A man was arrested early this morning as the suspected perpetrator of the murder of his partner yesterday afternoon at the home they shared at number 102 Andrade Street, in the Sant Martí district of Barcelona. The crime occurred in the presence of their two minor children, aged 4 and 8 respectively. The woman, 34 years old, was reportedly stabbed.
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According to a statement from the Catalan police, the Mossos received the alert at 7:47 p.m. and when they arrived at the scene they found the woman, of Brazilian nationality, seriously injured.
An advanced life support ambulance from the medical emergency service (SEM) was dispatched to the home, performed resuscitation maneuvers on the victim without success, and later emergency services confirmed her death.
Meanwhile, the suspected killer managed to flee the area and set fire to the vehicle he was traveling in, a white Ford, on Palència Street near Espronceda Street. The Mossos d’Esquadra launched an operation to locate him, together with the Urban Guard and other local police forces from the metropolitan area.
According to the Catalan police, a man was arrested around 1:25 a.m. this Wednesday for his alleged involvement in the murder, although all indications are that he is the perpetrator. The man reportedly surrendered voluntarily to the authorities after going to a police station in the l’Eixample district, this newspaper learned.
The priority of the Mossos d’Esquadra during the night was to locate this individual, who, after abandoning the vehicle, is believed to have continued fleeing on foot. The man, shaved-headed and dressed in blue, fled and was at large after the incident until his subsequent arrest.
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The investigators questioned the couple’s circle, who had been living in Barcelona for many years, with the aim of locating acquaintances or relatives to whom the suspected perpetrator might have asked for help.
Additionally, Catalan police officers took statements last night from several possible witnesses near the home where the murder occurred. At the same location, technicians from the Social Emergency Service of the Barcelona City Council provided assistance to several people from the evangelical community to which the couple belonged.
Some neighbors from the same stairwell where the crime took place explained how common it was to see the couple “very well dressed every Sunday heading to the hall where evangelical masses were held.”
If this case is confirmed as a gender-based murder, it would be the 32nd woman victim of gender violence so far this year (the third in Catalonia), and 1,373 since 2003.
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