A British woman was found dead in her apartment on the Costa Blanca in a suspected domestic violence murder. At around 4.00 am on Sunday morning, the Guardia Civil received a phone call from a concerned neighbour.
Police went to the home in Orihuela Costa, where they found the 64-year-old woman dead after receiving several stab wounds. Her 69-year-old husband, who is also believed to be British, was arrested at the scene as he attempted to flee. He is currently under police guard in the hospital with a knife wound to his stomach. However, it is not yet clear how he sustained the injury.
According to local reports, the suspect had previously been accused of domestic violence in 2019, but the case was dropped after his wife declined to press charges. The Government delegate in the Valencian Community, Pilar Bernabé explained in El Mundo that information being collected on this murder, points to a case of domestic violence. The couple had resided in Spain since 2017, according to sources of the investigation.
With this death, the number of women murdered by gender violence in Spain has risen to 11 in 2023 and 1,195 since 2003.
Another domestic violence murder in Torremolinos
This incident comes just weeks after a British man, who was facing murder charges over the stabbing of his wife in their Costa del Sol flat, died in hospital. He passed away a month after being remanded in custody following the brutal killing of his wife.
The police had arrested him when they found him lying on a bed at their beachfront apartment in Torremolinos. Police and firefighters had to force entry. The man was thought to have had Alzheimer’s.
