters’ uniform, until they reached one of the shores, where the Forensic Medical Service secured it to take it away. The District Attorney’s Office for the Northern Zone reported that the cause of death was identified as asphyxiation by submersion, although an estimated time of death was not yet known.
Brave, protective and funny, that was Rafa
The teenager who told what she experienced with the unknown boy who saved her, said that Rafa smiled at her and told her to let him go, to get to safety. That was the teenager in his short life. Maria, a teenager who dedicated her songs in the 12:30 choir at the Transfiguration of the Lord parish to the memory of Rafa, said she knew him. They became friends outside of school and he would visit her to talk and laugh. “(He was) funny, happy, cheerful, positive, all magical, he supported me a lot and I him. We talked about things. Since we met we got along very well,” she said. Rubi, another teenager, was in the same school, and she saw him two or three times. She didn’t know him that well but Rafa still offered to accompany her so she wouldn’t go home alone. “He was very protective, he liked to accompany others so they weren’t alone,” she said, and that was the case with anyone, man or woman. Rafa’s cousin described him as a charismatic, cheerful, courageous and “talkative” teenager, a homely, communicative boy. “He didn’t go anywhere else. He went from home to school and vice versa. He asked permission when he wanted to go out. We never lacked contact with him,” she said. He was cared for by his aunts, his grandmother, his father and his cousin; his mother passed away years ago. From the beginning, it was his aunt who was on the lookout with Municipal Civil Protection to ask for support in the search for her nephew, who had not called home and whose appearance matched that of the boy in the video. Yesterday, September 1, when his body was put in a safe place and the bureaucracy to bury him began, was his 16th birthday. He was in his third semester at Conalep II. The family has not reported on the teenager’s funeral services, although it was specified that it will be in a funeral home close to what was Rafa’s home.
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