ARCHIVED - Camposol suspected murder case shocks local residents and homeowners

A quiet urban road is stunned after the violent and fatal events in the early hours of Sunday morning

The majority of residents and homeowners on Camposol’s Poligono D13 woke up on Sunday morning expecting the usual humdrum routine of a customary winter weekend, but were shocked to find Policía Local cars and Guardia Civil vehicles, along with other white vans, scattered along the narrow road and dual carriageway, and were aghast to discover the gruesome reason for the security forces’ presence.

Calle Lecrin is a narrow one-way road that doesn’t witness much in the way of traffic or drama, but in the early hours of Sunday December 4 this changed alarmingly. On hearing shouting and threats coming from the property and seeing a body lying in the garden of a house on the sleepy street, neighbours called the emergency services, who turned up shortly afterwards and discovered the body of the 56-year-old female victim outside the property where the disturbance was reported. She had sustained a servere blow to the head and unfortunately, when paramedics reached the scene, the victim was already deceased.

After further investigation, the 68-year-old male partner of the deceased was found inside the property, reportedly heavily intoxicated.

He was arrested on suspicion of carrying out the assault which resulted in the death of the victim and appeared at Totana Court of First Instance and Instruction number 3 on Monday morning when, after a brief hearing, he was placed in provisional detention accused of killing his wife in the Mazarrón urbanisation of Camposol.

Prisión para el británico acusado de matar a su mujer, compatriota suya, en la urbanización Camposol de Mazarrón.

La jueza, que abre un procedimiento por un delito de homicidio, manda a la cárcel al hombre de 69 años, que contaba con denuncias previas por violencia de género pic.twitter.com/OqKG18DsLN

— CIU Cuerpos Institucionales y Ciudadanos Unidos. (@Cuerpospolicia1) December 5, 2022

The property in question was sealed off pending forensic investigation along with the results of the autopsy of the deceased by the Institute of Legal Medicine (IML) to clarify the circumstances in which the death occurred.

It was reported in the Spanish media that there was a history of abuse between the couple, who did not have any children. The female had reported gender abuse several times since 2007, resulting in court protection orders, the last one of which lapsed in 2014.

Shocked local neighbours commented that the couple had only moved into the property a few months previously, and according to the suspect himself they had moved from Caravaca de la Cruz in the north of the Region of Murcia, but it was believed that they had been known on the urbanisation for some time.

The property had been for sale for some time after the previous owner died and his wife is thought to have returned to the UK, and some neighbours also report that the female of the new couple had seemed talkative but the male appeared to keep himself to himself, being seen only when getting in and out of a silver BMW car.

It has also been reported that the couple were seen frequenting the bar area of Camposol B Sector commercial centre on the fateful night, and alcohol comsumption is thought to have been common in the household as witnessed by the stacks of beer cans outside the house.

In statements to the court, the suspect pleaded innocent to murder and said his wife died after a blow to the head when she hit it on the curb just after getting out of the car.

Police enquiries also indicate that the woman had bruises on her arms, which the man in court claimed were caused when they were moving house with so many boxes, furniture and other utensils being moved from one part of the house to another. He said he also had similar bruises for the same reasons.

According to the detainee’s account, both of them had just arrived at the house and the woman got out first to open the door of the house to prevent their dogs from escaping. When he didn’t hear the front open or the boot to unload the shopping, the suspect says he got out of the car and saw his wife’s body lying in the street.

Then he seemingly went inside the house to smoke a cigarette and calm himself down, and was in a state of shock when he was found. The man’s lawyer, Tamara Cobarro, claims that the house was not even open (meaning that he must have locked the door behind him) and that, in order to enter, the neighbours had to take the keys from the hand of the dead woman.

The lawyer stresses that her client has denied his involvement in his wife’s death from the very beginning, a statement he reiterated before the Guardia Civil and the magistrate.

One consequence of the incident was the arrival of a vehicle at the property to take away a cat and two dogs that belonged to the couple.

Gender violence

If you are a victim of gender violence or know someone who is, you can call the number 016 available 24 hours a day and in 52 different languages. You can also write to the email address 016-online@igualdad.gob.es, or get help via WhatsApp on +34 600 000 016.

In an emergency situation anywhere in Spain, you can call 112 or the National Police (091) and the Civil Guard (062). If you can’t call, you can use the ALERTCOPS app, which will send an alert signal to the police with your phone’s precise geolocation.

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