A married couple arrested for killing a 90-year-old man to appropriate his patrimony in Ávila

The Civil Guard has arrested the caretaker of a 90-year-old man, whose body was found inside a drum covered with lime in Sotillo de la Adrada (Ávila) as the alleged author of his death, and his wife as an accomplice for hiding his body, allegedly to appropriate his patrimony, valued at half a million euros. The armed institute has closed the investigation into the homicide that took place in this municipality of 4,700 inhabitants, located in the southeast of the province of Ávila, near the Community of Madrid, after the report of the disappearance of the elderly man in September, the Civil Guard has reported in a press release.

After activating the search device, his body was found days later inside a drum covered with lime inside the vehicle of the alleged perpetrator of the homicide, the man who took care of him, while he tried to hide the body in a farm in this town in Avila. At that moment, according to the armed institute, the detainee incriminated himself, declaring that he was returning from the hospital with the victim he was caring for and attending, and an argument broke out during which "he strangled him with the seat belt."

The wife of the alleged perpetrator stated that her husband was responsible for the care of the elderly man and that in July, on the way home, when she picked him up from a hospital, the elderly man began to feel unwell and died in the car. The woman stated that her husband hid the body in the storage room of an apartment that the couple has in the nearby Madrid town of San Martín de Valdeiglesias, and that she demanded that he tell the Civil Guard what happened, something he refused, moving the body to another place.

After several months of investigation, the Civil Guard has culminated Operation Dolomite with the arrest of the caregiver's partner, being able to verify that this woman participated as an alleged accomplice of the material author of the homicide, having helped him hide the body to try to evade justice. The search for the old man bore fruit days after it began, when the investigators went to a rustic farm located in the Zarramudo area of Sotillo de la Adrada. There they found the suspect and caretaker of the elderly man, next to his vehicle, with a wooden box inside, inside which was a plastic drum with the body of a person covered in lime, who at that time could not be identified, although it was an elderly man who probably corresponded to the identity of the disappeared.

Subsequently, the body was transferred to the Forensic Anatomical Institute of Ávila, with the aim of performing an autopsy and determining "the causes and circumstances" of death, as well as his identity. As a result of what happened, the agents searched the detainee's home in San Martín de Valdeiglesias, where they seized more than 64,000 euros in cash. The Guardia Civil discovered that numerous ATM withdrawals had been made from the victim's bank accounts after he had died.

In addition, the agents have concluded that the couple had access to all the victim's bank accounts and cards and that, taking advantage of the fact that the elderly man lacked family and emotional ties with other people, they allegedly appropriated all his assets by deception. Likewise, the caretaker and his wife had purchased two vehicles with the money of the 90-year-old man, who was even convinced to put a property he owned in his name. According to the Guardia Civil, it is estimated that between the cash and the assets they had appropriated, the couple would have obtained about 500,000 euros.