Argentinian female footballer is found beaten and strangled to death by her ex-husband 5-months after she filed for restraining order against him

An Argentinian female football player has been found strangled to death by her ex-husband, who later committed suicide after killing her. 

Florencia Guinazu, 30, who played for Argentino de Mendoza, was found beaten and strangled inside the room she shared with former partner Ignacio Agustín Notto.

Following the incident, a note was left in the window which alerted neighbours to the horrors they would find inside, which read: ‘Call 911. The children are alone.’

According to O Globo, Notto wrote the note after killing Guinazu, before taking his own life shortly afterwards. 

Throughout the attack, their two sons, aged five and seven, were left playing PlayStation in the main room of the apartment.

Reports claim that the eldest son knocked on the master bedroom door, where the murder took place, but it was locked from the inside and no one was answering. 

He later went to the complex’s courtyard before a neighbour eventually read the note and called the police, who arrived on the scene shortly after.

After breaking down the door to the master bedroom, authorities found Guinazu lying on the floor, amid stains of blood. Notto was also in the room, having taken his own life.

The autopsy determined, according to the statement released on Monday, that the victim died of asphyxiation due to strangulation.

The incident comes just five months after Noto was the subject of a complaint from Guinazu, who asked for him to leave their home in November 2023.

The Mendoza Homicide and Institutional Violence Prosecutor’s Unit sent a press release on Monday, which read: ‘There has not been, from that date until what happened on Saturday, any complaint of violation of the prohibition of approach issued.’

Guinazu’s club took to Instagram to post a message regarding the murder. They said: ‘Florencia Guinazu was a player in the First Division of Women’s Soccer 11 of the Club Atlético Argentino.