Murder of José Rafael Llenas Aybar

José Rafael Llenas-Aybar (circa 1984 – 3 May 1996) was a boy from the Dominican Republic who went missing and later found dead in May 1996. Llenas Aybar was born into an upper-middle-class family, his parents were José Rafael Llenas Menicucci and Ileana del Carmen Aybar Nadal. His father is first cousin of MLB player Winston Llenas and second cousin-once removed of former president Hipólito Mejía, and his mother is second cousin of Jacinto Peynado Garrigosa, the then-vice president of the country.

Llenas Aybar’s murder was a high-profile case that gained notoriety due to the tragic nature of the murder but also because the victim was from an upper-middle-class family with very close ties to media moguls, one of the individuals accused of taking part in the crime, Mario José Redondo Llenas (“Redondo Llenas”), was a cousin of the victim, and the family of the Argentine ambassador allegedly had ties to the incident.