The Medical Death Certificates from the Legal Medical Institute state that they died on those days on a public thoroughfare, in the Lo Espejo sector, due to multiple gunshot wounds.

Their relatives concurred in stating that they were detained on the morning of October 7, 1973, at their respective homes in the San Gregorio neighborhood, in the La Granja commune, by members of the Army, Carabineros, and Investigaciones who carried out an operation in that sector.

According to the statement of a surviving witness, during the operation, all men over the age of fifteen in the neighborhood were taken to a soccer field. The uniformed officers selected some of them, including those mentioned and approximately seventeen other residents, and took them to the local Carabineros station.

A group of these detained residents—which included the aforementioned individuals, as well as Luis Enrique Otts Flores and Jorge Espinoza Farías—was taken out of that facility and driven to the banks of the San Carlos canal; at the intersection of Avenida Departamental and Walker Martínez, the captors shot them.

The witness who recounted these circumstances to the families managed to survive the execution.

Days later, the relatives found and identified the remains of their loved ones at the Legal Medical Institute.

The cases of Luis Enrique Otts Flores and Jorge Espinoza Farías, who were detained under the same circumstances, were reviewed by the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation, which declared them victims of human rights violations.

The identities of the other residents detained that day could not be established.

Considering the evidence gathered and the investigation carried out by this Corporation, the Superior Council reached the conviction that Enrique Hernán Arce González, Juan Miguel Córdoba Yañez, Florentino del Carmen Espinoza Medel, Carlos Julio Salfate Salfate, Patricio Santander Alfaro, Julio Valenzuela Valenzuela, and Carlos Eduardo Zuloaga Orellana were executed by State agents while being held in custody, outside of any legal process.

Therefore, it declared them victims of human rights violations.