Córdoba: who is Brenda Agüero, the nurse sentenced to life imprisonment for killing babies

Brenda Agüero, the nurse sentenced to life imprisonment in Córdoba for murdering five newborn babies, is 29 years old and until three years ago worked at the Ramón Carrillo Neonatal Hospital in Córdoba.

Between March and June 2022, a series of deaths and severe decompensations of newborns occurred in her presence.

Autopsies revealed lethal levels of potassium and insulin administered deliberately. 

She was charged with five murders and eight attempted murders. After a lengthy trial, on Wednesday she was sentenced to life imprisonment, while the rest of the accused, including government officials and hospital directors, received sentences but will remain free.

In a surprising ruling, former Córdoba Health Minister Diego Cardozo was acquitted.

Agüero's defense keeps her innocence and denounces a harmful process.

In contrast, the prosecution relied on forensic evidence, testimonies, and an adverse psychological profile indicating manipulative and unemotional behavior, which contributed to the verdict.

Brenda Agüero, a dedicated nursing student

Brenda was a dedicated nursing student. She stated during the trial that she graduated with an average grade of 9.5.

She began studying law at Bower prison. She said it was the way she found to become stronger in the face of the shouts and insults she received inside the prison.

She also criticized the media, which, she claimed, built the image of her as a "serial killer."

In 2018, she started working at Sanatorio Allende in Córdoba, but her dream was to join the Maternal Neonatal Hospital.

"I went every week to drop off my résumé. It was extremely difficult for me to get in, I received a lot of 'no's everywhere. It was a cascade of no. I wanted to get in," she once told the press.

Brenda Agüero's family

She is single and lived with her mother, Cristina, and her two younger sisters in Río Ceballos. She grew up in a poor household. Her father, separated from her mother, lives in Buenos Aires.

In 2020, she managed to join the Ramón Carrillo Neonatal Hospital in Córdoba's capital, where she worked in the neonatology department.

When the case broke out in August 2022, her colleagues described her as a "dedicated and exceptional" worker. 

Her mother stated that she is "passionate" about her work, and that she never showed emotional problems nor had any psychiatric history.

She was charged and indicted for "aggravated homicide repeated by insidious procedure" of five children between March and June 2022, also for "attempt" regarding 8 surviving children and "ideological falsehood."

Autopsies on two of the five babies who died shortly after birth at the Neonatal Hospital in Córdoba confirmed what the families had reported:  the children lost their lives as a result of "excess potassium," a substance that was "intentionally injected."

During the trial, Agüero cried on several occasions, generally when referring to her mother, Cristina.

Brenda Agüero in front of the mothers of the deceased babies

She did not act the same way toward the mothers of the deceased babies. She even appeared unmoved by their heartbreaking feelings.

In her most cruel statement, she said: "It hurt me a lot to see the mothers sitting with a little piece of paper. You say 'your child died,' I don't know why the need to script them. Sorry, but I found that very shocking. It's something that has never happened to me and I hope I never have to experience it, but the whole script... no, no," she said.

During the days the trial lasted, she used to take notes or make a comment to Gustavo Nievas, one of her defense attorneys.

Among the conclusions of Agüero's psychological, psychiatric, and social profile arising from the expert report, the following are highlighted: "narcissistic traits with which she seeks admiration and attention from others; self-referential, from which she tends to place herself at the center of situations; omnipotent traits, with which she tries to control the variables around her; and psychopathic, associated with little empathy and little recognition of others as such."

According to the professionals, these are tendencies that could be due "to underlying insecurities, feelings of weakness, inadequacy, and incompleteness, which the person doesn't recognize in herself. These traits are rejected and replaced by apparent emotional coldness and traits of omnipotence, which foster the search for positions of power, in order to exercise control over circumstances of reality that do not fit her needs."

On Wednesday, she became the first serial killer convicted in the history of Córdoba's criminal justice system.