The man found dumped on a rural road in Ronda was murdered by his girlfriend’s jealous ex-husband, police have said.
The Guardia Civil revealed on Tuesday that it has arrested a suspect following the grisly discovery in the town of Alpandeire on the evening of Sunday, November 2.
The body was found on that day by a local shepherd, just hours before a corpse was dumped in the waters of Marbella’s Puerto Banus, raising the possibility of the two cases being linked.
However, police insist the Ronda killing was a separate crime of passion, likely borne out of an awkward living situation.
The victim had moved into his new girlfriend’s house in Gaucin, which she shared with her ex-husband and their children.
However, three days in, the ex offered to drive the victim to the local train station.
According to police, and the confession of the alleged killer himself, he took the victim to an isolated area and beat him to death with a wooden club, striking him in the head and back.
The suspect then placed the victim’s body in the trunk of his car, which he had previously covered with plastic, drove to his house, and parked the vehicle there until he decided to abandon the body.
He did so on a dirt road very close to the A-369 highway, a point located in the municipality of Alpandeire.
An autopsy determined the cause of death as multiple traumas caused by a blunt object.
The victim was identified as a 42-year-old man from Puente Genil (Cordoba).
Investigators interviewed his relatives, who stated that the victim had begun a romantic relationship with a woman from Gaucín whom they did not know and that he had moved into her house to live with her.
Once officers tracked the house, they found the ex-husband and his car, which matched the description of the one suspected to have been used in the crime.
The suspect was arrested on Thursday, November 6, four days after the body was found, and a search of his car unearthed key forensic evidence.
The investigation also confirmed that the suspect used the victim’s phone after his death, disposing of it by throwing it into some bushes.
He also disposed of the plastic sheeting from the trunk and the victim’s clothes by throwing them in a dumpster, while he hid the wooden club in a storage shed on a property in Gaucín. Officers found it there, along with more biological evidence.
During the crime reconstruction, which was carried out at all the locations described, the man said he attacked the victim in a fit of rage, but sources close to the case told La Opinion de Malaga that the fact that he had the wooden club in his car and the trunk covered with plastic sheeting on the day of the crime points to a premeditated act.
