Two murder suspects in Spain probably thought they'd got away with their heinous crime, as it was committed over a year ago – but they didn't reckon on Google Street View snitching on them. An image captured by Google back in October in the rural Spanish town of Tajueco clearly displays a man stuffing a bulging object concealed in a white shroud – most likely a dead body – into the boot of a red car. Another Street View image seems to show a figure wheeling a large white sack down a street in a wheelbarrow.
El Pais, the Spanish national newspaper, revealed that text messages also contributed to the arrest of the two suspects - a woman who was the victim's partner, and a man who was the woman's ex-boyfriend - for allegedly murdering and dismembering the Cuban victim.
Police had found the case hard to crack before the Google images came to light - they had been investigating for over a year. They initially began investigating the case on 23rd November 2023 when a relative of the 33-year-old man alerted police to say he had gone missing. The relative had received texts claiming to be from the victim, stating that he had met a new romantic partner and would be moving away and ditching his phone.
However, the relative became wary as the texts didn't sound like the man he knew, and contacted the police as a result.
Police arrested the suspects on 12th November 2024, then searched their homes and cars before eventually coming across the Google Street View images this week.
They stated that an extremely decomposed torso – apparently the victim's – had been discovered this month abandoned in a cemetery in Andaluz, in the province of Soria. Police say they located the corpse by using highly sophisticated forensic tech.
The suspects have been taken into custody and the case continues.
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