In the middle of the night, a young girl called the police because her parents wouldn’t wake up—and what officers found at the house stunned everyone.

During the early morning hours, while Sofia’s parents remained in the ICU suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning, forensic investigators inspected every corner of the house. What initially appeared to be a domestic accident began to take on the appearance of something very different.

The preliminary report revealed that the towel found blocking the ventilation was firmly wedged in from inside the bedroom, but the boiler—allegedly faulty—had been tampered with
. One of the technicians looked up, serious:
“This doesn’t break like this. Someone deliberately messed with these valves.”

When Morales interviewed Sofía in the children’s care room, the girl answered with the trembling sincerity of someone who still doesn’t understand the gravity of what happened.
” Yesterday, Dad was very nervous… he was talking loudly on the phone and said he ‘couldn’t pay anymore.’ I was on the stairs and I heard… I heard someone tell him he had until today.
” “Did you see that person?
” ” No…”
“Does your dad usually have visitors at night?
” ” For the past month, men have been coming. Mom says it’s ‘grown-up stuff.’”

The officer wrote down every word. What the girl described sounded dangerously similar to extortion by illegal loan sharks. It wasn’t uncommon: indebted families resorting to quick loans, with no contracts, no collateral, just threats.