- EDITIONS:
Spanish News Today
Murcia Today
Alicante Today
PROPERTY SEARCH
Teenager dies in Orihuela Costa before trial for murder of British expat
The UK pensioner was found brutally murdered near her home in Elche, Alicante two years ago
A teenager who was due to stand trial for the murder of an 80-year-old British woman on the Costa Blanca two years ago has died in a car accident. The 18-year-old, who was on bail after an initial remand at a youth detention centre, lost control of his convertible Mercedes on the AP-7 motorway near the Orihuela Costa beachside resort of Campoamor and was pronounced dead at the scene.
The accident occurred just one day before his murder trial was scheduled to begin.
The teenager, who has not been named, was accused of helping his mother move the body of expat pensioner Monica Warren, who was stabbed and then shot at her home in Elche near Alicante in May 2022.
Youth court prosecutors were seeking an eight-year custodial sentence for the youngster if he was found guilty of Mrs Warren’s murder.
Around the time of the grisly killing, Spanish police arrested the teenager and his 46-year-old mother, who is expected to stand trial separately after the summer. Investigators honed in on the suspects after the mother's car caught fire in Alicante shortly after the murder.
The victim was born in Germany but became a naturalised British citizen through marriage, and had moved to Spain with her UK-born husband John more than 20 years before the tragic event.
As the investigation unfolded, Spanish police confirmed that they had arrested the alleged killers, praising the swift response and coordination of the Elche-based violent crime unit and the provincial police HQ in Alicante.
They also confirmed that the weapon used to shoot the victim had been found during a search of the crime scene.
Police said in a later statement: “The suspected perpetrators of the homicide are a 46-year-old woman and her 16-year-old son. They are both Spanish. Neither has a criminal record. The weapon used to shoot the victim dead was found during a painstaking search of the place where her body was found and the area immediately around it.
“She had been shot three times and scenes-of-crimes officers concluded her body had been moved from the place she was killed to the spot where she was found.”
In other news: Paedophile wanted in Germany arrested in Alicante
Image: Freepik
staff.inc.and
Sign up for the Spanish News Today Editors Roundup Weekly Bulletin and get an email with all the week’s news straight to your inbox
Special offer: Subscribe now for 25% off (36.95 euros for 48 Bulletins)
OR
you can sign up to our FREE weekly roundup!
Read some of our recent bulletins:
25% Discount Special Offer subscription:
36.95€ for 48 Editor’s Weekly News Roundup bulletins!
Please CLICK THE BUTTON to subscribe.
(List price 3 months 12 Bulletins)
Read more stories from around Spain:
