POLICE are investigating the death of a British woman and her Spanish husband after the couple were found dead lying next to each other at their home within a gated community of Somoaguas, Pozuelo de Alarcon, an upmarket suburb of Madrid.
The alarm was raised by a security guard patrolling the estate after he heard gunshots coming from the property at Calle del Corzo, 5 shortly at 2.30pm on Sunday.
When no-one answered the gate, he called police who discovered the bodies of husband and wife in the garden and a gun nearby.
The man has been identified in the Spanish media as Jorge Juliá Díez de Rivera, the Marqués de Cirella, a 66-year-old hunting enthusiast who had three hunting rifles registered in his name.
The initial hypothesis is that he shot his estranged wife, whose full name is Katherine Mary Brereton Travers, 59, before turning the gun on himself.
The pair had reportedly met while working for airlines; he was a former pilot and she worked as cabin crew, according to reports in the Spanish press. They married and had three children before separating three years ago, according to a report in España Diario.
The house is within a gated community in one of Madrid’s most desirable areas. Property on the same street is currently on the market for around €2.5 million.
Spain’s government said that the woman’s death was being investigated as a case of ‘gender violence’ and that if confirmed it would bring the number of women murdered by their partner or ex-partner to 17 this year and 1095 since 2003.
READ MORE:
- Nearly 9,000 people arrested in Spain for gender violence crimes during state of alarm
- Man shoots dead wife and turns gun on himself in Spain’s latest gender violence killing in Andalucia
- Number of gender violence convictions in Spain last year reach an all-time high
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