The Guardia Civil’s Judicial Police Team in Torrevieja, working with the National Police in Alicante, has solved the violent death of Christian J., a 30-year-old Swedish man who owned a hamburger business, in just over a month. He died in the hospital after being in a coma for four days because he hit his head while trying to stop someone from stealing his phone in the centre of Torrevieja. A car with the thieves in it dragged him. Three people have been arrested this week in Alicante for this murder. Police are also looking for at least one additional suspect, who has been named. Sources close to the matter say that this suspect may have left the country.
The men who were arrested, who were between the ages of 21 and 22, two of whom had already been convicted of robbery and one of trespassing, were brought before a judge in Alicante yesterday, Thursday November 13th, as suspected criminals of homicide, robbery with violence, failure to provide assistance, offences against road safety, and being a member of a criminal group.
Spanish citizens of North African descent were represented by lawyers José Soler Martín, Aurora Gámez Cartagena, and José Esteve Villaescusa. The prosecution asked the judge to keep two of them in jail before the trial, and the judge agreed. José Esteve’s client, on the other hand, did not want to be detained. He turned himself in to the Guardia Civil after the first two arrests and was released on bail without any conditions.
Sources from the High Court of Justice say that the two people who are in prison and the third person who was detained are still available to the Court of Instruction number 4 of Torrevieja, where the matter is being looked into.
Robbery with force
The Guardia Civil started looking into the violent theft of an iPhone that happened on October 3rd at about 4:00 a.m. on Calle Pedro Lorca in Torrevieja, close to the intersection of Calle Heraclio. The victim’s partner said that a car with three or four people of Arab descent pulled up next to them and asked for directions to La Zenia. They said they couldn’t help since they didn’t have internet access. While the victim was talking, they requested to see the phone so they could look at the map and take a picture. The victim reached through a window on the right side of the automobile with the phone, and at that moment, they sped away.
The victim held on to the side of the car with his phone and arm, and the attackers pulled him for around 30 metres before slamming the car into some rubbish bins, perhaps intending to make him let go. They did succeed, but the man was flung from the car and lay unconscious and badly hurt on the street as his companion, who was distressed, tried to help him.
Four days in a coma
At first, he was taken by ambulance to Torrevieja Hospital. However, because his head damage and other wounds were so bad, he was sent to Elche Hospital. He stayed in a coma there until the morning of October 7th, when he passed away.
The Judicial Police Team of the Guardia Civil in Torrevieja and the Criminalistics Laboratory were able to piece together what happened, name suspects, and narrow the inquiry down to the northern part of Alicante, where the people involved live. So, the Guardia Civil got in touch with the National Police. The National Police officers helped the Torrevieja detectives find and arrest the people they thought were responsible for the murder. They did this by identifying suspects in photos taken by the Alicante rental vehicle company.
Among the clues analysed by the Guardia Civil are the data provided by the victim’s companion, who was able to observe that the location of the stolen mobile phone placed it in two streets in the North Zone of Alicante during the hours after the assault.
The Guardia Civil says that one of the people they have identified but not yet arrested is a 22-year-old man who even used his phone card in the stolen terminal.
Although they first lacked the vehicle’s registration information, the Guardia Civil identified it and established that the car used by the assailants had been hired hours earlier in Alicante. Upon inspection, they uncovered half a dozen fingerprints, two of which belonged to the young man whose whereabouts are currently unknown and who is one of the inmates. This young man maintains he did not engage in the heist in Torrevieja, but admits to being with them in the car in a park in Sant Joan d’Alacant. This detainee, who was released on Thursday, gave over his mobile phone to the duty judge for analysis by the Guardia Civil to prove that he was not with the arrested individuals.
The Guardia Civil is also looking into the hair that was found between the victim’s fingers. It is suspected that this hair belongs to one of the perpetrators of the deadly heist, who also attempted to make transactions with the bank card attached to the deceased’s cell phone, according to Christian’s spouse.
Author: Derek Appleton
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