Man arrested after killing his wife in a shopping centre in Murcia and hiding her body

The discovery of the woman’s body was reported at 5.25pm, according to a spokesperson for the regional emergency coordination centre. National Police officers dispatched to the scene requested medical assistance. An ambulance from the 061 emergency and medical services department was sent to the scene, and the doctor on board certified the woman’s death.

The National Police immediately deployed a team to collect initial evidence at the scene and begin investigations to establish the circumstances of the incident. The investigation is being conducted jointly by the homicide unit and the family and women’s support unit, with the support of the National Police’s provincial forensic team.

According to people familiar with the couple who spoke to SUR, the alleged perpetrator is a man in his 40s who works at the shop where the crime took place. Shortly after midday, the woman is said to have gone to the shop, where the murder is believed to have taken place under circumstances that have yet to be clarified. Staff at nearby shops said that the couple were in the process of getting a divorce.

The same sources pointed out that the alleged criminal had locked the shop, leaving the woman’s body inside. Neither the shop assistants in the shopping centre’s arcade, nor the Carrefour staff manning the checkouts opposite, nor the customers who were in the shopping centre at the time heard anything out of the ordinary, nor, as yet, have they reported seeing the attacker flee.

Other shopkeepers working in the hypermarket’s shopping arcade told SUR that they knew the man. They reiterated that the couple were in the process of divorcing and that they had a daughter together. Shortly after 8.30pm, following an inspection of the crime scene, the body was removed and taken to the institute of forensic medicine in Murcia. The police presence guarding access to the crime scene caused quite a stir in the hypermarket.

The judge of the preliminary investigation section of the Murcia magistrates’ court, acting as the duty judge, issued a warrant late on Wednesday ordering the search for and arrest of the victim’s former partner as the alleged perpetrator of a murder and for breaching the terms of his sentence.

The man under investigation had been convicted on 15 April 2026 by the Murcia magistrates’ court of an offence of domestic abuse committed against his former partner. The sentence imposed, among other penalties, included a ban on approaching within 500 metres of the victim, her home, place of work or any other location where she might be, as well as a ban on communicating with her by any means for 16 months. It also ordered 40 days of community service and payment of compensation amounting to 310 euros.

Furthermore, the duty judge provisionally placed the custody of the daughter with the public body responsible for child protection in the region of Murcia, so that the appropriate protective measures could be taken.

One of the first public reactions came from the Mayor of Murcia, Rebeca Pérez, who condemned “the crime in the strongest possible terms” on her social media accounts. “We share in the grief of the family and of those who today mourn a life taken in the most brutal way. No, no and always no to violence. Not one more,” she said.

The government delegate, Francisco Lucas, also expressed his condemnation of this crime on social media: “The police are investigating the alleged murder of a woman in Murcia as a possible case of gender-based violence. My deepest condolences go to the victim’s family and loved ones at this difficult time. We utterly condemn gender-based violence.”

This is the second crime being investigated as gender-based violence on the same day, after a Guardia Civil officer who was about to be dismissed from the force over gender-based violence offences stormed into the official premises of the Llanes (Asturias) barracks at midday and shot dead his former partner, who was also a member of the Guardia Civil.

The victim’s colleagues returned fire using their service weapons. Two of them were injured by gunshot wounds.