The brutal murder of a 30-year-old woman at her home in Antequera could have been avoided, her family have insisted.
Maria was found stabbed to death on Monday morning before her ex-partner was arrested shortly afterwards.
Speaking to Malaga Hoy, Maria’s niece Lakisha said her aunt had suffered years of abuse from the suspect, with whom she shared two children aged four and seven.
Lakisha revealed how Maria had made a domestic violence complaint against the ex, but that she withdrew it after ‘he took her to the police station himself and pressured her to do so.’
‘I have no doubt he threatened that she would never see the children again. She had never been apart from them for so long,’ she said.
‘How could they lift a restraining order when the aggressor was standing right beside her and believe everything was fine?’
According to Lakisha, the ex ran Maria over with his car on purpose when she was just 18, and had pointed a gun at her on several occasions.
‘He planned it’
The family says the harassment continued even after the case was no longer monitored through Spain’s VioGen domestic violence protection system.
Lakisha claims police were forced to intervene as recently as July 1 after the suspect allegedly refused to return the couple’s children following a scheduled visit.
Looking back, she now believes the incident was part of a plan.
‘He wanted the children for the second half of July because he intended to do this. He made sure she was alone,’ she claimed.
She described the suspect as controlling and obsessive.
‘He wouldn’t let her live. He followed her everywhere. He threatened her, and he threatened her friends too,’ Lakisha added.
The pair had been together for 13 years.
Lakisha says Maria finally reported him after escaping from an incident in which she was allegedly held against her will.
‘She waited until he went out to buy something and then ran straight to the police station.’
She also claims he had previously threatened to shoot Maria while he still legally owned firearms as a hunter.
According to the family, the weapons were confiscated after the domestic violence complaint was filed.
‘He abused her in front of the children’
Lakisha alleges the abuse continued for years.
‘He pointed a gun at her more than once. He beat her in front of the children and humiliated her,’ she claimed.
She also claimed that when Maria was just 18, he deliberately ran her over with his car.
The family says Maria always appeared smiling in photographs despite what she was enduring in private.
‘She was the bravest, most optimistic woman I have ever known,’ Lakisha said.
‘But she never knew what it truly meant to be loved. She spent years trying to leave that relationship and he wouldn’t let her.’
Lakisha said she only discovered the extent of the abuse three years ago after Maria finally reported him.
‘Once I confronted him and he told me he would kill me before he killed her,’ she claimed.
‘I know he threatened to hurt me on more than one occasion. That’s why she stopped telling me things and always said he had calmed down.’
The suspect was arrested shortly after Maria’s death and remains under investigation.
