A taxi driver has been arrested for the murder of this pretty young law student during a burglary where he had been unaware she was at home after dropping her parents off in town.

After dropping the couple off to visit their son, taxi driver Marcelo Alejandro Saleh, 55, had believed the house would be empty, and had allegedly driven back to the couple’s home to break in while they were away.

But instead of an empty property, he found their daughter Ayelen Arredondo, 23, sitting on the sofa watching television.

Realising that she had seen him, police say he used the crowbar he was carrying with him to beat her over the head repeatedly, caving in her skull and leaving her with massive injuries.

The body of the young girl, known by her friends as ‘Yeye’, was no longer recognisable by her parents when they arrived back home in the city of La Plata the capital of the Argentine province of Buenos Aires last Saturday (17th April).

As well as studying Law at the University of La Plata, she spent her free evenings tutoring disadvantaged children.

Local news outlet Infobae reports that neighbours saw the suspect leaving the victim’s home. They grew suspicious and peaked into the home through a window only to see a young woman covered in the blood on the floor.

The police were alerted to what had happened and the suspect was arrested just a few blocks away from the scene of the crime.

Saleh was arrested with ARS 8,000 (GBP 62.3), a backpack, a crowbar and his clothes and face were covered in blood.

The police have revealed that Saleh had an extensive criminal record and has served several years in prison for robbery and deprivation of liberty. It is also being investigated how he managed to get behind the wheels of a taxi given his criminal record.

The parents of the dead girl said that they had been visiting their son, and had asked him to wait for them outside.

They had left a bag in the car to prove that they were intending to come back, and the bag had a set of house keys. That was when the taxi driver allegedly then decided to use them in order to rob them.

The suspect has been arrested on charges of ‘homicide criminis causa’ meaning he committed murder whilst attempting to cover up a previous crime.

The maximum sentence for this crime in Argentinian law is a life sentence. The suspect is currently being held in preliminary detention whilst the investigation is completed.