This Thursday, in Seseña (Toledo), a 50-year-old man murdered his 43-year-old ex-partner and then committed suicide, according to initial investigations. Both were in the VioGén System, which tracks victims and their aggressors, she with a low risk level. The woman had reported him at the end of January for the psychological abuse and harassment she had suffered since November 2024, when they began divorce proceedings.
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After the January report, the man was arrested, and on April 12 he was arrested again for violating a restraining order. The crime occurred after a fight with the victim’s son, who ended up in the hospital, according to investigation sources.
These same sources explained that around 5:40 AM this Thursday, the Guardia Civil received a call in which a resident of Seseña reported that from her home she had witnessed an assault between two men. A patrol went to the indicated location and found a 20-year-old man under a van who had been a victim of an assault. The young man was transferred to the Toledo University Hospital.
Shortly after, around 6:00 AM, the officers received another call, also from Seseña. In this case, it was a woman asking for help because they wanted to kill her. The patrol returned to the location, but found no one.
Once at the hospital, after regaining consciousness, the young man gave a statement. The officers, seeing that the assaulted person was related to the woman who had asked for help, went to the home where they found the body of the woman, named Melissa and of Venezuelan origin. On the same floor, Guardia Civil officers found a man, also of Venezuelan nationality, who had taken his own life.
“We are gathering data on the murder of a woman in the province of Toledo for alleged gender violence,” reported the Government Delegation against Gender Violence. “A possible sexist murder is being investigated, this time in our land, in Seseña,” published the president of Castilla-La Mancha, Emiliano García-Page, on social media. “If confirmed, I want to express my pain, anger, and indignation at another life taken,” added the PSOE politician. The mayor of Seseña, Jaime de Hita (PP), said he was “dismayed,” as were the rest of the town’s residents, after learning of the murder.
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For her part, the Minister of Equality, Ana Redondo, stated last week that the VioGén system ―which tracks victims and aggressors with 102,567 active cases currently― “works,” but it needs to be “strengthened, evaluated, and to see what is failing.” She also highlighted a figure: of the 16 women murdered in 2026 up to that point, seven had reported and six of them had measures in force (37.5%). This is a percentage well above the historical average. Since records began in 2003, 304 of the 1,359 murdered women had alerted the authorities, 22%.
Specialists from various areas emphasize that there are murders that are very complicated to prevent, although they consider them isolated incidents. In the rest, there is also a responsibility of the State. The errors that are made can be related to multiple factors: from decisions made by security forces to those of judges or prosecutors, as well as those of other links in the protection chain. Including the victims themselves, who must be taken into account and understood within the circle of violence in which they live, by all the aforementioned professionals.
When officially confirmed, this will be the 17th victim so far this year, and 1,360 women will have been murdered by their partners or ex-partners since official records began in 2003.
The 016 helpline assists 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 by WhatsApp at 600 000 016. Minors can contact the ANAR Foundation helpline at 900 20 20 10. In an emergency, you can call 112 or the National Police (091) and Guardia Civil (062) numbers. And if you cannot call, you can use the ALERTCOPS application, which sends an alert signal to the Police with geolocation.
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