The investigation by the Civil Guard has confirmed the murder of a 45-year-old woman in Benahavís (Málaga, 9,472 inhabitants) last July 21 as a gender-based crime. The arrested man, of Argentine nationality and about 64 years old, had a relationship with the victim for two years, in 2019. He then returned to his country, but recently came back and contacted her again, and she rented him a room in her house. He himself confessed that he killed her with a box cutter after seeing her kiss another man. He told the agents who caught him in the middle of the Istán mountains, where he had hidden, but he also left it written in a notebook where he recounted the events and which he had left at the door of a friend’s house, sources from the investigation explained to EL PAÍS. The detainee was brought before the court in Marbella this Monday and has been sent to prison, according to the Superior Court of Justice of Andalusia (TSJA) reported this Tuesday.
The body of the woman, of Hungarian nationality, was found on July 21 in her house in the Los Arqueros urbanization, in Benahavís. Neighbors had alerted that voices had been heard in a home and that there might be an injured person inside. Several police patrols and emergency personnel from 061 went to the scene and found the victim already deceased due to two cuts on the neck. She also had her shirt and bra torn as a result of a physical struggle.
The witnesses themselves then told Civil Guard agents that they had seen a man leave the house in a hurry, dressed in shorts and a red t-shirt. And that he then got into a car to escape the place. The account allowed the Civil Guard to quickly identify the suspect, who after fleeing the area had abandoned the vehicle, rented and registered in his own name. He also left his phone and wallet there.
The alleged perpetrator already had a name and surname. Investigations confirmed that he had no criminal record either in Spain or Argentina. Moreover, nothing at that time pointed to the murder being related to gender violence. “There was nothing, absolutely nothing, that made us suspect that this was the motive,” sources from the investigation say, emphasizing that neither the victim’s own daughter nor her best friend knew who this man was or had ever heard of him.
Nor did the man with whom the woman had recently started a relationship or the one she had years ago know him. That is why the Government delegate in Andalusia, Pedro Fernández, clarified the next day that there were then “no motivations or indications” pointing to gender violence. “There is no confirmed relationship of partner or former sentimental partner,” Fernández insisted during a week in which the first cluster of the summer occurred, a series of femicides: in less than 24 hours there were three, leaving six minor orphans.
Meanwhile, the Civil Guard continued the search for the fugitive, who had left — without being seen — a notebook at the door of a friend’s house recounting all the events: from how he had killed the victim to his reasons, although his poor handwriting complicated the investigators’ efforts to complete the account. The investigators could not find him because he had taken to the mountains, did not have his phone with him — which would have allowed locating him — and did not make expenses with his credit card. However, one morning several people reported seeing a person matching his description in a bar in Istán, a municipality of 1,707 inhabitants near Benahavís. And that he was going there daily for breakfast.
The agents of the Organic Judicial Police Unit then deployed a device around the establishment to wait for his arrival the next morning and arrest him. That day he did not show up. However, the drone operated by the team captured the suspect walking along a nearby road. The Civil Guard went there to arrest him, but when they caught him they realized it was just someone who looked like him: he wore similar clothes and was also bald and had a goatee, but he was much shorter and the investigators finally understood he was not the one they were looking for.
Then the unexpected happened. A man started running through the mountain. Seeing the police commotion, the fugitive thought they were after him and tried to escape. The guards pursued him and when they were close the man stopped abruptly and tried to commit suicide. He had to be urgently treated by the Civil Guard personnel themselves and was later transferred to the Costa del Sol Hospital, where he remains hospitalized recovering from his injuries.
Later, the attacker told the agents everything that had happened. He said he had killed the woman with a box cutter and that he had done it because he was very jealous after seeing her kiss another man. It is exactly the same as he had written in the pages of the notebook he left at his friend’s house; and one of the most historically repeated arguments by attackers and which is, in reality, a sexist perspective of relationships and women, as things that belong to them and over which they want to have control.
After being brought before the number 4 courtroom of the Instruction Section of the Marbella Court of First Instance, where he exercised his right to remain silent, his provisional imprisonment was decreed, communicated and without bail. He is accused of homicide and sexual freedom crimes. The case will be sent to the courts of Violence against Women, as confirmed by the Superior Court of Justice of Andalusia (TSJA), because the victim and attacker had a sentimental relationship of almost two years since 2019.
“At the end of this, the detainee returned to his country. Finally, he chose to return to Benahavís where he again had contact with the victim. She rented him a room in the house where she lived and now the investigation is trying to determine if the sentimental relationship was resumed and if the attack occurred as a result of a jealous outburst by the detainee,” concludes the TSJA.
So far this year, 33 women have been murdered by their partners or ex-partners. Since the official statistics began in 2003, the number is 1,374 women.
The phone number 016 serves victims of gender-based violence, their families, and their environment 24 hours a day, every day of the year, in 53 different languages. The number is not recorded on the phone bill, but the call must be deleted from the device. Contact can also be made via email 016-online@igualdad.gob.es and WhatsApp at 600 000 016. Minors can contact the ANAR Foundation phone 900 20 20 10. In an emergency, call 112 or the National Police (091) and Civil Guard (062) phone numbers. If calling is not possible, the ALERTCOPS app can be used to send an alert signal to the police with geolocation.
