Simon Hunter
A MAN arrested by police in Madrid on suspicion of killing three siblings in their seventies has confessed to the crime, claiming that he murdered the man and two women in ‘revenge’ over a €60,000 debt.
Pepe, Angeles and Amelia Gutierrez Ayuso, aged between 71 and 79, were found dead by the authorities in their home in the town of Morata de Tajuña on Thursday, after neighbours realised they had not seen them around for some time.
The bodies were found piled up and partially burned, while the house was locked and showed no signs of forced entry.
The confessed killer is a 42-year-old Pakistani national with the initials D. H. F. C., according to Spanish press reports, and had spent time living with the family as a tenant.
After the bodies of the three siblings were discovered, neighbours told reporters that the sisters had apparently fallen for a so-called ‘romance scam’ on social media, and had been duped into thinking they were speaking to an American soldier stationed in Afghanistan.
According to neighbours’ accounts, the sisters began sending money to the scammers on the promise that they would be able to unlock a multi-million inheritance.
Once Angeles and Amelia burned through their own savings, they reportedly began to ask friends and neighbours for loans. When they were advised by neighbours they were likely being duped by fraudsters, the sister would cut those people out of their lives.
The brother, Pepe, who was 79, was a person with disabilities and was not aware of what was happening, according to Spanish daily El Pais.
The detainee, D. H. F. C., was the main suspect in the case given that he had a previous record of violence toward the family.
In January 2023, he assaulted the older sister, Angeles, and then did so again in February, when he hit her with a hammer over an apparent debt. He was arrested and imprisoned until September of last year for those offences.
He handed himself in to police on Monday in the Madrid municipality of Arganda del Rey, where he ran a telephone calling shop, and confessed to the crimes.
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