On January 10, 1977, José Luis APPEL DE LA CRUZ was kidnapped by a group of armed civilians on a public street in the city of Cipolletti, Neuquén Province, Argentina, in the presence of his spouse, Carmen Angélica DELARD CABEZAS, and their daughter. Carmen Delard disappeared at the police station in that city while filing a report regarding her husband's disappearance.

On January 17, one week later, her sister Gloria Ximena DELARD CABEZAS was detained at her home in Buenos Aires along with her spouse, Roberto CRISTI MELERO, and their two children. Gloria Delard was pregnant with her third child. The patrol of Federal Police agents transferred them to the Navy Mechanics School (ESMA), the facility from which they disappeared.

The two sisters, Carmen and Gloria Delard, and their husbands were students and militants of the MIR at the University of Concepción. Persecuted in Chile after September 11, 1973, they accepted an offer from a family friend, a former Army colonel, to help them cross the Chilean-Argentine border, settling in Neuquén and Buenos Aires, respectively.

Following the detentions, the children of both couples were found by their grandparents in various orphanages. Regarding the third child, only unconfirmed reports were obtained concerning his birth in captivity, and Gloria Delard's parents were unable to locate him.

The Commission has reached the conviction that both couples were victims of forced disappearance, in violation of their human rights, within the context of the aforementioned situation; however, there is insufficient evidence to confirm the participation of agents of the State of Chile in these events.