Outlore with Eleanor Neale
How a Trusted Relationship Turned Deadly: The Catalina Gutiérrez Case
19 Apr 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: Who was Catalina Gutierrez and what was her life like?
Catalina Gutierrez, a 21-year-old influencer from Argentina, had no idea that she had a target on her back. As she lived her final days on this earth, she met with her friends, hung out with her family, studied as an architect. All the while, her time was running out. It wouldn't be long before somebody would betray her trust in the worst way possible.
In a matter of hours, people began noticing her absence. Not just her family or her friends, but her thousands of followers as well. Everyone panicking, wondering what could have happened to her. By the end of the night, an abandoned car would be found. And inside it, a horrifying scene that blew this case wide open.
Hello, and welcome to Outlaw Podcast. I'm Eleanor Neal, and in today's episode, we're in Cordoba, Argentina in 2024, where a manhunt has just begun after an architecture student vanished into thin air.
But Catalina Gutierrez was not your ordinary student. She actually had over 100,000 followers across her social media pages at the time. And given her online presence and the amount of people following her every move, well, it was only adding to the fear. Had an obsessed follower with ulterior motives stalked her down?
Had a jealous ex seen her happy in her new relationship and wanted her all to himself? Or did the person responsible for her disappearance sit somewhere in the middle of the two? Now, before we begin, I just want to give my usual disclaimer that I mean absolutely no harm or disrespect to anyone that we talk about in today's case.
Our episodes are made with the utmost care to honour those who lost their lives and respect the profound grief that their loved ones endure. Given the nature of today's episode, we'll be covering some very sensitive topics, including assault, stalking, murder, arson, discussion of taking one's own life, and gender-based violence.
This episode is created with the hope to raise awareness, to inspire change and further victim support. Viewer discretion is advised. Now, it's time to dive into today's case, the story of a very normal girl with quite an extraordinary life that would end far too soon. But she's so much more than the true crime case that now surrounds her, so let me introduce you to the beautiful, intelligent,
Catalina Gutierrez.
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Chapter 2: What events led to Catalina's disappearance?
Catalina Gutierrez was born on February 7th, 2003 in Argentina. She was the second daughter to parents Eleonora and Marcelo, and she had an older sister named Lucia, who was like a built-in best friend for life. They were a very close, very happy family. They had a family dog that they named Kitty,
And maybe I'm picking up on a joke where there isn't one but the concept of a dog being called Kitty is really funny to me. I love names like that. I had a friend in school who named her tiny little hamster Elephant. So it just tickled me when I first read about the dog named Kitty. But my god did Catalina adore this puppy.
A girl and her first pet is like one of the purest bonds that I think could ever exist. And Catalina was an incredibly loving girl. She cared for everyone and everything so flipping much.
Chapter 3: What shocking discovery was made during the investigation?
And we're skipping ahead slightly here, but eventually when Kitty the dog passed away much later in Catalina's life, she honoured their bond and their time together with a beautiful, simple line work tattoo which was just gorgeous. The Gutierrez household was a very musical one. Cata's dad played the guitar and she'd always sing along with him since she was tiny.
Chapter 4: How did Catalina's family and friends react to her vanishing?
She had a beautiful voice and she just loved to perform for people. As she got older, Catalina picked up a guitar herself, her dad taught her to play. and she began performing her own acoustic sets in bars and restaurants. She was booked and busy. She was just one of those people who made things happen for herself, even from a teenager.
She had drive, she was hard-working, she was ambitious, she knew that she was destined for big things. She was very much inspired by her father who was a very successful, very well-respected architect Since she was a little girl, she wanted to be just like him. She would sit there next to him for hours and hours, just sketching out buildings alongside him as he worked.
And eventually, when the time came for her to go off to university, she would follow in his footsteps, studying architecture. At the age of 18, she enrolled at the University of Cordoba in 2021 for a really quite intense course in architecture. It was a lot of late nights in the library, a lot of dedication, But this is kind of what Catalina was built for, you know?
Both her mum and dad were grafters and she wanted to make them proud. I mean, she already was making them proud, purely down to the fact that she was growing up to be a brilliant human being. Catalina was kind, respectful, confident, loving, reliable. She really was everything that you would hope for your daughter to grow up and be.
She maintained her passion for music throughout uni and of course when TikTok became a thing later on in her life she would post her singing videos on there where she gained a pretty solid audience. We're talking over 100k followers on Instagram. I don't think she ever really intended on gaining that many followers, they just kind of found her but people tuned in to watch her live her life and
share her passions, her music, the architecture that she would visit and document just because they really liked her. Catalina ended up getting a few different brand deals. She would get things gifted from local companies and this was really exciting because she'd managed to make her passions and her posting
a little part-time income to support her through uni, literally just by posting what made her happy. During this time, Catalina had been dating a boy from her hometown, but their relationship ended towards the end of 2022, when she would have been about 19 years old. I mean, at that age, you're changing so much in such a short space of time that relationships do tend to take a hit.
You outgrow one another and instead you require someone who's more suited for the path that you're heading down. I mean, you don't require anyone, but you know what I mean. If you want a partner, it's got to be a bit more aligned to the newer version of you. So then, halfway through 2023, Kata would have been 20 years old now when a new man entered her life. Well, he wasn't exactly new.
His name was Ezequiel Garcia, known as Zaza. They'd met in uni and they'd been friends this whole time, but Zaza had a huge crush on Catalina practically from the moment that they met. It was like a slow burn yearning crush. He was besotted by Miss Gutierrez but obviously this whole entire time she'd had a boyfriend but once that was no longer the case Ezekiel shot his shot, shooted his shot.
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Chapter 5: What were the circumstances surrounding Catalina's death?
It was all quite perfect. But obviously, things didn't stay so perfect for Catalina, otherwise we wouldn't be here today telling her story. And tragically, little did she know, her time on Earth was running out. In Argentina, they have an annual celebration called Dia del Amigo, Day of Friends, Friends Day. It's exactly what you'd imagine, a day to celebrate your friendships.
It's on July 20th, but in 2024, Catalina and her friends decided to celebrate early on July 17th. So she spent the first half of the day just chilling out. She didn't have much work or studying to do, and so she really took advantage of that rare opportunity for rest, knowing that the hangout later was probably gonna take it out of her.
So Catalina and the group had planned to go bowling that night at the local shopping mall. It was going to be her, Nesta and three other friends that were part of her slightly wider circle. Around 9pm she asks her mum if she could borrow her car and off she goes. No one had any reason to think that this might be the last time that Catalina Gutierrez was ever seen or heard from.
Only two hours later, just after 11pm that night, Catalina's mum, Eleonora, gets a call from Cata's boyfriend, Ezekiel. He says, look, I'm worried. I've been calling Catalina for about an hour and she's not answering. The last time that he had heard from her was at 9.22pm when she'd sent him a voice note, basically just letting him know that she was about to go and meet her friends.
You know, just the usual update. She even told him that she was going to be leaving her car near his apartment to avoid the... insane parking charges at the mall. But since then, she'd gone radio silent. And the fact that her boyfriend picked up on how odd this was within just two hours is really quite impressive. That is a man who knows his partner. He knows her patterns.
He knows it's odd for her to not be in touch. or maybe he got a bad feeling about something. Even though it had only been an hour and a half since anyone had heard from her, everyone was starting to worry now because she wasn't picking up her phone to anyone. Not her boyfriend, not her mum, not her sister Lucia, and it was ringing.
It wasn't switched off, it wasn't out of battery, like it was ringing all the way through to voicemail. She just wasn't picking it up. So her family immediately get Lucia to trace Catalina using her phone's GPS location. Luckily, it was switched on. But it revealed that she wasn't actually at the mall, as per her plan. For the last 35 minutes, Catalina had seemingly just been at someone's house.
And Lucia recognised the address as that of Kata's best friend, Nesta. Obviously, this was a huge relief. She was with someone that she trusted, in a safe place that she'd been many times before. I mean, it was weird that she wasn't picking up her phone, but maybe they were all watching a movie or something. Maybe she'd left her phone in a different room.
In order to ease their minds, Eleonora pulled up Nesta's contact and began writing a text to him asking if Catalina was there and if she was okay. But halfway through writing this text, she thought it was just easier to just call him and get immediate answers. He picked up and Eleonora began asking about Cata, but Nestor actually said that she wasn't there. In fact, he had no idea where she was.
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Chapter 6: Who is Nestor Soto and what role did he play in Catalina's life?
He reassured Eleonora that he was just as confused and concerned about the situation,
he'd been trying to get a hold of her too, texting her for an hour prior when she failed to turn up saying, And after no reply to that, he sent another text saying, As it approached 10pm, an hour after their planned meeting time, Nesta ended up texting another one of their friends that they were supposed to meet saying, Dude, it's cancelled, I think. Too many people are upset."
To which the friend said, Oh, really? But we were going to get together, dude. While Dia del Amigo wasn't exactly a public holiday, it was still very widely celebrated, and the fact that everyone had made plans and they'd fallen through last minute left a lot of people disappointed, including Nestor himself. Ten minutes later, he sent another text to one of the group saying, I'm leaving, man.
Katta stood me up. And then he sent a voice note to another friend saying, hey dude, I'm really pissed off. I don't know what's up. Like, no, she just didn't answer me. So whatever. I'm used to it by now. And then, just after 10pm, he calls Katta herself. She doesn't pick up, and so he leaves her a voicemail saying, Hey, what's up, Kata? I just wanted to let you know I'm home.
I don't know what's going on with you. I told the guys it was cancelled. You weren't coming anymore. I'm not even going to show. I'm angry. All this time, Catalina's phone GPS was still right by Nesta's house.
He said that this didn't make any sense and he just couldn't explain it, considering he hadn't seen her at all that night, she hadn't come to pick him up or to come visit him, so maybe it was some sort of glitch? Lucia told him to just go outside and check for her anyway. Maybe she was parked up in her car outside, scared or upset that she'd pissed off all her friends. So Nesta goes outside,
And he says that he can't see Catalina or her car anywhere. He just couldn't explain why or how her location was showing up at his house. But by now, it hadn't moved for over an hour. Nesta really wasn't much help for the family and now that it was getting late, everyone was getting desperate to know that Cata was safe.
Her sister called up another one of the friends that she was supposed to meet up with for bowling that night, a girl named Augustina. And everything she said matched up with Nesta, that Catalina had no-showed for the plans. None of them had seen or heard from her since the plans were supposed to begin. It really was like a full ghosting.
None of them had any level of info that the others didn't have. And by now it was reaching midnight and everyone was worried sick. Even though it had only been two hours since she'd last been heard from, the circumstances under which she had vanished were just… not right.
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Chapter 7: What evidence emerged during Nestor Soto's confession?
When they arrived, they found something. Catalina's mum's car was parked right there, right where the location said it would be. But it seemed empty, and they couldn't see Catalina around it. It was parked in an odd location as well, like just off the road. And as they approached, things got even weirder. A peek into the inside showed clear signs of burning in the interior.
Someone had seemingly tried to set this car on fire. And after that, things went from weird and concerning to absolutely devastating. A look in the backseat revealed what looked to be a person laying across the seats, completely motionless and also partially burned.
Police broke into the car as quickly as they could and they pulled the person out to see if CPR could be performed, but it was too late. They'd been dead for a little while. No amount of effort could bring them back. And although police couldn't confirm anything right now in this moment, they were pretty sure they knew exactly what they had just found.
Back at the station, Eleonora was asked about what her daughter was wearing that night and what she usually carried with her. So her mum talked about her black patent leather wallet that she would hold all of her bank cards and her ID in. She said that her daughter had an iPhone 15 Pro with a pink Apple case. She always carried a geek bar vape.
She was wearing high top vans when she left that day. All of these description points tragically lined up with the woman that they had just pulled from the car, deceased and burned. Right now, they had no idea what had happened to her. but they could officially confirm that this was Catalina Gutierrez, a 21-year-old woman with big dreams and such a promising life ahead of her.
She was dearly loved by everyone that knew her, gone far too soon. Now, before we continue with Catalina's story, I just want to take a moment to talk about something that is sadly very, very relevant to this case. In Argentina, there is a growing movement called Ni Una Menos, which translates to Not One Woman Less.
It began in 2015 after a series of high-profile femicides shocked the country and it quickly grew into a nationwide movement, one that was calling for stronger protections for women and greater accountability when it comes to gender-based violence.
Ni Una Menos has organised huge demonstrations across Argentina and Latin America, raising awareness about the reality that many women still face violence just for wanting independence, or for ending relationships, or for simply just living life on their own terms.
Catalina's story is of course very deeply personal to her family and her friends and the people that loved her, but it also sits within a much bigger conversation about what's happening across Argentina about violence against women. It's why movements like Ni Una Menos continue to push for change.
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Chapter 8: What implications does Catalina's case have on gender-based violence?
The other girl in their trio friend group, remember Ornella, she had been through all of this with Nesta before. He became almost like a controlling boyfriend, despite their relationship only ever being platonic. Nothing was ever romantically charged, but he would want to know where she was at all times. He would want to be with her at all times. He was smothering.
If she missed a call from him or took too long to respond to a text, he would fly off the handle or start guilt tripping her.
It got to a point where he was even tracking her location when she didn't respond so that he could bring it up to her and be like, well, you were just sat in class or you were just at home, insinuating that she has no excuse to not be in constant contact with him as if she doesn't have her own life.
On one occasion, Ornella had left her phone at home and she was in class using her laptop to respond to him instead. Clearly, He determined that she was taking too long to text back and so he texted her having a go and she explained to him that she didn't have her phone on her at first that day.
She had actually since gone home to collect it but for the first half of the day she genuinely didn't have her phone on her and that's why she was being slow to respond. Well, Nesta immediately sent her a screenshot of her phone's location, which obviously now was with her in class, but it hadn't been, along with a voice note that was almost two minutes long, just berating her.
He said, Like, is he the fucking police? All of this for what? She doesn't owe him a text back, especially when she's busy in class. But he felt really entitled to the women around him and their time and their energy. Eventually, Ornella's friends began clocking on to this toxic friendship that she was in and they told her to get out.
Just because it wasn't her boyfriend didn't mean that this wasn't becoming an abusive dynamic. Friends can be possessive and abusive too. So by the time of Catalina's murder and the night at the bowling alley, Ornella was pretty distanced from the group, hence why she wasn't a part of the bowling plans. But it wasn't just Ornella and Catalina that he had treated this way.
There was a third young woman named Luna that he had seemingly had the exact same dynamic with. And what's interesting about these possessive friendships is that they truly were never anything more than just that, possessive friendships. Who knows, maybe Nestor did have unspoken crushes on these women, but he never really made that known or obvious if it was the case.
He really was just an overbearing friend. But he never approved of any of the men that these female friends would date. No man was ever good enough for them. He would even put the girls down for their choices in men and in dating, telling them that they just go for players or losers. So, I mean, there could well have been some romantic jealousy in there.
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