Prison for the man arrested for sexually assaulting and murdering a woman in Lloret de Mar.
The alleged perpetrator was reportedly investigated for two sexual assaults last year.
BarcelonaProvisional prison communicated and without bail for the man arrested forthe violent death of a woman in Lloret de Mar, who has a history of sexual violence. The man was arrested by the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) on Thursday accused of killing a woman in an apartment in the municipality of the Selva region. According to sources consulted by ARA, everything points to the victim being a sex worker and the man faces charges of murder, sexual assault with gender aggravating circumstances, and robbery with violence, as he allegedly also stole the victim's cell phone and identification. Although the case will not be brought before a court for violence against women, since the crime did not occur within the context of the couple, the Ministry of Equality is investigating it as gender-based violence, as this classification includes assaults and femicides in the context of prostitution.
The events occurred in a tourist apartment in Lloret de Mar, and the management company in charge of thecheck-outdiscovered the body. There was a large amount of blood in the apartment, and the woman's body showed bruises and blows. Questioned by the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police), the suspect admitted he had been in the apartment but claimed he didn't remember anything. The Catalan police caught him because he had left identifying documents in the apartment where the woman's body was found. A few hours later, they located him and arrested him as the alleged perpetrator of the crime. The cause of death is still unclear, and the use of knives has not been ruled out.
According to the Efe news agency, the alleged murderer, who worked as a cleaner at the tourist apartments where the crime took place, had been investigated in 2024 for two sexual assaults committed just a few months apart: against a disabled woman and a cleaner whom he allegedly tried to drown. Because he worked cleaning the apartment building where the crime took place, he had the keys to enter the apartment, which he already knew would be empty the night of the murder. After allegedly committing the crime, the suspect took the victim's cell phone and ID, but left his own wallet in the apartment, which made it easier for the police to identify and arrest him around the time of the murder.
Background
Investigators suspect the alleged perpetrator took the victim's cell phone to avoid being identified through call logs, as happened the last time he was reported, in September of last year, for sexually assaulting a woman he had hired to clean his house, Efe reports. The suspect then called the woman to come to his house to clean the area, and when they were both inside, he pounced on the mother to sexually assault her, pressing a pillow against her face. Months earlier, in July of last year, he was reported for sexually assaulting a woman with a 60% disability.
The victim had been in this Costa Brava municipality for just five days, having moved there from Murcia with her two minor children. It was her friends who, worried because she hadn't returned from the sexual service she had been hired for in the early hours of the morning and wasn't answering her phone, raised the alarm last Thursday, leading to the discovery of the young woman's body, reports Efe.
Five femicides in 2025
Catalonia now has five femicides this year, after being confirmed as such. The sexist murder of a resident of Nou Barris (Barcelona) that had been under investigation since May, the Department of Equality and Feminism announced in a statement on Friday. The Lloret de Mar case is not yet included in this ranking until the sexist nature of the crime is confirmed.
With the confirmation of the Nou Barris femicide, which took place in the Ciutat Meridiana neighborhood, there have now been 153 victims since systematic official records began (in 2012). Of the 153 victims, 143 were women and 10 were children and young people murdered in the context of sexist violence. The number of children orphaned by sexist violence is expected to be 2 in 2025 and almost 100 in the last decade.