• Events A man is arrested for the death of his pregnant wife in Manresa

Arantxa was 31 years old and had recently lived with her partner, I.H., on Gaudí Street in Manresa. She was four months pregnant when she died in the early hours of May 6 at her home. His partner and a friend were returning from partying when they found the body of the woman who allegedly gave herself a fatal blow to the head when she fell down the three steps that separate the dining room from the kitchen. The initial examination of the Mossos d'Esquadra pointed to a fatal accident although they continued with the investigation as it was a violent death. Ten days later everything changed and the Court of Violence against Women of Manresa ordered the arrest and imprisonment of the partner of the deceased accused of a crime of homicide.

In his order to enter prison, the court recalls that the body was found "in an unnatural position and did not seem compatible with a fall down the stairs", with injuries to the face and abdomen, while the coroner ruled that the death of the victim was asphyxiation since "he had marks around the neck and had traces of foam in the mouth. Despite the fall, on the floor near the body hardly any traces of blood were found although there was in a faucet, bucket and mop and bathroom switch. Police said in their report that "someone had scrubbed the kitchen floor and footprints appeared in the area that had been cleaned." That is why it is suspected that "someone moved the body of the deceased from the kitchen area to the stairs to simulate an accidental fall."

Investigators reconstructed the last hours of the victim's life. So she was at her ex-partner's house with her current husband and two friends. They were taking alcohol and cocaine and the suspect did not like that she was present so he decided to take her home. According to witnesses there was a lot of tension and the suspect assured a friend in Arabic "tonight I am going to sleep in jail". In the end the couple were arguing. The court considers that when she got home the screams continued and at one point he killed her "out of jealousy" since she wanted to return to her ex.

Thus, there are "very substantiated indications to believe that the investigated was checking the phone" of the woman and believes that he saw a conversation between her and her former partner in which the woman told him that she would have liked to stay longer and told him that she loved him. The same night, the woman spoke on the phone with her cousin, told her that she was not well with her partner and they talked about the possibility that he would go to sleep at her house, and during this conversation, the man "took the phone out of her hands." Allegedly, after this conversation the man "assaulted her by giving her several blows (there are traumas to the head and abdomen) and finally suffocated her, ending her life."

He then returned to the party and said that she had been "drunk and sleeping", which surprised witnesses since the victim had barely consumed. They also noticed him very nervous. Hours later he had a friend accompanied to his house and while waiting outside he heard how the suspect "spoke on the phone with his mother in Arabic with the hands-free and told her that 'he had done something very serious', and the mother replied that she had already told him not to 'get nervous with her'.

In addition, he told her that he "did not know what he was going to do." Once they entered the house he told the friend that he had found the woman on the floor at the end of the stairs and asked him to look if she had a pulse. However, the friend told him to look at him so the suspect became aggressive, hit him and "under threats, ordered him to call 112", while dictating what he had to say.

The court also remarked that the statements of the victim's environment indicate that "the detainee is an aggressive person, who habitually assaulted the victim, who had even held her on occasion to prevent people from seeing the marks of violence that he had caused, and who also had a jealous attitude, controlling and possessive." Despite this, there were no complaints of abuse in the couple. The judge believes that "the motive for the homicide was jealousy motivated by the WhatsApp messages" that the victim sent to his ex after leaving the party. The suspect, who the day after the crime left the apartment he shared with the victim, is in pretrial detention accused of homicide

  • Mossos d'Esquadra
  • Justice

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