MAN CONFESSES TO MARI LUZ MURDER
Santiago del Valle García, 52, has confessed to the murder of Mari Luz Cortés. He had already been questioned in Granada but was released for lack of proof. Del Valle, his wife and his brother and sister, who had been neighbours of the Cortés family in Huelva, were detained in Cuenca, to where they had moved well before the body of 5-year-old Mari Luz was found downriver from the family home.
Del Valle had always been the prime suspect in the case but police lacked evidence against him. According to police sources quoted in the newspaper, he had a history of child molestation, even on his own daughter of the same age as his alleged victim, and had left the El Torrejón district of Huelva to avoid possible reprisals from indignant neighbours. His wife, whose name does not appear, was detained for questioning with her husband although she is not a suspect; his brother and sister could be accused of aiding and abetting.
Mari Luz disappeared on her way back home from buying a packet of crisps on January 13th and was the subject of a wide search throughout the country, with European extensions. Her body was found accidentally on March 7th by workmen at the Cepsa refinery in Huelva. Autopsy reports indicated that she had been murdered very near, or on the date she disappeared.
In another case, Irish teenager Amy Fitzpatrick’ was 16 yesterday. She disappeared from her home in Mijas on January 1st and there has been no trace of her since then. The Irish Garda and Spanish police are co-operating in the hunt for her.
Filed under: IN THE NEWS
