The decapitated body without hands found on a beach in Marbella on Sunday is that of Natalia, the a 46-year-old Colombian woman whose relatives reported her missing to the Policía Nacional that same afternoon. According to sources close to the case, her ex-partner, the man who was detained by the Policía Nacional on Monday for breaking the restraining order a few days earlier, has confessed to the crime to investigators and has provided all the details about what he did with the woman’s body after ending her life. The alleged murderer was transferred yesterday morning to the Marbella Court of Violence against Women number 1, while the second man arrested, a friend of his, is still in the custody of the Policía Nacional.

The confession and the various investigations carried out by the investigators shed light on a crime that involved the Guardia Civil and the Policía Nacional across different channels. The Guardia Civil investigated the murder and the latter, the disappearance. The armed forces were in charge of the body recoved from the sea on Sunday afternoon on some rocks on the beach of Las Cañas. Without a head or hands and with a serious injury to the abdomen, the Homicide Group of the Guardia Civil faced the difficult task of solving the murder of a woman without a face or fingerprints. DNA was the key to solving the doubt of whether they were investigating one crime or two.

Family reports woman missing to Policía Nacional

Shortly thereafter, when videos showing the corpse were broadcasted, a family arrived at the Marbella Police Station fearing it was their relative. They reported that they could not contact her and that days before the discovery she had been threatened by telephone by her ex-partner, a 45-year-old Colombian man with a restraining order against him since the middle of December after an episode of abuse for which he was arrested. According to the Policía Nacional, the couple had a romantic relationship of about five months which she ended in November, when the problems began for the victim.

Following the missing person’s report, the Policía Nacional activated a search in the early hours of Monday morning to locate him and the work resulted in the arrest of the suspect on Monday morning, initially as the alleged perpetrator of a crime for the breach of restraining order, as it included the prohibition to communicate with the victim.