- It is believed that the eldest child stabbed his mother in the neck with a sharp object
- The youngest suspect cannot be charged and will be handed over to social services
Two Russian children have been arrested in Spain on suspicion of murdering their adoptive mother. They were found bound, gagged and stabbed in the boot of a car last night.
Silvia López, 48, was found dead late last night in Castro Urdiales, Cantabria, before Spanish vigilantes stormed in to detain her two sons.
Police are treating the death as a homicide and say they were led to the unnamed children, aged 13 and 16, after calling their grandmother last night.
Preliminary investigation shows that the 16-year-old hit his mother in the neck with a sharp object, after which the pair fled and pretended to have been kidnapped to deceive authorities.
Under Spanish law, the 13-year-old is too young to be charged and will be handed over to social services, where a team of psychologists and health workers will monitor him.
48-year-old Silvia Lopez, who was found dead in a garage late Wednesday evening
Police are investigating the crime scene in northern Spain after the mother was found dead
Police worked through the night to unravel the mystery after finding the mother in a garage near Santander and amid reports of the sons’ kidnapping.
Local police and vigilantes set up roadblocks overnight to locate the boys while investigators explored the possibility of a possible domestic violence attack.
Because Ms. Lopez’s father worked out of town at night, they thought it unlikely he was involved.
‘He didn’t believe it. He was devastated,” said a source close to the investigation El Diario.
Checkpoints stretched across the region as police scoured Castro for signs of the missing children and searched the trunks of passing cars.
They were eventually found in Cotolino Park, hidden in a hilly area.
One reportedly tried to flee while the other was detained by the Guardia Civil. They did not acknowledge the crime, local media reported.
A regional government spokesman said this morning that the older brother was suspected of killing Ms. Lopez
Detectives have not yet made an official comment but are expected to do so later today.
The younger of the two boys is currently in juvenile prosecutors.
The older child, also described as a minor but whose age has not yet been made public, is believed to be in custody at a vigilante post in Castro Urdiales.
Castro Urdiales Mayor Susana Herran said this morning: “Our feeling is one of absolute sadness. It’s terrible that these kinds of things happen.’
She also revealed that the boys’ father was at work when the alleged murder occurred.
Silvia López, 48, was already found dead with neck injuries in a garage in northern Spain
Carmen Merino was arrested in the coastal town of Castro Urdiales in September 2019 after her husband’s decapitated head was found in a box she had given to a neighbor to care for, claiming it contained sex toys she did not want her partner to have. find.
The 64-year-old told the neighbor that she had put her sex aids in a bag in the box because she thought police could search her house for missing Jesus Maria Baranda and she was ashamed that they would find them.
She was sentenced to 15 years in prison in December 2022 after being convicted of the murder of the retired bank employee following a fourteen-day jury trial at a Santander court.
