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Salma R., a 38-year-old Moroccan woman who was reported missing in Murcia in 2024, has told police she was held captive, beaten and repeatedly raped for almost two years in a house in the countryside near San José de la Vega. She managed to flee on Tuesday February 10 by propping a ladder against a two metre fence and jumping it while her alleged captor slept, despite being weak, injured and almost blind in one eye. She ran along a dirt track until a neighbour took her to a health centre in Murcia, where she begged for help and told staff she had been imprisoned and abused.

 

Salma had vanished on Monday April 1, 2024, when her family reported her missing and a search alert was issued with her photo and description. At the time, her disappearance was never clarified and it was even suggested she might have left voluntarily. Almost two years later, she arrived at the Infante health centre bruised, with wounds across her body, missing teeth and a head injury, and told medics she was the woman who had disappeared and that her partner had kept her locked in a single storey house surrounded by lemon groves.

 

According to her account, she had not been allowed out of the house for 22 months, with the front door kept locked. She says she was tied to a stretcher and beaten until she collapsed, stabbed, and in winter locked naked in a dark, unheated bathroom. She also says her captor threatened to kill her if she tried to escape. A neighbour later recalled hearing a woman shouting, “Take me home, take me home!” and a man replying, “But why? Where would you be better off than here? Get ready, I’ll take you,” which he had assumed at the time was “just another argument.”

 

The alleged captor, identified as a Spanish man in his fifties named as ASM or Alberto S., was arrested at the property after staff at the health centre alerted the Policía Nacional. Officers from the Family and Women’s Assistance Unit (UFAM) took Salma’s statement and then searched the house with a court order. Inside they say they found knives, razors and other bladed weapons, firearms, narcotics, ropes and the stretcher she had described. The Government Delegate in Murcia, Francisco Lucas, has confirmed the arrest but declined to give more details so as not to affect the ongoing investigation.

 

Alongside the main suspect, two neighbours who lived in the adjoining house that shares the entrance have also been arrested, accused of obstruction of justice for allegedly knowing about the abuse and not reporting it. A fourth person was initially detained and later released. One local resident pointed out that “if someone was shouting in that house, no one but those living right next door could have heard it.”

 

The accused and the neighbours are due to appear before the Court of Violence against Women number 1 of Murcia, where the judge will decide whether to remand them in custody on charges including unlawful detention, sexual assault and gender based violence.

 

Salma is now under protection in a shelter for women who are victims of gender violence in the Region of Murcia. Retired lawyer Herminia Suárez Mata, an expert in sexual and gender based violence, described the case as “completely extraordinary due to its severity” and stressed how hard it is for victims to break their silence. She highlighted the importance of institutional backing so that “he cannot approach her, and that she can tell her story without pressure or coercion,” and underlined that the Public Prosecutor’s Office can act even if the victim does not file a complaint, given the evidence on her body.

 

The association ATIM Region of Murcia, which represents Moroccan workers and immigrants, has also condemned the case. Its regional president, Sabah Yacoubi Channig, called it “an atrocious and intolerable situation that shocks us and demands a firm and united social response,” warning that “silence makes one complicit” when abuse is suspected but not reported.

 

Victims of gender based violence in Spain can call the 016 helpline 24 hours a day in 53 languages. The number does not appear on phone bills, although the call should be deleted from the device. Help is also available via email at 016-online@igualdad.gob.es and by WhatsApp on 600 000 016. Minors can contact the ANAR Foundation on 900 20 20 10. In an emergency, you can call 112, the Policía Nacional on 091 or the Guardia Civil on 062, or send a geolocated alert using the ALERTCOPS app if you cannot speak.

 

 

Image: Policia Nacional