He killed her with a brutal beating and then thoroughly washed her body to, possibly, investigators believe, remove incriminating biological remains. He did it in the bathtub of the house, although everything indicates that the death occurred in the room. It happened this March in Oviedo. The death occurred between Thursday 9 and Friday 10, although the police did not find the naked body of the woman until Sunday 12 in the morning, after an alert call from the victim's mother, who resides in Castellón and who was worried because she could not locate her.
It is the first thing that transpired of his death. That of Tatiana Coinac, a 44-year-old Moldovan woman, who had bought about 15 years ago a flat in the Asturian capital and with an extremely reserved existence. Not even her neighbors had ever suspected that this blonde and discreet woman, who did not give rise to conversation or trust, was engaged in prostitution. Even more surprised, because, although in that area there are several apartments that are used for this type of services, in Tatiana's they had never seen entrances or exits that made them suspicious. No one imagined how he made a living. The hairdresser he had recently gone to had told her that she worked caring for the elderly in a nursing home. But her profiles on dating sites reveal that under the names Tatiana or Tania she also offered massages and erotic calls.
So the first ones the police spoke to, their neighbors, contributed little, they had not heard noises or shouts, they had not seen anyone who caught their attention. Nothing strange. Nor could his family, who live far away, contribute much more. They didn't even imagine how he made a living. So the investigation has focused, almost from the beginning, on someone who could have hired his services the hours before his death.
The autopsy revealed that Tatiana had had sexual relations before her death, which occurred in very violent circumstances. The body had several broken bones. She had been tied to the bed and had her neck broken by tying it tightly with a cloth. The force used and the cruelty make someone with a sadistic profile suspicious.
From the first moment the court decreed the secrecy of the proceedings to avoid leaks. They did not want to give more clues because the fence was very open and almost two weeks later it is still not closed. The biological remains found in the victim's apartment are being thoroughly analyzed to see if they match those of someone with a background. It is one of the possible profiles for the way of acting after committing the crime and its brutality. But it is a possibility without ruling out others, because Tatiana had many clients and with very varied profiles. Now those contacts are analyzed on the victim's mobile phones and dating websites: who had contacted her those days or stayed in her apartment.
On Amsterdam Street, where the events occurred, there are no police cars although the floor is still sealed. Its interior was thoroughly searched for two days. But it doesn't seem like an easy case. For this reason, members of the Specialized and Violent Crime Unit, the UDEV central from Madrid, have taken charge of the investigation. They look for matches of the remains found in the CODES database, a registry of genetic profiles to check if any match those found in the house and in Tatiana's body.
But so far there have been no arrests. Among the women who earn a living like this in that area of Oviedo there is fear. They say that they usually share a flat to avoid unwanted situations or that the client does not pay finely what was agreed and that they have among them their own security codes and telephone groups in case any is in trouble, but they recognize that if someone like that touches you, you are lost.
A murdered woman who does not count for gender-based violence statistics
The first thing that generated Tatiana's crime, besides revulsion for the murder, was debate. The death had been violent, but not at the hands of his partner or ex-partner. A potential customer is targeted. It is therefore not investigated as a case of gender violence. He doesn't go to a specialized court. It is not counted in the statistics of the Ministry of Equality as such, but as femicide.
However, the feminist associations that concentrate in Asturias every time there is a crime of this type returned to the streets on the 15th to show their rejection. "They are not deaths, they are murders," his banner read. And it is that these groups consider that "the murder of a woman in a situation of prostitution or trafficking at the hands of a client or pimp is not only a femicide, but gender violence".
The general director of Equality of the Principality, Nuria Varela spoke in the same sense and publicly asked again this week that these cases enter as soon as possible in the statistics of sexist violence.
The mayor of Oviedo, the popular Alfredo Canteli, further unleashed criticism of feminism by saying that he does not understand "the concern of some parties and some feminists that it appears on the lists of deceased." From the collective Women of the Scandal say that this case would be very different if it is included as sexist violence. First, because the agents who interrogate the victim's environment already have special training, the case would fall on a court also specialized, of violence against women and with greater sensitivity to these issues and also in the trial process could resort to the aggravating gender factor, which would imply a greater sentence. In addition, in the event that Tatiana had children, they would count as victims and therefore have rights. "It's not just about being on one list or another," acknowledges its spokesman, Flor Tejo. "If not what that implies. That is why it is necessary to continue working in that direction."
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