Expat Couple In Spain Arrested In Gruesome Multiple Murder Case

Published:  11 Mar at 6 PM
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Spanish police are investigating an expat couple alleged to have murdered a number of lonely expatriate pensioners.

An Andalusia-based German man and his German-Cuban wife have been arrested in connection with a number of unsolved deaths of elderly pensioners. During the arrest, a disabled Dutch pensioner and an elderly German man were discovered immobile in their beds, showing evidence of malnutrition and drugging using tranquilisers. The victims were attached to nasogastric feeding tubes, thus keeping them just alive.

Police raided the house whilst investigating the death of Maria Babes, a wealthy German expat who’d signed over her property to the couple before she died. In addition, an Italian man was known to have died whilst living in the couple’s house, and the Spanish investigation team believe at least five elderly pensioners have lost their lives whilst in the couple’s care. British, Italian, German and Cuban police have been informed of the arrests by Spanish police as part of a request for follow-ups on the deceased expatriates, and media reports are claiming a friend of Ms Babes informer the police she’d left Tenerife to live with a younger couple on the mainland.

The 101-year old, wealthy victim was traced to a Chiclana nursing home, and had been in hospital more than once whilst staying with the couple. She told police she’d been incarcerated and handcuffed, but was allowed to return to the couple’s house where she finally died. It’s believed the Spanish-Cuban couple had amassed a £1.5 million fortune by forcing their captives to sell their homes and transferring the cash to their own bank account.

Warrants for the couple’s arrest had been taken out in late December, but Ms Babes was removed from the house the day before the raid took place. Five hours later, the pensioner was dead, with the funeral home director telling police they’d been in a hurry to have her body cremated and didn’t have any interest in retaining the urn with her ashes. The pair are also believed to have taken two houses and around €500,000 from the Italian man who also died whilst living with them.

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