Elizabeth Toledo was found naked, bruised, and dead in her home in Buenos Aires, a victim of rape and murder back in 2018. Miguel Rolon and Jorge Alvarez will be going on trial this year for their crime of femicide.
Last week, new evidence was submitted to the police which included the words of the victim's dying words mimicked by her parrot. An officer, first heard what seemed to be a woman screaming as he guarded the murder scene, saying that the parrot was repeating the phrase, 'oh no, please let me go,' in Spanish. The same officer continued to hear the parrot screaming the same phrase as he left the crime scene.
A neighbor of the victim, who had been buying seeds for the parrot, once heard it say 'Why did you hit me?' It didn't make much sense at the time but immediately coincided with the moment when the victim's partner was kicked out of the house for hitting Toledo.
Intelligent Bird Species
Parrots are among various birds that can imitate complex sounds such as human speech. American and European scientists conducted a study regarding the song systems of birds such as songbirds, hummingbirds, and parrots.
A series of experiments were performed to map the brain activity of bird responses, starting from budgerigars, then with other parrot species. The most advanced in vocal mimicry was attributed to the core and shell song systems unique to a parrot's brain, thus allowing them to copy entire sentences and making them a highly intelligent species.
The conclusions of the study have allowed the researchers to better understand vocal learning in general.
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Parrots Prove to be Reliable Witnesses
Similar to Toledo's bird, another case of a parrot witnessing a homicide occurred in May 2015. The African Grey, Bud, was repeating 'don't shoot,' which referred to the woman who murdered its owner.
Glenna Duram was found guilty in 2017 for shooting her husband, Martin, five times. Afterward, she pointed the gun to herself in a failed suicide attempt. The father of Mr. Durum told local media, 'I personally think he was there, and he remembers it and he was saying it.'
Besides the statement of two witnesses in Toledo's femicide, evidence of a bite mark on her arm directly points to Rolon's teeth. This is only one of the acts of violence seen on the victim's body, as there was confirmation that she was strangled, raped, and beaten.
There had also been previous reports of domestic violence from this household. Rolon had been the partner of Toledo, who could be facing life imprisonment for the crimes of 'sexual abuse, aggravated homicide, criminis cause, and femicide.' Bibiana Santella, the prosecutor in charge, also reported that the matching bite mark 'is like a fingerprint.'
As for Alvarez, DNA evidence revealed traces of the rape and killing of Toledo. Toledo had lived with these two men who rented a room to them, while the third man had an alibi and was dismissed from the case.
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