The trio were murdered in a time of political conflict in which religious persecution flared and human rights abuses were rampant. The Bishop of La Rioja Enrique Angelelli - himself killed just after the trio - condemned human rights abuses and was critical and vocal about the regime that Jorge Rafael Videla controlled. Murias himself was a protégé of Angelelli and himself was outspoken about the regime. The authorities began monitoring him and his fellow pastor Gabriel Longueville while monitoring all their homilies waiting for the time to be able to arrest them. Both were kidnapped and killed with their corpses found not long after in the middle of a field. Pedernera was killed after four hooded men stormed his home and Pedernera came under suspicion due to his social activism and his helping manage a social organization.