José Luis Fernández Torres, imprisoned as the alleged perpetrator of a homicide linked, without official confirmation, to cannibalism, is reported to have died while serving preventive detention for the murder of retiree Ángel Luis Mercantety Quiñones, according to independent journalist Yosmany Mayeta Labrada, based on testimonies from the victim's family and hospital sources.
Cuban authorities have not officially confirmed the death, and the exact date of passing, the hospital where it allegedly occurred, nor the medical causes of it are also unknown.
A family source described the deterioration the accused underwent during their imprisonment: "They became worn down in prison. They say he died like a skeleton, with something in his stomach," the journalist indicated.
The news comes just over a year after the macabre crime that shocked Santiago de Cuba in August 2025, when dismembered remains of Mercantety Quiñones were found in the Abel Santamaría neighborhood, popularly known as El Salao.
According to the confession of Fernández Torres himself —60 years old, originally from Holguín and a worker in the Education sector in Santiago de Cuba— the crime occurred on August 21, 2025 in his home, when he and the victim were sharing drinks and an argument over debts escalated into violence: he struck the elderly man with a metal pipe, causing his death, then dismembered the body; he hid parts in two refrigerators and discarded hands and feet in a nearby creek.
On August 26, 2025, workers from the Comunales Company found the head of Mercantety Quiñones in a garbage container in front of a TRD in Abel Santamaría, in an advanced state of decomposition; the following day, more remains were discovered in the apartment of the accused, and Fernández Torres was arrested.
During the search of the house, according to reports, investigators found chilling evidence: a jar containing human fat, two jars of fried meat, and a bag of ribs buried in the yard—findings that fueled suspicions of cannibalism, which were never officially confirmed by the authorities.
In September 2025, an unusual police operation at the accused's building rekindled fears that there might be additional victims; investigator Julio César González Pagés then warned that "there are concerns that other missing neighbors could increase the victim count," mentioning the possible disappearance of a man known as "Cuquito," a matter that was also unconfirmed.
The reaction of the victim's relatives to the news of the accused's death combines relief with a deep sense of incomplete justice. What angers Mercantety Quiñones's family the most is the institutional silence: they report that no authority has informed them whether a trial took place against Fernández Torres, nor did they notify them of his death.
The case occurs within a context of severe deterioration of the Cuban penitentiary system. According to data from Cubalex regarding deaths in custody between 2024 and 2026, the organization documented 115 deaths in penitentiary facilities between February 2024 and June 2026, of which approximately 80 were linked to negligence or denial of medical care, 21 to severe malnutrition, and 12 to tuberculosis.
As Mayeta Labrada noted in closing her report: "Dying in a prison does not replace the obligation to clarify a crime nor the victims' right to know the whole truth."
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