Cullera jacuzzi tragedy: autopsies support the double fatal accident theory and rule out foul play

Following several hours of uncertainty and speculation about possible criminal evidence, the post-mortem examinations carried out on the bodies of the deceased couple have cleared up some doubts: the causes of death were not due to homicide, but rather resulted from a fatal and unforeseen sequence of two accidents.

Thorough analyses carried out on the bodies of the Irish woman and the New Zealand man, aged 51 and 48 respectively, rule out the involvement of third parties in this strange incident.

Police intially had said the man was also Irish.

The exact causes of death remain to be determined pending the results of the toxicological tests.

Following the post-mortem examinations carried out at the institute of forensic medicine in Valencia, the blood, urine, vitreous humour and viscera samples have now been sent to the national institute of toxicology and forensic sciences in Barcelona. The Guardis Civil hopes to piece together this macabre jigsaw puzzle once the analyses are complete.

A reconstruction of the events suggests that the tragedy originated in the property’s hot tub. The woman suffered a serious incident whilst in the water, presumably caused by a suction failure in the hydromassage system or by a sudden illness that prevented her from getting out of the tub.

Realising the emergency, her husband tried to pull her out of the water in a frantic and desperate rescue attempt. The marks and scratches found on his body are consistent with the physical effort he would have exerted whilst holding on to and dragging his partner and also confirm that he did everything he could to save her.

Unfortunately, however, the rescue attempt resulted in a second fatality. The Guardia Civil is investigating whether the man suffered a fatal electric shock whilst handling the faulty bathroom fittings while his body was wet, or whether he may have been poisoned by inhaling toxic fumes that had built up in the room. Nor has the possibility been ruled out that the extreme physical exertion and the distress of the moment triggered a sudden heart attack, thus sealing the couple’s tragic fate.

The bodies were naked and showed minor injuries when they were found last Tuesday by the couple’s children, two youngsters aged 14 and 16 with special needs.

The teenagers asked the owner of the house for help, and he immediately dialled the emergency number 112. The victims were staying with their children in a rented 250-square-metre villa with spacious open-plan areas.

The fieldwork carried out by the homicide unit and the forensic service of the Guardia Civil has left no detail to chance. During the two inspections they carried out at the villa, specialists took samples of the murky water from the hot tub and checked the bath’s drainage system. They also searched for criminal evidence (such as forced doors or windows), reviewed security camera footage and carried out other investigations which have confirmed that the incident was a double fatal accident and ruled out foul play.

Investigators are trying to determine whether a technical fault with the hot tub, accidental entrapment due to suction, or the build-up of a gas or substance could have caused the woman to drown or lose consciousness.

At present, the case hinges on a series of unanswered questions which the Guardia Civil hopes to resolve with the results of the toxicological tests: did both victims die from the same underlying cause, who died first and how much time elapsed between the first accident and the final outcome? What substance caused the water to become cloudy, and what role did the suction mechanism play in the first incident?