Susana Freydoz

Susana Graciela Freydoz (born 18 April 1951 ) is an Argentine nutritionist and convicted murderer who served as First Lady of Río Negro Province as the wife of Governor Carlos Soria.

On 1 January 2012, Freydoz shot and killed her recently inaugurated husband after an emotional crisis caused by pathological jealousy following the public knowledge of Soria's affair with a 36-year-old kinesiologist and daughter of one of his friends.

Early life and youth Freydoz was born in April 1951 in Neuquén, Neuquén Province, the daughter of Alberto José Freydoz and Ana Emma Kranke.

After enrolling in UBA, Freydoz decided to study nutrition while Soria joined the faculty of law.

The relationship between Freydoz and Soria, marked by his constant authoritarian behaviour and infidelities, began to collapse in the context of the 2011 Argentine general election and Soria's victory in the race for Governor of Río Negro Province. Towards the end of 2011, a long-standing affair between Soria and Paula, a 36-year-old kinesiologist and daughter of one of Soria's lifelong friends, began to cause rumours and gossip in the couple's social circles and media.

Murder Soria met in September 2011 with President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who supported his governorship race in Río Negro. On New Year's Eve 2011, Soria and Freydoz began arguing in the evening as the family prepared pork shoulder for dinner. Soria did not respond and deliberately submerged under water to avoid hearing Freydoz, which upset her further. According to María Emilia, the couple's daughter who spent the evening with them, Soria retired to his room at around 3 a.m. and was followed by an increasingly angry Freydoz who slammed the bedroom's door behind her. It was later known that when Freydoz grabbed the revolver, she pointed the gun to either her head or chest and told Soria that she was going to kill herself. Upon realising that Soria was indifferent to her alleged imminent suicide, Freydoz lost control of her anger and shot him in the face less than from Soria. She was subsequently charged with the aggravated murder of her husband. Weretilneck declared a day off in honor of Soria and several days of mourning.

Soria's killing drew attention to the relationships of politicians and their wives in Argentina. Writing for Todo Noticias, journalist Julio Bazán compared Freydoz to other cases of tragedies in high-stakes politics, citing the case of President Carlos Menem former partner Martha Meza, mother of Menem's son Carlos Nair. The woman committed suicide in 2003 by ingesting a lethal dose of herbicide amid the political scandal following her demand that Menem recognize Carlos Jr. as his child.

Bazán also mentioned President Menem's executive order in 1990 to forcefully evict First Lady Zulema Yoma from the presidential residence in Olivos, Buenos Aires, which resulted in uniformed military members pushing Yoma and her children off the residence's premises.

The trial against Freydoz began on 15 October 2012 in General Roca. The defense also said that Freydoz had mixed alcoholic drinks with alprazolam on the night of the crime and that she was therefore not fully responsible for her actions.

Among the witnesses who testified during the trial, biochemist Cristina Rubio said that Freydoz was mentally fit at the time of the killing and that she responded coherently when interviewed in the first hours after the shooting. Rubio also confirmed that the levels of alcohol and medications in Freydoz's blood stream were not toxic when she shot Soria.

Two witnesses supported the position of the state that Freydoz was not insane or mentally disturbed when she killed Soria. Peacock's wife, Elsa Romagnoli, who was close to Freydoz, agreed with her husband that Freydoz did not show mental disturbances, pointing instead to an obsessive jealousy.

Peacock added that Freydoz's obsession regarding Soria and Paula went as far as Freydoz calling the medical agency where Paula worked as a kinesiologist, complaining to the administratives of the medical center that Paula did not work as a kinesiologist, and suggesting that she was providing her husband with intimate services.

The prosecution also gave a report about what they called the "suicide game", chronicling the long-standing threats by Freydoz to Soria about her imminent suicide. Documents included instances in which Soria called her "fucking crazy" and accused her of manipulative behavior. In another incident, Soria had opened the windows of the upper-level room and asked Freydoz to jump off and kill herself. One of the reasons that the state gave for the killing was that Freydoz, jealous about Soria's affair with one of his friend's daughters, was also upset with Soria's hectic weeks in politics, where he had met with President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and planned an imminent move to Viedma to serve as Governor. Freydoz was sentenced to 18 years in prison and preemptively sent to the mental health ward at the Municipal Hospital of Cipolletti.

Judges Gauna Kroeger and Sánchez Freytes had found other important mitigating factors, including Freydoz's immediate remorse after the killing, asking for help during the trial, and her major depressive disorder as a result of her actions.

After learning of the dissenting opinion of judge García Balduini, defense counsel Alberto Riccheri said that he would appeal the verdict, strongly criticising the judges for invoking Freydoz's refusal to testify as an argument against her.

Incarceration and aftermath Freydoz remained at the Municipal Hospital in Cipolletti until April 2013, when an upper court in General Roca ordered that she be transferred to prison and stripping her of the mental health inmate status. Upon being informed that she was due to be sent to prison, Freydoz attempted suicide on 11 April by overdosing on psychiatric medications. She was taken to the hospital in critical state and entered into a coma.

Her state worsened due to contracting pneumonia and she remained in the intensive care unit for a month. When she recovered, another court in General Roca ordered her transfer to a psychiatric hospital in Buenos Aires.

Following Freydoz's transfer to a private mental clinic in Almagro, Buenos Aires, her son Martín spoke to local radio in Río Negro condemning the justice system for failing to determine whether his mother was sane or insane. Soria criticized what he considered to be contradictory when detectives told him that Freydoz had to pay for the crime like "any boy who steals a radio receiver" shortly before her suicide attempt. Soria added that he did not hold contempt for the 60 medical personnel of Cipolletti Hospital accused of negligence, instead blaming the courts.

The prosecution in the Soria case appealed the verdict and requested twice that she be re-sentenced to life imprisonment. However, the request was turned down twice by the Supreme Tribunal of Río Negro and, in May 2015, the sentence of 18 years in prison was upheld and finalised by the Supreme Court.