The paradise of Marbella was hell for Natalia: "I was very afraid"

The Real de Zaragoza beach, some seven kilometers east of the urban center of Marbella, is a little paradise.

It is removed from the noise and there are hardly any constructions around it.

This Friday the temperature was around 12 degrees there at dawn.

The Mediterranean looked like an oil reservoir and many people were walking along the seabed next to the last dunes of the Costa del Sol. A few hours earlier, Leonel H., a 45-year-old Colombian man, explained how, right there, he had killed his ex-girlfriend, Natalia.

He decapitated her, severed her hands, and slit her abdomen.

With precise gestures, he indicated to the police how he then threw each part into the sea.

A horrible crime, the fifth of sexist violence so far this year, which he himself has confessed.

He is already in prison.

The couple met last spring.

Born in Cali 46 years ago, Natalia traveled to Marbella from Colombia five years ago with the aim of helping her two children, now in their twenties, who stayed there.

She studied nursing.

In Spain she has worked as a cleaner and in domestic service.

Born in Bugalagrande —some 100 kilometers north of Cali— he traveled to Marbella to work on the site early last year.

In June they began a relationship that they maintained for five months, until in November she decided to break the engagement when she realized her violent nature.

"She was very devoted and she wanted to get married first before giving herself to him," her niece, Karen Etayo, recalled to Europa Press this Saturday.

“He didn't like it and started harassing her,” she added.

The situation escalated in December and she denounced him.

"My aunt steeled herself",

Etayo recounted.

"She used to tell my grandmother that she was very afraid," the niece recounted.

On the 19th, around 6:00 p.m., Leonel hit Natalia.

It was "a headbutt to the nose that caused injuries" during an argument, according to the sentence handed down just two days later by the court for violence against women number 1 in Marbella.

The magistrate agreed to prohibit communication with her ex-partner or come within 500 meters of her for 16 months.

The sentence included six months in prison, which were suspended for two years under the commitment that Leonel would not commit any crime or violate the restraining order.

He did not take long to default: he shortly after called her to threaten her.

"If she had been left in jail, she would still be with us," lamented her niece, who has posted a video on social networks asking for help to repatriate her body to Colombia.

According to

, the victim had the lowest VioGen protection, without specific police protection measures.

According to data from the Ministry of the Interior, there are 75,140 women victims of sexist violence under monitoring.

Last weekend, Leonel moved Natalia to the vicinity of the Real de Zaragoza beach with the help of a friend.

He cut off her head, her hands, slit her abdomen and threw her into the sea.

He wanted to make it difficult to identify her.

Her body was found early Sunday afternoon by some diners from the Club 200 restaurant, located on Las Cañas beach, three kilometers from the point where it was dumped.

It is the stretch of coast that the Special Group of Underwater Activities (GEAS) of the Civil Guard combs since Thursday in search of the remains of Natalia.

"It is a complex task," explained an agent while his colleagues slowly made a route parallel to the coast aboard a zodiac accompanied by a patrol boat.

The boat was pulling a diver—there were five, taking turns—underwater.

One of them, after going ashore, grimaced at the difficulty.

The area is shallow and has good visibility, but it is too wide, he indicated.

The work will continue for the next few days.

Two investigations that were one

Slowly and with her eyes on the ground, a Civil Guard agent was walking through the dunes in search of some vestige this Friday.

Katrine, a French woman who passes through this area every day, watched her as she recounted on Friday the surprise she got the day before when she saw numerous members of the National Police searching the same place.

"It's a very quiet place, maybe that's why she chose it," she emphasized.

Cleaning workers and several fishermen indicated that the discovery of the body had not surprised them.

“This is Marbella”, summed up one of them.

Territory of reckoning between drug trafficking organizations, the news of shootings, murders, kidnappings or torture have been assumed as normal.

The relationship of the body with drug trafficking was one of the first police hypotheses.

It didn't last long.

Hours after the discovery, a brother of Natalia went to the police station.

He had seen a video uploaded to social networks and thought he recognized his sister.

He pointed directly at Leonel, on whom a restraining order fell.

The Marbella Police Station prepared a device and arrested him early on Monday under the premise that he had breached the restraining order.

Then it was pointed out that there were two parallel investigations: one to find out the whereabouts of Natalia led by the National Police and another to identify the body led by the Civil Guard.

The reality is that they were always together and Leonel was the main suspect.

He denied his relationship to the crime.

Until Wednesday, shortly before the 72 hours after her arrest, he confessed to having killed her.

Late in the afternoon the police took him to the beach to reconstruct what happened.

The next day, Thursday, the judge ordered his admission to prison in the morning for the crime of murder.

Shortly after, after 3:00 p.m., the Civil Guard reported that the DNA tests carried out on the body found in the sea were that of Natalia.

At that time, at the gates of the Marbella courts, the police paraded the confessed perpetrator of the crime in front of the press.

"Murderer!" Shouted the few residents present.

His friend, investigated for cooperation in a murder crime, has been released on bail.

His van was located and intervened in Madrid.

"Something is not being done right"

This Friday the mayoress of Marbella, Ángeles Muñoz, observed a minute of silence in front of the doors of the town hall together with a large part of the municipal corporation.

She was accompanied by numerous members of the Local Police, National Police and Civil Guard, all men.

The councilor took the opportunity to launch a criticism of the government asking for "additional measures to avoid this type of behavior."

“Society is scandalized by figures that are unaffordable.

It is necessary to reconsider that something is not being done well when, despite the fact that it is intended to say that there is a State policy in this area, the data continues to grow year after year ”, she declared.