Renowned gay pastor of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church murdered

As soon as the United Evangelical Lutheran Church published its regret for the crime of Pastor Fabián Kreischer (45) – which occurred at his home in San Miguel last weekend – the messages of farewell, thanks and appreciation multiplied. And they transcended borders.

Is that Kreischer was also vice president of creed for Argentina and Uruguay and a activist for the rights of sexual diversity as a pastor, as a gay man and as a spokesperson for the community of people living with HIV.

In Spanish and English, from Peru, Brazil, Guatemala and even Minnesota, in the United States; It did not matter the language or the place to send a goodbye to the man who “Lived honestly”According to one of his close associates, he did not hide his homosexuality and fought for the rights of sexual minorities. They killed him cruelly.

Born in Oberá, Misiones, on August 3, 1975, Pastor Fabián’s body was found this Sunday in the department where he lived in San Miguel, next to the headquarters of the Iglesia Evangélica Luterana Unida, where he was the head of the Congregation San Pablo.

It had been more than 20 years since he had traveled to Buenos Aires in search of being able to develop his vocation and study theology: “His sexual orientation, which did not hide it, and being from the Interior made him the way uphill, but he waited patiently,” he said. to Clarion Gustavo Gómez, president of the same evangelical church and friend of Fabián.

Gómez was one of those who was at the victim’s house on February 7, along with the police. He did not want to recognize the body. “Was bound hand and foot, covered with mattresses in his room. Had several cuts on the body: on the back, on the abdomen and in other areas ”, explained the police and judicial sources consulted by Clarion.

The sources did not confirm that he was beheaded, as indicated in the first versions, nor that he was naked. They did say that “in the pastor’s house there was no disorder, so I know rule out theft.

According to sources. the investigation leans towards the contacts that the victim may have established through social networks or applications. In that line, the hypothesis of a hate crime is not ruled out.

“I was not in a couple, but he exercised his sexuality very freely”, Explained Gómez. Fabián has been HIV positive since 2001 and, far from hiding it, he made his life experience an authorized voice to fight against prejudice and discrimination. About six years ago, he published his life story “Pastor, gay and with HIV?” in a document, titled “Space for Change,” from the Lutheran World Federation.

“It was the first openly gay pastor to ordain the Church Evangelical Lutheran United. When he began his practice, he said he was in a couple and the rest of the pastoral body was scandalized. He waited patiently. The people of San Miguel accepted and loved him, because he was a person of integrity, commitment and frontal, ”Gómez recalled.

Although he had not married, when he remembered his partner, who died in 2018, he said that there was “widowed “. It was not his only loss; in the last two years his sister died and, last month, his father, to whom he traveled to Oberá to take care of him until the end.

“I was sad and dejected by the death of my father, but with strength and projects, always very optimistic. He loved the Church, his neighbor, he had an absolute dedication and he was an activist for rights and diversity, ”said Gómez, the spirit of the pastor after returning from Misiones.

In the block of Miguel Angel Delia at 1600, of San Miguel, where Kreischer lived and his church worked, no municipal security cameras but yes privateInvestigators are searching for an image of the murderer.

Too they work on the victim’s phone: they think he could have made an appointment through social networks.

A neighbor, key

The last data of the shepherd alive that they handle in the investigation was provided a neighbor, who saw him on Friday February 5th. Afterwards, nothing more. His friends They tried to contact him, but he didn’t answer his cell phone did not answer the messages.

“He was super dedicated, he always answered his WhatsApp,” Gómez told what awakened the alert of the tragic end. “It was a being full: did what he said and said what he thought. Everyone valued him, “his friend is distressed.

Having no answers, on Sunday, February 7, his relatives they went to the pastor’s house Fabian and they called 911 to report his disappearance. The police from the 1st Police Station of San Miguel responded.

“When the police arrived, the friends gave them the keys to the apartment,” explain the sources. They found a scene of horror: the body tied hand and foot, covered with mattresses in the room and with several stab wounds.

The case is being investigated by the prosecutor Mirna Sánchez, from UFI No. 21 of Malvinas Argentinas, who classified the event, in principle, as “investigation of causes of death.”

“The preliminary report of the autopsy did not specify the cause of deathYes, he had several stab wounds ”, was the brief report that the sources gave.

DS