Irina Flehr was born on January 28, 2002, in a northern city in Argentina called Cordoba. As the only child of Reinaldo Flehr and Verónica de Flehr, her early years seemed relatively ordinary. While details of her childhood are sparse, Irina herself would later recount a supportive bond with her mother, aunt, and maternal grandmother. Her relationship with her father’s side of the family, however, was less close. This delicate balance was shattered when her mother, Verónica, passed away on December 19, 2014, leaving 12-year-old Irina devastated.
After her mother’s death, Irina’s behavior took a troubling turn. Friends and family noticed her increasingly rebellious attitude, and her academic life began to suffer as she frequently skipped classes. Rumors circulated that she had been expelled, though Irina Flehr denied these claims. This change strained her relationship with her father, Reinaldo, and she eventually accused him of mistreatment. In response, Reinaldo’s friends and family described him as a kind and easygoing man, though his family claimed he was hurt by Irina’s behavior.
Reinaldo Flehr
Reinaldo Flehr, born on August 20, 1960, was an architect and one of three siblings. After his wife’s passing, he took on the responsibility of managing her inherited family properties, which included various rental units. Irina Flehr was set to inherit part of these assets upon reaching adulthood. However, as Irina grew older, conflicts over the estate intensified, especially when Reinaldo started dating again. Irina’s relatives claimed her disruptive behavior escalated whenever Reinaldo began seeing new people, with incidents including her prematurely collecting rent and discarding her father’s belongings.
In 2019, Reinaldo met Miriam, who initially served as a friend but later became his partner. Around this time, Irina Flehr also began a relationship with Leandro Moscarello, a man seven years her senior. Leandro, a blacksmith with a reputation for asserting himself as a businessman, quickly raised concerns for Reinaldo, who felt increasingly at odds with his daughter.
As Irina approached her 18th birthday in 2020, her demands to manage her mother’s estate grew more insistent. Allegedly influenced by Leandro, described by some as controlling, she pushed her father harder. While the legal process eventually allocated some income from the properties to Irina Flehr, she continued to insist on full control.
In November 2020, Irina Flehr gave birth to a daughter, Francesca. This development, rather than easing tensions, seemed only to add fuel to the family’s already volatile dynamic. Family members reported that both Irina and Leandro had started mistreating Reinaldo, even resorting to emotional and physical abuse. Fearing for his safety, Reinaldo reportedly began locking himself in his room at night.
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Escalating Conflict
One night, after a particularly intense argument, Reinaldo was forced to call the police. Irina Flehr allegedly changed the locks afterward, effectively barring him from his own home. Feeling increasingly isolated and threatened, Reinaldo documented the situation legally and moved to a nearby property, hoping for a reprieve from the tension. However, this move would mark only the beginning of an even more turbulent phase in his life.
After Reinaldo moved out, Irina Flehr, along with her partner Leandro and their daughter Francesca, took full possession of the family home. The couple quickly settled in, managing a pig farm and establishing a workshop on the property, where Leandro, a blacksmith, worked with his younger brother, Samuel, a welder. To supplement their income, they rented out tents for events and received rental payments from properties Irina Flehr inherited after a legal arrangement with her father. Yet, even with these resources, Irina continued pressuring Reinaldo to relinquish all his claims to her.
Reinaldo’s mother observed Irina’s actions as increasingly hostile, recounting a disturbing incident where Reinaldo tried to reclaim his two dogs, only to find them deceased, allegedly poisoned by Irina. Additionally, when Reinaldo intended to retrieve an urn containing his father’s ashes, he was informed by Irina’s family that she had discarded it. Despite the growing strain and hurt caused by these actions, Reinaldo held onto hope that Irina Flehr might change, especially now that she was a mother herself.
Moving On: Reinaldo and Miriam’s Plans
Determined to look forward, Reinaldo focused on his work and his relationship with Miriam. By late 2021, after nearly two years together, they began planning to move in together and open a restaurant. Miriam marked this commitment with a gold ring, a symbol of their future. However, this gesture appeared to fuel further discord between Reinaldo and Irina. As their arguments grew more heated, legal disputes over the inherited properties resurfaced, with Irina Flehr demanding full control, even though half of the estate legally belonged to her father.
In statements later filed in court, Miriam revealed that Reinaldo had confided in her about several frightening encounters with Irina Flehr, including two instances where she had allegedly threatened him with a knife. One night, Reinaldo even opted to sleep in his car rather than risk staying in the house. His deepest wish was to resolve the conflict peacefully, although he couldn’t have anticipated the tragic events that would soon unfold.
On Tuesday, September 28, 2021, Reinaldo’s day began like any other. After handling his daily obligations, he met with Miriam at her house, and they spent the afternoon together. Around 10 PM, Reinaldo got into his gray Honda and left to return to his residence. Miriam had initially planned to accompany him but felt, for reasons she couldn’t quite explain, that staying behind was best. Neither realized that this would be their last time together.
A Disturbing Discovery
The following day, September 29, Reinaldo’s sister Daniela tried repeatedly to contact him, as they had plans to meet. Receiving no response, she grew increasingly alarmed and reached out to Miriam, who confirmed that Reinaldo had left her house around 10 PM the previous night. Now deeply concerned, Daniela and her husband decided to go to Reinaldo’s house.
When they arrived, they were confronted by a horrifying scene: Reinaldo was bound to a chair that had toppled over in his bedroom. In shock, they called emergency services, and police soon arrived to secure the area. Inside the room, Reinaldo lay restrained with plastic ties and had suffered two fatal gunshot wounds—one to the face and another to the neck.
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Investigation and New Evidence
At first, authorities considered the possibility of a burglary gone wrong. However, the lack of forced entry and the unusual detail of a blaring television suggested a more complex scenario. Reinaldo’s valuables, including his computer, cellphone, wallet, and tablet, were all present. When questioned by detectives, his family pointed out that no items appeared to be missing.
As investigators pieced together clues, Reinaldo’s mother and sister directed their suspicions toward Irina Flehr, citing the intense inheritance dispute as a possible motive. Following this lead, officers proceeded to visit the residence where Irina lived with Leandro, hoping to uncover answers in the tragic and complicated case that had come to haunt the Flehr family.
After notifying Irina of her father’s death, police requested she come to the station for questioning. Once there, officers asked her about her relationship with Reinaldo and the ongoing legal dispute over her mother’s inheritance. Realizing she was a suspect, Irina Flehr denied any conflicts with her father and dismissed accusations that she had excluded him from the family home or sought control over the entire estate. With no evidence to justify detaining her, Irina Flehr was released, while investigators pressed forward to find the person responsible for Reinaldo’s murder.
On January 3, 2022, the results of Reinaldo’s autopsy were disclosed, revealing two gunshot wounds: one to the frontotemporal region of his head and another to his neck, causing immediate death. Despite extensive analysis, authorities were unable to link the ammunition to a specific weapon, as the firearm had not been recovered. Investigators continued to focus on the inheritance dispute, examining Reinaldo’s social connections, including Irina Flehr, her partner Leandro, and their associates.
Suspicious Communications
In reviewing communications from December 28, 2021, detectives discovered that Leandro had been in frequent contact with three men who quickly became central figures in the case: his younger brother Samuel, 24; a friend, David “El Loro” Silvestre, 23, who owned a black car later crucial to the investigation; and another friend, David “Negro” Suárez, 24. Despite a lack of witnesses and neighbors reporting no gunshots, the connections between Leandro and these individuals raised suspicions, leading investigators closer to uncovering the truth behind Reinaldo’s murder.
Surveillance footage captured Reinaldo arriving alone at his residence at 10:46 PM. After parking, he unlocked the main gate and approached the house. At that moment, two individuals appeared suddenly, overpowering him and forcing him inside. Inside, they bound him to a chair in his bedroom and shot him twice, ending his life. Since no one was seen entering through the front, investigators speculated the attackers accessed the property from the back.
Footage from a nearby business’s security camera supported this theory, showing a black car repeatedly driving through the area in the hours before the crime. Around 9:20 PM, the same car was seen near Reinaldo’s home, where two men exited and headed toward the property. After this, the men disappeared from all subsequent footage, leading investigators to conclude that they had entered the property through a broken fence concealed by dense vegetation.
Nearly two hours later, at around 11:20 PM, the business’s camera recorded the black car returning, seemingly picking up the two individuals, who were observed running toward it. Police traced the vehicle’s route, noting that it made stops near the homes of three suspects: Samuel, David Silvestre, and David Suárez. Phone records further placed them near Reinaldo’s residence at the time of the murder.
Arrests and a Heartbreaking End
On February 9, 2022, police arrested Irina Flehr, then 20, and her partner Leandro, 26, suspecting them as the masterminds behind the attack on Reinaldo Flehr. Their one-year-old daughter, Francesca, was placed under her paternal grandparents’ care. That same night, authorities detained Samuel Moscarello, David Silvestre, and David Suárez, implicating them in the crime’s execution. In a later statement, Reinaldo’s mother revealed her son had confided in her about his fear of being killed in an attack, noting that he feared Irina might take drastic steps to claim everything if he remarried.
News that Irina Flehr might have orchestrated her own father’s murder stunned Argentina, drawing national attention. With inheritance as a potential motive, the scandal captivated the public, and headlines reported on the case’s every turn. Soon after the arrests, the prosecutor held a press conference, revealing substantial evidence to charge Irina and her partner, Leandro, as accomplices, while charging David Silvestre, Samuel Moscarello, and David Suárez as co-authors of the crime. Each faced aggravated homicide charges, with Irina Flehr and Leandro receiving additional charges due to their family connection to Reinaldo. If convicted, all except Suárez faced life sentences.
By November 2023, the family violence prosecutor’s office announced that the case was set to proceed to trial. Despite her lawyer’s efforts to secure house arrest, citing her role as a young mother, Irina Flehr remained in custody and eventually ended her relationship with Leandro. In May 2024, after two years of silence, 22-year-old Irina shared her perspective in an exclusive interview, discussing her relationship with her father and her separation from her daughter, Francesca.
She denied involvement in Reinaldo’s death and maintained she had no knowledge of who was responsible, describing Reinaldo as a good man uninvolved in any conflict. While acknowledging her family’s anger, she refuted accusations of changing the locks or harming her father’s pets, and stated that they had reached an agreement over her mother’s estate.
The Trial Begins: July 1, 2024
As the trial opened on July 1, 2024, the prosecution charged Irina Flehr and Leandro as instigators of the crime, with Samuel and David Silvestre accused as the direct perpetrators. Though David Suárez, the owner of the black car seen near the crime scene, was implicated as the driver, he faced a lesser charge as an accessory, with the prosecution seeking a 15-year sentence for him.
In early testimony, witnesses described Irina’s desire to control both her own inheritance and her father’s share of the estate. Reinaldo’s sister testified that Irina’s conflict with her father was rooted in her ambition to take over the estate. Miriam, Reinaldo’s former partner, described him as a gentle, honest man who feared Irina Flehr and Leandro might eventually harm him.
In a surprising twist, Samuel Moscarello and David Silvestre confessed in early August to being the direct perpetrators, claiming they alone had planned and executed the crime, attempting to distance Irina from involvement. Their statements introduced new complexities to the case, though it remained uncertain whether the jury would accept their account.
Closing Arguments and Verdict
In closing arguments on August 27, Irina Flehr tearfully maintained her innocence, expressing her wish to raise her daughter. Leandro, too, denied involvement, casting suspicion on his brother, Samuel, and asserting he had not been present at the crime scene. One of the trial’s most emotional moments came when Reinaldo’s mother addressed Irina directly, asking why she would take her father’s life when she had all she needed. Her words left the court in silence.
The prosecution’s final arguments emphasized the inheritance conflict as the primary motive, citing Irina’s push for property division just one month before the murder. On August 30, 2024, the judge and jury reached a unanimous verdict, finding Irina and Leandro guilty of aggravated homicide, along with Samuel Moscarello and David Silvestre. David Suárez received a 13-year sentence as an accessory, his cooperation considered in sentencing.
