The Zamora regional court has sentenced a Portuguese man and woman to 22 years in prison and 17 years in prison for drugging a 70-year-old man, tying him up and throwing him into Lake Sanabria (Zamora) in 2019 to collect his pension. The case remained suspenseful for several years until investigators traced the traces of a cigarette box found on the body, identified the deceased and observed which members of his surroundings might be connected to the crime. The subject drowned and, according to the Civil Guard, officials “made him disappear” in order to receive a pension of 35,000 euros. The deceased’s daughter reported the incident and is expected to receive 120,000 yen in compensation.
The woman was sentenced to 22 years in prison for manslaughter and facilitating the commission of another crime, and her henchman will spend an additional 17 years in prison for manslaughter. Then there is a third person who was arrested along with these two in late 2023, but was acquitted of the conspiracy charges. The incident occurred on December 27, 2019, while the two convicts were driving with the victim. According to the ruling, the duo, who transported the 70-year-old deceased, had previously been given drugs to make him drowsy and “negate any possibility of his defense”. Together they took him to a place known as Pozo Muerto, on the right bank of the River Tela, at the mouth of Lake Sanabria. “In carrying out a previously conceived plan, they tied a bag of agricultural quicklime to his body and placed the lower half of his body inside the bag. They covered his eyes and mouth with duct tape and stripped him of all types of documents to make his identification difficult if discovered,” the judicial order said, before throwing him into the river and causing him to die from “suffocation by water immersion.” I’m drowning.
According to the investigation, the woman “acted with the motive of obtaining illegal financial benefits and incorporating them into her own assets, because even after her death, she continued to keep for herself the entire sum transferred from Portugal and the United Kingdom as a pension to the victim’s bank account” (approximately 35,000 euros, according to the investigation). The suspect has been in a provisional prison since 2023, but the man was already incarcerated for other reasons. Together they must pay €120,000 to the deceased’s daughter, a UK resident, who reported her father’s disappearance and facilitated the investigation. The body was seen by a walker in Lake Sanabria a few days after the crime, and the discovery of a pack of cigarettes made it easier for private security to gain access to the subject, who learned that he lived in Belin (Ourense) but had various criminal pasts in the UK.
When reporting the arrest of the three suspects at the end of 2023, the investigative authorities reported that the case was very complicated as it coincided with the height of the pandemic, and that this time the proceedings were with the Interpol (in Portuguese). Investigators zeroed in on the person in Bellin who was caring for the deceased and his roommate. It was later discovered that the victim had a bank account with the suspect in Portugal, and that another third party, who was said to have had a romantic relationship with the detained woman, may have been involved. Together with Portuguese investigators, they confirmed the “economic motive” for the crime. “Until everything comes together, it’s particularly difficult because of the administrative issues, and because it involves foreign nationals, it’s very complex and requires permits, international orders and a lot of travel.” The judgment is not final and may be appealed to the High Court of Castilla and León.
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