Venezuelan rapper Canserbero’s death 8 years ago ‘not due to suicide’

This handout picture released by the Agencia Venezolana de Noticias (AVN) shows Venezuela’s Attorney General, Tarek William Saab, speaking during a press conference at the headquarters of the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Caracas on Tuesday, Dec. 26, 2023. Venezuelan authorities said Tuesday that a singer named the best Spanish-language rapper by Rolling Stone did not commit suicide eight years ago but was in fact killed. Singer Tyrone Gonzalez, or Canserbero as he was better known, died in 2015 at the age of 26 in a fall from the 10th floor of an apartment building in Maracay in Venezuela’s north. Attorney General Tarek William Saab showed reporters the video confessions of two individuals—siblings Natalia and Guillermo Amestica—now suspected of killing Canserbero. JESUS VARGAS / AVN / AFP

CARACAS, Venezuela—Venezuelan authorities said Tuesday, Dec. 26, that singer Tyrone Gonzalez, or Canserbero as he was better known, did not commit suicide eight years ago but was in fact killed.

Canserbero, who was named the best Spanish-language rapper by Rolling Stone, died in 2015 at the age of 26 in a fall from the 10th floor of an apartment building in Maracay in Venezuela’s north.

Investigators at the time ruled Canserbero had committed suicide after killing his friend Carlos Molnar in a fight.

On Tuesday, Attorney General Tarek William Saab showed reporters the video confessions of two individuals—siblings Natalia and Guillermo Amestica—now suspected of killing Canserbero.

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The case was reopened in November and the singer’s body exhumed for fresh investigations.

In one of the videos, Natalia Amestica says she drugged Canserbero and Molnar—who was her husband—then stabbed them.

Her brother then helped cover up the crime, staging a fight and throwing Canserbero’s body from a window, according to the taped confession.

Saab said a dispute about money had led to the crime.

In total, six people have been detained over the murder, said Saab. Several others are on the run.

The attorney general’s office has issued arrest warrants for several police officers who were at the scene, accusing them of taking money from the siblings to cover up the crime.

Warrants were also issued for a forensic pathologist and two investigators with the prosecutor’s office who were involved in the investigation.

“Canserbero can rest in peace,” said Saab, who compared the crime to the murder of American rapper Tupac Shakur in the United States in 1996 at the age of 25.

Last month, a former gang member who had long boasted of his involvement in that crime pleaded not guilty in a US court. He has been charged over the killing despite not being the man wielding the weapon used in the crime.