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[indistinct chatter]
Is everyone ready? Because I won't say it twice.
For one year and eleven months,
a family has been suffering the loss of this person.
And on Saturday, you called this a melodrama.
On Sunday, you described it as being like an Almodóvar film.
This isn't a melodrama. It's a trial about a 19-year-old girl.
[in Spanish] A search is underway in Mijas, Málaga, for a 19-year-old woman.
Rocío Wanninkhof.
-Rocío… -…the young woman, Rocío Wanninkhof.
[man, in English] It was massive in the press, television and radio.
It was one of the cases receiving a lot of media attention
during those years.
[man 2] In Spain, not just on the Costa del Sol,
not just in Málaga,
this was a story that had all sorts of things
for journalists, for papers…
[public clamoring]
It was a very, very major case which had gripped the nation.
Criminology is in search of an answer that we haven't yet found.
"Why do some people cross that line and end up killing others?"
I'm a criminologist as well as a lawyer
and this case is a paradigm for any student of law.
[police siren blaring]
[woman screaming]
What value is put on women's lives astounds me sometimes.
[theme music playing]
[waves crashing]
[faint chatter, laughter]
[passing traffic]
[ball bounces]
[girl 1] Well, there were lots of us to begin with.
And Rocío start-- was with us from the start.
She didn't-- It's not like she really liked football,
but… she did enjoy the fun we had and…
[girl 2] She tried it and and liked it.
[girl 1] She wore number six, which is the position she liked to play.
-[girl 2] We each had our number. -[girl 1] Our assigned number.
We'd argue if anyone changed it. [both laugh]
[girl 2] Our friends and relatives sat here.
[girl 3] Yeah, everyone came. Her mother came,
Rocío, Rosa, Alicia, everyone came.
[girl 2] All the mommies sat here. [all laugh]
[girl 2] When the girls scored, Rocío and I did this…
What did you do? Let's see.
[girl 4] This is what they did.
"No copyright, yeah!"
And then we'd run, imitating her and she'd say,
"No copyright! No copyright!"
That's it.
We were just kids. We were 15 to 16 years old.
We were just kids.
[girl 2] She was really in love with Toni, her boyfriend at the time.
-[girl 4] In love, yes. -[girl 2] Yeah, she was crazy about him.
[girl 3] Well, Toni was the most handsome guy.
[girl 2] Yeah, he was the most good-looking,
and so was she. Yeah.
[girl 3] They were a beautiful couple.
-[girl 4] She was a lot of fun. -[girl 2] Yeah, a lot of fun.
She was always smiling.
[girl 3] I never saw her get annoyed with anyone.
[girl 4] With anyone. She never got angry.
[girl 3] She was always up for a laugh. She was always up for a laugh.
[in Spanish] Yeah.
[tranquil music playing]
[indistinct chatter, muffled music pounding]
[man, in English] Come on, let's go, take a look.
I remember then, I don't know whether it was two, three years in a row,
they set up a heavy metal stand at the fair.
There was the entrance to the fair, and the area with the rides
and stuff for the kids, and there was the area with stalls,
where you could eat and you could dance.
On the back section was the area for young people, the area next the river,
which is where they set up four "shacks," as we called them,
and that's where we'd drink kalimotxo, which is what we had back then.
A lot of kalimotxo, a lot of heavy metal, a lot of rock,
but it was really a great vibe to be honest. Always.
[faint fairground announcements]
[Fabrice] So that night we'd arranged to meet at the stand.
And… I remember it was, I don't know, ten at night. A few of us were there.
Waiting. So of course an hour goes by,
another and Rocío never showed up. We waited there for her.
And she didn't show up.
[ominous music playing]
[Fabrice] She left her boyfriend's house.
It was a really long hill, there were no lights at all.
Fields all around.
And, well, she never came.
[haunting music playing]
[music swells, fades]
[woman] That night, my daughter never shows up,
so we go and look for her.
We walk along and I see a stain, quite a big one.
I say, "Oh, look at that really big blood stain over there."
I say, "Looks like someone's killed an animal."
So I go a little closer,
and I see my daughter's trainers.
"Those are Rocío's trainers." Juan says, "No way."
I say, "Those are my daughter's trainers. Please call."
Well, I got hysterical, crazy.
I say, "Call the police. Those are my daughter's trainers."
MISSING PERSON'S IDENTITY
LONG HAIR, BROWN EYES
MISSING PERSON REPORT
When she was reported missing,
we had a call from the examining magistrate
to say that there was a possible crime scene
and to ask us if we could offer our forensic input.
And our first assessment we made is that an incident had in fact taken place,
which had resulted in a large quantity of blood.
In this case, we concluded that someone had been attacked.
A blunt-force trauma to the nose or mouth.
We even considered that a bladed weapon might have been used.
From there, we found much larger, more extensive trails of blood.
This indicated the person had been moving much more quickly, running perhaps.
Then these disappeared for a section,
and we reached an area with a much bigger blood stain,
indicating that there had been significant blood loss.
Further blood stains were found
that were consistent with what we thought was a body being dragged.
They stopped in an area where,
as far as I remember, there were vehicle tracks
that we used to identify both the tires and the vehicle.
We discovered a bloodstained tissue…
and a pair of trainers
that were identified as belonging to the victim.
PHOTOGRAPHIC REPORT
SAMPLES FOR ANALYSIS BLOOD SAMPLES
SNEAKERS ON THE TISSUE
CIGARETTE STUB
[Francisco] All the cigarette stubs found were sent to try and identify
any DNA from the saliva on the stubs.
We collected everything that we thought might provide any type of information
as to the presence of someone who could, at some point, be identified,
using those samples.
DNA OF A MALE FOUND ON THE CIGARETTE STUB
Apart from there, we began a very extensive search using that data.
[Fabrice] I don't remember who called me
or how I found out Rocío had been missing since that night we'd arranged to meet.
I remember how that morning I put on the news, and heard on the news
on the radio, how Rocío Wanninkhof had disappeared.
And it hit me. I started to cry. My boss said, "What's the matter?"
I said, "It's my friend," I don't know. "What happened?"
And that's when I started to hear that, in La Cala, the local police,
medical personnel were looking, had started a search operation.
So I asked my boss if I could join the search.
Me and the rest of my friends too.
[indistinct police conversation]
[indistinct instructions]
I'm asking everyone to please bring my daughter back.
And to treat her as well as possible.
So many people… Thank you so much to the many people who are helping us.
[girls chattering]
I have three girls too of similar age and we live here in La Cala,
and we've come to offer our support.
To support the mother, the father, and the whole family.
We're going to try and keep piling on the pressure,
and we won't give up until Rocío has been found.
The search for Rocío continues…
…the 19-year-old girl who went missing on Saturday.
[presenter] A week after beginning the search
in which over 600 people took part…
[Fabrice] A group of us went with the Civil Defense,
and another group with the local police.
Some of us went out by ourselves, on our dirt bikes, up into the hills.
Searching, searching…
Like someone looking for a needle in a haystack.
Searching and we were anxious, thinking,
"Oh, man, what if something happened to her
and I find her? What if I lift a manhole cover and find her?
What if I decide to look behind that tree? What if…?"
It was really hard.
I think we… I remember going with a colleague.
We parked the broadcast van outside Alicia Hornos's house
People were constantly coming and going.
The family came out to talk to the media every few minutes.
We were calling for them.
[man] If no one is there, if no one says anything
if no one talks,
well, then people forget.
And as you can see, all the media are here,
the press is here, all the TV stations are here.
It's the only way to keep this alive.
I want them to give her back, man, whether she's alive or dead.
I just want them to give her back.
Three weeks had gone by and, well, there were a lot of tears,
and a lot of anxiety over her disappearance.
A lot of crying.
And everyone felt it.
Not just the family, who were the most affected,
but also the volunteers too.
Her friends from school, her friends from the neighborhood…
That was basically the whole mood. A mood of pervasive sadness.
[newscaster] We're bringing news that we'd hoped we'd never have to share.
The discovery of a body that may be that of Rocío Wanninkhof,
twenty-five days after her disappearance.
[Francisco] The body was found kind of hidden in a hedge
within a housing development,
just two hundred meters from the motorway to Marbella.
And along the path, you could barely get a vehicle down.
When they went to remove the body,
they found a cadaver that was practically just bones,
that looked more like a cadaver that had been there a long time.
And while they were collecting samples, they found some bags, big black bin bags,
in which they found some clothing, particularly some t-shirts.
Based on those t-shirts,
we began to feel reasonably confident that the cadaver might belong to the girl,
to Rocío Wanninkhof.
[faint chatter]
[telephone ringing]
[woman screams]
[anguished cries]
You know what? I go past there every day.
I remember, every day.
Every day I'm drawn to turn my head and look.
On the way there, on the way back.
And I think, "We were searching here and she was found 20 km away."
[faint chatter]
[Francisco] When we carried out the autopsy,
the five medical examiners present, eh, six,
we actually worked a little clandestinely
because we knew that there was huge media attention.
And we completed the autopsy,
we spent a lot of time on it, we finished during the night,
and tried to apply all our knowledge
because we knew that the repercussions were huge.
What we had was a cadaver that was going to provide us with
much less information than it might have done
if it had undergone normal decomposition.
That's because, under certain conditions, humidity, rain, heat,
decomposition occurs much more quickly.
There were no organs, meaning all we had was bones.
So, we had to find other things that might tell us
or give us an indication as to what happened during the attack.
The cadaver showed a series of injuries, mostly to the back.
I think there were around eight very similar stab wounds,
produced by a single-edged, bladed weapon.
Conclusions?
Well, that this was a very brutal attack.
Very repetitive.
It would seem that the assailant carried out the attack
within a very short time frame
because, basically, the victim is either totally immobilized,
or he acts so quickly that she doesn't have time to move.
[priest, in Spanish] I have no doubt that, right now,
you must be feeling heartbroken.
My heart and thoughts go out to them,
but especially to you, her parents and siblings.
Please.
-[girls calling] Rocío! -[applause]
Please, out of the way. Please show some respect. Out of the way.
[girls calling] Viva!
[man 1] Make room, please.
-[man 2] Just a little. -[man 1] Let them through.
We'll lower her and put her in.
-[woman 1] Let's move forward. -[man 1] Let's move forward.
-[man 1] Let's go forward a bit. Come on. -[woman 2] Goodbye, beautiful. Goodbye.
[man 1] Come on. A little more.
-[anguished sobbing] -[man 1] A little further. Push. Come on.
[women sobbing]
-[woman 2] Give us a moment alone. -[man 1] It's her mother. Just a moment.
[in English] At that point, naturally, everyone around Rocío,
and even everyone from Rocío's village, is scared.
…Rocío Wanninkhof…
[Paz] And that fear is in part fed by the social panic built by the press,
particularly all the television programs about the case.
[indistinct]
[Paz] In the end, that led to the secondment
of an elite group of the Civil Guard
which had played an active role in the Alcásser investigation,
and they were welcomed with open arms.
The detectives find finger prints on the plastic bags at the scene of death.
They analyze the track marks found on the esplanade,
and they find two fabric fibers on Rocío Wanninkhof's body.
[José María] At that time, the clues did not yet point
to the arrest of any particular person.
But there were certain details, elements and hypotheses that could,
that the Civil Guard were exploring.
And with this, as yet unresolved crime, we'll ask ourselves the same questions.
"Who committed the crime and when will an arrest be made?"
The investigating officers needed to find something.
The public pressure was huge, and they had nothing.
The poor condition of Rocío's cadaver made it impossible
to determine certain, basic facts,
such as, for example, whether Rocío had been sexually assaulted.
VISUAL INSPECTION REPORT
THE NAKED CORPSE
EXCESSIVELY UNNATURAL POSITION
[Paz] So, what happened?
Well, one of the hypotheses and conclusions reached
by the investigating officers
when they saw the corpse with its legs spread wide apart,
because they were so wide apart, they believed it to be staged.
In other words,
that the perpetrator had altered the crime scene
to make the scene look similar to a sexual assault.
Therefore they ruled out sexual assault
and focused on the motive of hatred and revenge.
Could this be a crime of passion?
Someone very close to the family,
very passionate and very resentful.
[presenter] That is…
Very well-known to the family.
That's the expert opinion of Margarita Landi,
which I partly agree with.
[Paz] And so, they begin to question the people closest to Rocío Wanninkhof.
WE ARE HEREBY TAKING A STATEMENT FROM
They even questioned her boyfriend, and even Rocío's family,
and everyone…
They all had an alibi.
[reporter] Could you answer just one question?
It will soon be a year since the death of Rocío Wanninkhof.
For now the Civil Guard has narrowed down the number of crime suspects to three.
Two men and one woman.
Towards the end of the year, they homed in on one suspect
against whom they supposedly had some conclusive evidence.
SIGNS
[Paz] In the end, the thing that aroused suspicion
was when someone reported having seen a woman stab Rocío's photo.
It seems that police are getting closer to finding the person
who killed Rocío Wanninkhof.
Not only do details of a suspect begin to leak,
but a full name even emerges. Dolores Vázquez.
ALLEGED MURDERER
[sirens blaring]
[dramatic music playing]
-[reporter 1, in Spanish] There she is. -[camera shutters clicking]
[reporter 2] There she is, Loli Vázquez…
[crowd shouting]
[woman cries out] Murderer!
[news jingle playing]
NEWS
[in English] In the early hours of 9th October last year,
a 19-year-old woman was murdered, stabbed in the back ten times.
Her body was found following a long search.
Today, a friend of the young woman's mother
has spent five hours in front of a magistrate
accused of her murder.
[officer, in Spanish] Come on! Everyone out of the way!
[Alicia, in English] The police called to say they had arrested Dolores Vázquez,
Loli. I wasn't expecting that.
She's the last person I would have expected.
She was really good to me when I separated.
She really helped me with my kids, collecting them from school,
taking them here and there, bathing them, making dinner,
many things.
[man, in Spanish] Where are you taking her?
[crowd chanting] Murderer! Murderer!
Murderer!
[crowd continues shouting]
[shouting] Murderer!
[presenter 1, in English] Her name is Dolores Vázquez,
a friend of the girl's mother.
[presenter 2] Dolores is a close friend of Alicia…
A close friend to them all…
Dolores Vázquez, a friend of the family…
…accused of killing the daughter of former close friend, Alicia Hornos…
She was the best friend of Rocío's mother.
[presenter 3] She watched her grow up, helped raise her.
They say she was like a second mother to her.
[presenter 4] They bought this house in Mijas and began a new life together
with Alicia's three children.
[José María] The victim's mother, Alicia, is someone who had three children.
She'd separated from her husband, who lived in Holland,
and she'd formed a relationship with someone.
She was part of a couple with Dolores Vázquez.
They were in an intimate relationship for eleven years.
She'd helped raise Alicia's daughters, but at the time of the offense,
the intimate relationship had already been over for four years.
I loved her more than I've ever loved anyone.
Truly.
She gave me affection, support, she comforted me…
And I loved her. I really loved that woman.
My daughter lived with them for many years when she came to Málaga to study.
And during that time she was with Loli, her aunt, and with Alicia and Rocío.
All the girls are lovely, and so is Alicia.
So, for us, it was all perfectly normal.
JUDGE SENDS WANNINKHOF'S ALLEGED KILLER TO JAIL
The investigation focused its attention on Dolores Vázquez,
and there was the motive.
One of the motives that any jury
or any professional tribunal could begin to understand,
which is that the girl was an obstacle, or was against, or was…
a problem for the relationship that Dolores had with the mother.
So now we have a motive.
[Alicia] Loli said that if it weren't for Rocío,
I would get back with her.
That's why my daughter was killed.
Because if she hadn't been so jealous,
if she hadn't felt that I was with someone else,
maybe my daughter would still be alive.
So she did it for revenge,
she did it because I didn't want to get back with her.
[cell door clicks shut]
Dolores Vázquez, in the eyes of the media, and public opinion,
was guilty from the moment she was arrested.
What do you think, Margarita? What is your heart telling you?
I have to say, "Yes, I think she's guilty."
ARRESTED
[presenter 1] Although she hasn't confessed,
La Cala de Mijas residents are in no doubt.
There were rumors,
things were already being said about this person, right?
[presenter 2] From the first instance,
family members and police believed that the attacker knew Rocío.
[presenter 3] A number of false clues, allegedly placed by María Dolores,
hindered the investigation.
It was a crime that provided material for TV programs,
one of the first in that respect, because all the elements together
were very paradigmatic of many underlying social questions.
Fundamentally, lesbophobia.
[reporter 1] Rocío's family says that Dolores is a hard woman,
aggressive and very possessive.
Mentally, she's highly vindictive, and she's very hard.
How can Alicia Hornos speak so shamelessly,
tell so many lies, so much slander about my sister,
knowing that my sister helped her raise her three children?
[reporter 2] Spiteful, aggressive, calculating.
[woman] Very cold and calculating.
A character was created.
An evil woman, a cold woman,
a woman who had waited four years and made a plan to kill Rocío Wanninkhof
because she hated her.
[indistinct chatter]
ALICIA HORNOS CLAIMS DOLORES KILLED HER DAUGHTER AS REVENGE
[José María] I clearly remember the queues at the entrance
because it had become a soap opera.
People wanted to follow the trial,
day by day, and they didn't miss a single one.
They were queuing for four or five hours to get into court
and watch what would happen.
I think that's the most brutal memory I have.
I'm going to follow the whole trial. I've got nothing else to do.
Because I'm retired and I've nothing to do.
Well, I'm on the side of the dead girl's mother.
She's lost her daughter.
Such terrible pain because I'm a mother too,
and that's a really big thing.
And the other thing is I see her as being very, very cold, very domineering.
[Ignacio] Things were very difficult for Dolores Vázquez.
She didn't come across well, she wasn't nice.
She wasn't likeable. She was a lesbian in 1999.
One who might be sentenced to 15 years in prison.
[camera shutters clicking]
[José María] It's true to say that it was a trial
in which we had to wage a war on the streets,
a war in the courtroom.
And all the information that got thrown in and all that media hype
really has an impact on a trial by jury.
[judge] Will the press, please, finish up quickly?
[reporter] Witness interviews are ongoing.
This will take a long time as over fifty people have been called.
For instance, this morning, here in the courtroom,
we've watched a video from the program, Informe Semanal.
The video shows a Civil Guard stating that there is no direct evidence
against Dolores Vázquez.
A lot remains to be seen.
Everything is under judicial seal,
and we're going to let the investigation run its course.
Take the steps it needs to find definitive proof,
clarify everything that happened at that time,
because, thus far, the truth is we don't know anything for sure.
We have our theories, but we don't know what actually happened.
Given the lack of physical evidence,
the Civil Guard produced a report that contained evidence
that pointed to Dolores Vázquez, as well as a psychological profile.
Dolores Vázquez's hatred of Rocío
practically became the central piece of evidence.
[in Spanish] You have testified
that you often clashed because you were so alike.
You were both very stubborn, and you both liked to have it your way.
Yes, sir, but that doesn't mean we clashed
in the sense that Rocío and I didn't love each other,
or that we argued.
I had a good relationship with Rocío,
more so than her mother and the family think.
[José Antonio, in English] A domestic worker, Russian,
if I remember correctly,
revealed a very important and highly cinematographic fact,
which is that at one time…
As everyone remembers, there were lots of photos of her
posted around the neighborhood etc.
but one of those photographs… She got a kitchen knife
and started stabbing it.
When she did it with a knife, and said, "This is my problem.
This is my problem."
[Paz] She explained, "I was at home
and I was crying at the sight of Rocío's picture,
and because my cleaner barely understands Spanish,
I got a knife to show that Rocío had been killed."
ORAL HEARING PROCEEDINGS
So what did Dolores have going in her favor during the trial?
Well, that she hadn't been seen at the scene of the crime,
the vehicle tire tracks did not match any of the vehicles she owned,
that the fibers found didn't match Dolores's clothing.
It was shown that the fingerprints found on the garbage bags
were proven not to be Dolores Vázquez's.
And she had an alibi. She came…
She said she'd been looking after a niece's child that day.
And yet, that was not taken into account.
[José María] One statement that kept being repeated
because it was being said in public was,
"She's not saying anything."
As in, "It had to be her because she didn't show any remorse."
It didn't seem… There was no sense of injustice.
And that really influences a jury. Always.
[Paz] The fact that Dolores Vázquez was a lesbian was used during the trial,
let's say, as a way to attack her.
REPRESSED HOMOSEXUALS EXHIBIT
MORE EXCESSIVE VIOLENCE
[Paz] It was a way to show that Dolores Vázquez
had the profile and the capacity to kill Rocío Wanninkhof.
AS THE VICTIM IS ON HER RIGHT SIDE
SUGGESTS HOMOSEXUAL ASSAULT
THE HOMOSEXUAL
CAUSES OUTBURSTS OF VIOLENCE
[in Spanish] When we had visitors,
or someone came over,
she'd introduce me as her sister
because she was ashamed of our relationship.
[prosecutor] Would you say she never accepted
her sexual orientation?
[Alicia] I think she had issues with it.
I did not kill Rocío. I did not see Rocío.
All I ask of you, of Spain,
of the whole of Spain, because a lot has been said about me,
is that you look for whoever did this because it wasn't me.
Whoever did this is out there.
Maybe even in this courtroom.
There was never any evidence against me. There will never be because I'm innocent.
[Elvira, in English] Do you see any proof? You're in there, just like I am.
Do you see any clear proof?
Or anything definitive that might send my sister to prison?
It's just that I-- You're journalists, right?
[Alicia] I want twenty years minimum.
Because in 20 years' time, who's going to give me my daughter back?
Not in 14 years or even 30. Not ever.
This afternoon's big news is, without doubt, the verdict
that will be announced to the audience in the provincial court of Málaga…
You can see the amount of media and the number of cameras
that couldn't get into the courtroom.
[juror, in Spanish] We the jury, by majority verdict, find the accused,
Ms. Dolores Vázquez Mosquera…
guilty on the count of murder.
-[crowd cheering, clapping] -[guard] Please be quiet.
[guard] Come on.
[somber music playing]
[Alicia, in English] I said to my sister, "José, we're going to win.
Well, this isn't winning but justice will be done."
And she said, "I'm not so sure." And I said, "Justice will be done."
And it has been done, thank God.
I can see the prosecutor of this complicated case from here.
Let's see if we can talk to him.
[reporter] Your first impression of the 15-year sentence?
Your initial assessment?
I asked for 15 years
so I can't complain about 15 years and one day.
[woman shouts, in Spanish] Murderer!
[ominous music playing]
[ominous music continues]
[music swells, fades]
[woman, in English] I remember…
everything about that day.
Just as it happened.
I got up in the morning, I went to her room and she wasn't there.
[hesitates]
Eh… [sighs]
I called her friends and they said they'd left her at the door.
They told me they'd left her at the door.
And I said, "Well, she's not here," so I went to look and…
From where… From our door,
three houses before you reach my house…
Well, in the tree, there was… a shoe,
a bag,
her mobile on the ground.
My husband's car had blood on it,
and our neighbor's car had blood on it too.
[crowd cheering, clapping]
[man] It was August 14th,
it was the last day of the daytime fair, around four in the afternoon,
a journalist from the SER radio station called asking me
what I knew about the disappearance of a girl from the Coín fair.
At that time, the first thing I told him was that I had no information
and that no girl had gone missing in Coín.
He assured me that this was the case.
Then I started to see vehicles, media broadcast trucks.
That then made me suspicious
and, naturally, things started to make me feel uneasy,
so I sent for the police chief.
And that's when he told me that Sonia disappeared early that morning,
and that her parents had filed a report,
and that they were investigating, making initial inquiries.
[camera shutters clicking]
Want to stand here? Can you here better from here?
-A little closer? -[reporter 1] A little closer, please.
Here, side by side. It's not too close for you.
-Don't get too close. -[reporter 2] I'll move the mic closer.
-[reporter 3] We'll stay here. -[reporter 4] Just here, yeah?
[distant police sirens]
-Right… -We're…
-We don't know. -We don't know anything yet.
And I… All I can say is if someone knows…
anything at all… There must be a friend who saw her
or heard something or…
Please say and let her go. Let her go because we've had enough.
Everything we're going through because this is a lot. This is too much.
-[reporter, in Spanish] Thank you both. -[man, in Spanish] Thank you, guys.
[in English] Thank you.
[cell phones ringing]
[indistinct chatter]
-[in Spanish] Is this okay? -[man, in Spanish] Yes, great.
Now focus that way. Down there towards Lucerne.
Slowly.
-[man] The lake, right? -[Encarna] The boats.
[Encarna, in English] So, we got married in Coín,
and my husband got a job in Switzerland,
so I went with him and that's where my three kids were born.
The two older ones first, and then Sonia.
[in Spanish] That's enough!
Enough!
That's enough!
[giggles]
[man] Say something.
Hello! [laughs]
[both laughing]
[Encarna, in English] We had work there, and we stayed 26 years.
[in Spanish] It's a quarter to eight.
Let's get going.
[laughing]
[groans]
[Encarna, in English] And when the boys had finished their studies,
Sonia wanted to move back to Spain.
And we, well, so did we.
And so, yes, we came here in 2000, in 2001.
And she settled right in. Of course, she had friends here
from when we used to come on holiday. She had cousins, she had…
She planned to stay in school,
complete her Baccalaureate or…
But that wasn't to be.
[presenter] As the hours go by, the family of the 17-year-old
who went missing in Coín, Málaga yesterday,
is beginning to despair.
A thorough search of the area is still underway,
but the girl's belongings that have been found
do not bode well.
Some are stained with blood.
[Ignacio] I seem to remember there was also a broken indicator light
in the Sonia Carabantes case.
I know this because I know that Civil Guard officers were sent
to make inquiries at every car workshop in the province of Málaga
to see if any car of the kind they were looking for
had come in to get an indicator light repaired.
[man] We began several lines of investigation,
such as a series of sexual assaults that had been committed
in the area around Torremolinos and Benalmadena.
And we also linked it to the disappearance of a girl in Motril
because the girl's profile was pretty similar.
And so, bearing in mind that they went missing while the fair was on,
well, we started looking into
all the fair workers that had been both in Motril and Coín.
[officer, in Spanish] Come up and tell me if you see anything.
See anything odd? Treat it as important.
Even if you think it's not important, everything is important.
Clothing, a shoe, anything. You call me and I'll come down.
[men chatting]
[Gabriel Jésus, in English] People stepped up. That is, they,
the public as a whole, was clear about saying,
"This is a girl who is one of us, a family that needs our help."
And they began to work together, to donate, not just their time,
but everything that might be useful to the search.
When you looked from the upstairs window,
or as the day went by, it was moving and I still get emotional.
The fact was that a girl was missing and we had to find her.
[man] I'd like to say thank you from the bottom of my heart
for everything that you're doing.
From the youngest to the oldest,
what they're doing is incredible, the effort they're making.
And I don't have any other words than to say, "Thank you so much."
That's all I have to say.
[Gabriel Jésus] Apart from that, the Civil Guard continued their inquiries,
their investigation,
but the most important thing was to find her alive.
[indistinct men's voices]
[girl, in Spanish] Did they find her?
People from Madrid called to say she'd been found.
But it hasn't been confirmed yet.
-Ah. -[man] But she's been found.
-Where was she? -[woman] They don't know.
We need to get back there. They called from Madrid.
[on TV] Today at noon, the body of a young woman was found near Coín.
[woman] Turn it up!
[on TV] Reports have not been confirmed,
but they fear it may be Sonia Carabantes,
the 17-year-old who went missing on Thursday.
[Gabriel Jésus, in English] A body has finally been found of a woman.
We fear the worst but are still awaiting confirmation.
The magistrate has just arrived. The criminal police are investigating.
I've been in continual contact with the deputy minister
who has told me that they sent a forensic unit here,
as soon as they heard the news,
which is at my, and the family's, full disposal.
[reporter, in Spanish] There they go.
[chatter from bystanders]
[somber music playing]
[Encarna, in English] It was near Monda, the neighboring village.
And they saw her in a stream…
with…
He'd put rocks on top of her and…
Well, it had rained a little the night before,
and a lot had been washed away but the dogs…
They'd been there earlier but hadn't-- On that day, well,
they found her under the rocks.
[woman] That day, the victim had been at the fair in Coín.
She said goodbye to her friends just a few meters from her front door,
and she was attacked by the perpetrator.
He strikes her on various parts of her body,
leaving her partially unconscious.
She isn't, of course, fully awake as it was a violent assault.
She tries to defend herself.
He puts her in the car and he drives her at least 11 kilometers away to a place.
And at that place,
he inflicts both internal and external injuries,
and he strangles her with a t-shirt, and then finally kills her.
[poignant music playing]
[church bell tolls]
[Gabriel Jésus] It shocked everyone. Everyone was worried.
Girls didn't leave their houses to go to the fair,
or to parties, or out onto the street.
There was a sense of fear.
A permanent sense of fear, but not just in Coín.
In neighboring towns too.
Bad because I have two nieces and a daughter and, yes, I'm worried.
They say it must be. It must be someone close to her
because she wasn't far from Coín.
We don't know who that man is. He's out there somewhere.
The girls? Well, of course. My daughter's 15 too. It's a worry.
[Paz] The speed with which Sonia was found means that yes, it is possible
to extract and examine and analyze scientific evidence.
[Florentino] During a meeting held in the deputy minister's office,
Colonel Paco Gabello stated that they had found traces, or evidence,
on Sonia Carabantes's hands.
These biological remains were analyzed immediately,
entered into the criminal evidence DNA database,
and found to match. With what?
With another genetic profile they had
which was from the cigarette stub collected two and a half meters away
from Rocío Wanninkhof's bloodstain on the esplanade.
When they cross-checked the two genetic profiles,
they find that they are a perfect match.
DNA OF A MALE
[Paz] The person who was on the esplanade in 1999 was the same person
who attacked and killed Sonia Carabantes.
I seem to remember that we were the first ones
to realize there was a DNA match.
That…
Well, that was a… That was a bombshell.
[presenter] Little by little, light clears the dark.
An English cigarette stub and traces of skin
under Sonia Carabantes's fingernails.
The DNA found on each of these is the same.
There was something to connect the two missing girls. It was so…
So serious.
So painful.
And it was also something so awful,
especially for someone who'd spent, I believe, 17 months in jail.
And from then on, everything started to move really quickly.
GUILTY
15 YEARS FOR MURDER
I hope the culprits, whoever they are, pay for this and serve a full sentence.
TWO CONNECTED CRIMES
In the two-week trial, there was no mention of the cigarette butt.
Lots of nonsense but no cigarette butt.
[presenter, in Spanish] The question is whether emerging evidence
will exonerate the accused, Dolores Vázquez.
[in English] At this point of impasse in the investigation
and in the lines of enquiry that we'd begun,
we received a phone call from Fuengirola police station
asking if I could please travel to Fuengirola
as there was a woman, English of Chilean origin,
who wanted to talk to us and give us some information.
[ominous music playing]
[woman] I met Tony in '96.
I knew him as Tony King, presented himself as Tony King to me.
I didn't know much about him at the beginning really.
He doesn't talk about much about his life.
When I meet him, he's very jealous.
He's always, um, wanting to meet me, to take me here, to take me there,
and everybody thinks he's lovely and protecting me.
So-- And I do. I think, "He's very nice. He wants to look after me."
So that's the kind of man he appears to be.
That he's all on your side.
So we just started a relationship, and five months on, I'm pregnant.
Don't know what to do. I tell him I'm pregnant,
and we just end up getting married when Sabrina is born.
And we end up in Spain because my sister lives there,
and that's September 1997.
[Cecilia] Tony starts acting suspicious in Spain.
Telling lies, starts disappearing,
starts losing phones, crashing cars, and things like that.
And I kept speaking to my family saying,
"He's not quite right. I don't know what's wrong
but something's not right and I'm not right."
I just think, "Oh, I'd better watch him because he's scaring me."
But I don't know why.
I just feel.
I remember being in my apartment with Sabrina, my daughter.
Tony had borrowed my friend's car.
Whatever. But he comes in, at one point, late at night,
and he goes into the bathroom, and he just--
He's in the bathroom, locked, for a while,
and then he comes out, and then he goes out again.
And then I go look in the bathroom, and it's all spotless and clean.
Everything's clean, and I'm really concerned about that
because he's not usually clean. He usually leaves everything on the floor.
So, it made me wonder.
It made me think, "Oh, what happened here?"
That night, Rocío disappears.
And that's what made me suspect, and I told all my relatives
all my friends, my sister, everybody. Everybody thought that I was crazy.
That, "How can Tony do that?"
It's me thinking stupid things, you know?
I was… the crazy one.
The one that thought her husband had killed someone.
That's how I was.
So in the end, I just separate from Tony.
[Florentino] Cecilia King, who was a little anxious
and worried about what she was going to tell us,
recalls that when her ex-husband came to either collect
or drop off their daughter,
she noticed that he had a scar or a wound on the back of his left hand.
[Cecilia] So what happens is, Sonia goes missing in Coín.
So, I suspect something really bad
because he had a bandage on his hand that day.
A young 17-year-old girl…
[Cecilia] And it comes on the TV, and me and David, my boyfriend,
both of us just-- Surprise and shock. "Wow. Not another girl going missing."
And we both look at each other, and we both say, "Tony."
Straight away, we both, "It's gotta be Tony."
[Florentino] Once we had taken Cecilia's statement,
I spoke to an English colleague, John O'Neill,
who was at the embassy, and I asked him about Tony Alexander King.
I got a telephone call from Tino Villabona on the 14th September, 2003.
I contacted the on-call in London,
and very soon I had a very alarming return telephone call.
Clearly, this was a very dangerous individual
from the antecedent history that was being told to me.
He tells me that they know Tony under the name of Tony Bromwich
and that he'd committed a series of sexual assaults in London,
which makes us more confident
that we're pursuing a good line of inquiry.
So they found King.
They then set about doing a surveillance on him.
[Florentino] We find that he's working in a pub,
and lives with a Spanish girl in Alhaurín el Grande.
We set up surveillance of the pub and see him arrive at work.
When he finishes work, he surprises us by going to a school.
And the school had a house, which is where he lived.
Inside the grounds, he had a car. A Mazda with British license plates.
And the indicator light was broken.
[John] The key now was time.
The key was, "We need to get a DNA sample from this man."
And they did get a DNA sample,
maybe from a glass he'd been drinking from,
uh, maybe another discarded cigarette,
and they did what you would expect to do.
They checked it and guess what? It matched.
-I've nothing to say. -[reporter] You've nothing to say?
[sirens blaring]
[camera shutters clicking]
[indistinct shouting]
[crowd shouting]
So that was… That was it. King was arrested and
allegedly made confessions in the first few days,
both to the National Police and then to the Guardia Civil.
[Florentino] So we were sure
he was behind those two disappearances and those two murders.
[John] After this case was concluded, obviously,
it was a major incident in Spain.
And, of course, there was a twist.
There was a twist to the first case because someone had already been convicted
of the murder of Rocío Wanninkhof.
A female, Dolores Vázquez, had been sentenced to fifteen years.
So this made it even more of a story.
[Paz] At the time of King's arrest,
Dolores was already out of prison waiting for a new trial,
as the High Court of Justice of Andalusia had quashed the sentence.
Why? Because the jury only had circumstantial evidence.
But also because they hadn't said what had actually made them believe
that Dolores Vázquez was guilty.
[Dolores] It's so sunny, isn't it?
I wouldn't wish prison on anyone. I've been through some terrible times.
For many months. I'd rather not talk about it.
I spent two months, over three months in solitary confinement.
Well, what else is there to say?
I'm not saying my arrest was illegal. Anyone of us-- If I was under suspicion,
I had nothing to hide.
Just as I have nothing to hide or cover up now.
I came forward and then,
well then, they started asking me questions
and saying, "It was you! It was you! It was you!"
And it was very powerful brainwashing, very powerful, very powerful.
They even told me how everything would go.
That I would be famous, that no one would believe me.
That they would take me to court,
the trail would be short, five, six months.
They would find me guilty through a jury.
Well, that's what happened.
[Paz] I believe that the sentence, apart from clearly lacking a motive,
was not impartial. That is, just think of
the number of television programs that directly accused Dolores Vázquez
when no evidence had been found.
All that information, all the public commentary
that appeared in the press, on television,
the jury and the judge read it, saw it, and heard it daily.
[Beatriz] When the real killer was found,
and it was clear that Dolores Vázquez had nothing to do with it,
I started to think, to realize how even I had taken on
all the lesbophobia spread by the media etc.
How I had believed all the information that wasn't information.
There were biases etc., right? So then I started to research
what had been said in the media, and I was a little shocked.
So I decided to write a book.
TRIAL IN THE STREET
Over time,
Dolores Vázquez was attributed with qualities
that were seen as being masculine.
Some were completely ridiculous, right?
But they threw things at her.
When you look at them, well, for example, they suddenly revealed,
um, that she did karate, like it was a bad thing.
SHE KNEW KARATE AND MARTIAL ARTS
[Beatriz] That she did sport like it was bad.
That she had a gravelly voice, that she was bossy, authoritative.
Taken together, the aim was to create the picture of a masculine woman, right?
With the negative connotations that might have.
SHE HAD THE ROLE OF FATHER
[Beatriz] They said she was barren.
That she envied a woman
who was able to give birth and be a mother.
That these are unhealthy relationships that lead to, well,
unhealthy relationships that can lead to murder.
All that rage actually stemmed from a social environment
that couldn't accept that kind of relationship.
[presenter] Is it possible that the relationship
between Rocío and Dolores Vázquez was bad because, deep down,
your daughter didn't accept your romantic tie to another woman?
[Encarna] We were stunned.
If they were accusing the wrong person…
If you don't have enough evidence, at least don't accuse someone else, right?
Because, if they'd known… just more.
If they'd kept investigating and not focused on just one person,
they would have found him, and so what happened to my girl
would have been avoided.
[woman] In 2003,
when he was arrested for the murders in Spain,
I was watching the news and…
"A British subject, Alexander King, has been arrested."
And I started shouting at the telly, pointing, being very upset.
"No, that is not Alexander King.
That is Tony Bromwich."
I couldn't believe it. I…
You know, once again,
that is the face I can't forget.
[John] In 1985,
there were a series of quite alarming offenses against women
in the north part of London, in the Holloway district of North London.
The press said, "The Holloway Strangler." They'd given him a name.
The press often do this sort of thing,
but it sort of portrayed what was happening.
Women were being strangled.
My recollection? There were seven. There were seven victims.
I think the youngest girl was 15
and maybe the oldest woman was in her early thirties.
[elevator cranking]
[Christine] It was 1985.
As I went up the steps towards my flat, I glanced and thought,
"Oh, somebody's there.
It's just somebody else getting the lift." You know? It's a normal occurrence.
[elevator stops]
Probably the first blow was the hardest.
I hit the floor.
I had this… fracture in my skull.
He tied my scarf tight.
[inhales nervously] Em…
And… started to…
interfere with me, lifting my top,
putting his hands in my trousers.
He couldn't undo my trousers because
I was pregnant.
And I…
I'd tied my trousers with a scarf.
I managed to get up,
and he got me in a choke hold, strangling me.
He didn't speak at all.
And my hair was everywhere, blood was everywhere…
I didn't know what to hold. My head, my hands?
So I'm kind of cowering in the corner,
and that's when I said, "Please, don't kill my baby.
[whispers] I'm pregnant. Please don't kill my baby."
And that was my moment.
I touched something…
in him. Um…
And I quietly whispered,
"Go on, run away. Run away. I won't tell anyone. Just run away.
You know, I won't tell anyone."
And… he did.
[disturbing music playing]
[Cecilia] I learned that he'd changed his name
when I read it in the newspaper like everybody else.
I didn't realize he'd changed his name because he was the Holloway Strangler.
I never knew that. I didn't know that at all.
When I found that out… [sobs]
…it was a shock. It was horrible.
[sobs] I wasn't normal for a long time.
It was disgusting to find out that
that man that I'd married was doing that and he'd done that to them girls.
I'm so sorry.
[John] Bromwich, as he was called then, was arrested for these
and, initially, like in Spain,
when he was interviewed he admitted that he'd done this,
and then retracted that later on at court, during the trial.
[lock clicks] So he got ten years in prison at that time
and went to prison in 1986, I think the trial was finished,
and came out in 1991.
And within three months,
within three months, I believe, he was re-arrested
for a further offence against a woman with a firearm.
He was charged with robbery, although there was a sexual overtone to the attack.
And he went back to prison.
Within a year, he was back in prison and
came out again in, if I recollect, around about '96.
And then he'd been identified by several people
phoning a television program called Crimewatch in the UK,
who'd identified him, believe it or not, attempting a further assault
on a young Hungarian au pair.
[program theme music playing]
[man] We started Crimewatch in 1983
and I presented it until about 2007.
The program which we featured King, or Bromwich, as we knew him then,
and this particular episode was, well,
this particular appeal for Bromwich, for King,
was just a piece of CCTV slotted into it.
Late on a Sunday night, about three weeks ago,
an au pair was assaulted
as she walked home near Leatherhead in Surrey.
Police believe one man in particular may be able to help.
He's one of the passengers at Epsom station.
It's about half past eleven on Sunday, August 10th.
Is this you? Were you on the platform too?
If you were there at Leatherhead or at Epsom, do call,
even if you don't recall the man.
And please ring right away if it's you
or if you can tell us who he is.
I contacted the program and told them who I thought it was,
who I knew it was.
And by the time they found where he lived,
got it together,
he'd left the country and gone to Spain.
If you've got 15 million people watching a television program
and your face is on it very clearly,
or it's suspected that you might have been caught on CCTV,
the sensible thing to do
would be get out of the country as quick as you can.
[Christine] I did have a band before being attacked.
I was going to be signed with Virgin, em…
but I lost my voice.
I think when you're terri-- traumatized, one of the…
first things to show nerves is your voice.
I couldn't sing.
[Encarna] Once they arrested
that criminal person,
well, that's when they started to say something about involving Interpol,
asking the Spanish authorities where this person was.
When we'd heard here in Spain that this report existed,
well naturally, it caused a certain level of fear.
And both the government and the opposition used the case politically,
through a parliamentary questioning about the case to the Interior Minister,
Ángel Acebes…
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
…and why they hadn't stepped in.
In Spain, the King case has been discussed in the chamber.
Yes, the Minister of the Interior, Ángel Acebes,
asked to appear in Parliament to explain the investigation
into the murders of Rocío Wanninkhof and Sonia Carabantes.
The minister explained
that the British police sent a notice asking for confirmation
that he lived in Spain and outlined the crimes of which he was accused.
But the British police described the notice
as being of low importance
and didn't request Tony Alexander King's extraction.
The matter was filed.
-[crowd clamoring] -[John] They did notify,
as far as I'm aware, through Interpol that this guy was there,
and I think they may even have had him approached,
to see whether or not he would willingly come back
to be investigated or to be interviewed in relation to the Leatherhead offense,
but, clearly, he wasn't gonna do that.
He wouldn't have chosen to do that.
[man, in Spanish] Mr. Minister, Scotland Yard, on the 15th September 1998,
located Anthony Alexander King in Mijas through you.
You were notified as to who he was.
You were notified of his conviction, of the danger he posed.
The British police also said, "He's a threat to women in Spain."
But what doesn't add up is the enormity of the fact
that a dangerous criminal was identified,
but that was not registered or reported correctly.
A memo from Interpol cannot be handled
how it was by the police under your responsibility.
[Florentino, in English] It's true we received a fax from Interpol in London
informing us that Tony Alexander King,
not that he was to be detained but that we should look into him.
At no time did they reply.
But that's normal because we receive many, many faxes from Interpol
regarding the presence of all kinds of people on the Costa del Sol.
Not just for sexual assaults,
but for drug trafficking, murder, fraud,
for a range of crimes.
[in Spanish] These were blameworthy acts
that have brought suffering, especially to the families
of Rocío Wanninkhof and Sonia Carabantes,
and also another individual, Dolores Vázquez,
who has probably been to hell and back.
[Ángel Acebes] If we apply the standard premises
for any investigation to the Rocío Wanninkhof case,
we can conclude that the Guardia Civil
steered the investigation to focus on Dolores Vázquez,
who seemed to fit the most plausible criminal profile.
[Encarna, in English] The authorities have never apologized to me.
Minister Acebes who knows all about this.
No one has been in touch with me.
Did I have to lose my daughter
so they could catch their killer?
Because they caught him because my daughter defended herself.
[Alicia] I can tell you I wasn't the one who put María Dolores Vázquez in prison.
Right at the beginning, the police told me
they were going to lock up María Dolores Vázquez.
That she was the suspect.
That she had killed Rocío.
So if anyone needs to apologize to that woman
then it should be the police.
Because I don't have to apologize to anyone.
I didn't lock anyone up.
-[woman, in Spanish] Be strong! -Thank you.
[indistinct greetings]
[Tony, shouting] I'm innocent!
I'm innocent!
[Lourdes, in English] The trial had a real impact
because, fortunately, this kind of thing doesn't happen every day.
It's a very serious event
because it also seems the victim was chosen at random,
which means pure chance determined this would happen to that person, right?
And that has an impact at the level of--
At all levels, as judges and as human beings.
[José María] I think the evidence was so strong
that in the end he admitted it.
Maybe because now he feels like the main protagonist.
I remember seeing him on television being transported in a police vehicle.
The way he addressed the media,
but mostly wanting to be the main protagonist,
rather than out of any sense of regret
or the sense that he'd done anything wrong.
They covered for the crime of murder!
They're criminals! They've perverted the course of justice.
They have no right to hold me for the crime!
[Alicia] I've spent 7 years, 2 months and 12 days asking who killed my daughter.
[reporter] What outcome are you hoping for?
Justice. Justice.
Justice for my daughter once and for all.
[Paz] In one of his statements to the detectives,
Tony King tries to incriminate Dolores Vázquez
to drag her back into the penal process.
I don't know anything about this man, nothing at all.
The only thing I know is that I have already been condemned once
and I'm scared to death it'll happen again.
I am innocent, gentlemen, and I want the court to see my innocence.
I shouldn't have to be here now justifying myself.
I shouldn't have to justify anything.
But I'm being asked to do it because of public opinion.
Because Spanish society demands, on top of everything,
I prove my innocence.
For my Rocío, and for poor Sonia, and for many others.
[Florentino] No, he did it alone. Always.
He always acted alone. Whenever he went out, he went out alone.
And he took those girls, he assaulted them, and he killed them.
[Ignacio] Dolores had very bad luck but she also had very good luck.
Dolores Vázquez might otherwise still be in prison today
or have got out only a short time ago.
It's true a retrial was ordered.
No one knows what the outcome of that trial would've been,
but if the true guilty party in this case hadn't been found,
no one knows what would have happened to Dolores Vázquez.
[presenter] Today, the Málaga Court of Appeal
has exonerated Dolores Vázquez
for the murder of Rocío Wanninkhof, thus bringing to an end an ordeal
that Dolores Vázquez has undergone for over four years.
[Ignacio] I'll bet anyone, and we can check the files,
that the arrest of Dolores Vázquez takes up many more pages
than her acquittal.
None of the journalists who wrote utterly offensive nonsense about her
ever said, "We were wrong. How awful. Well, how did we get so carried away?"
In the way that I might say, or talk about the movement, right?
"How awful. We were so wrong. How could we?
Even we get carried away on the tide that carried us away, right?"
No one really said that.
It was as if, well, "Next. We found the murderer.
That woman? Whatever. Next. Right."
And well, that's awful too, right?
The first person who should apologize is the person who caused the damage,
and the damage was obviously caused by the system.
As far as I know,
the state hasn't compensated Dolores Vázquez.
I think that's a grave error.
I talk to this one a lot, to this picture, because she's always laughing.
I say, "You're always laughing at your mother."
I say, "You look so pretty, my love.
You're so pretty. How sad that you're not here with me."
She seems to laugh at me and understand.
[Encarna] She was a joy,
and she was always kissing and hugging me and, "You're so pretty."
That's what she was like.
[clapping]
[Encarna] Now, I'm okay, pretty much.
I'm alone, without my little girl, because when
people say, "Yes, you're strong. So is your husband."
It's not that I'm strong.
It's that I don't have any other choice than just keep going.
[Cecilia] It's really a big shock.
Can't explain how big of a shock and how much washing I've done
to try and get rid of Tony.
You know, the feel of Tony on me, yeah.
It's left me scared of men. Totally.
But what kept me going was my daughter and my son.
I had to look after them, so I just have to be a mum.
[Christine] I've been given an opportunity to speak.
I think it might help me have a bit more closure.
Um…
That what happened to me is important enough for you to come.
[Dolores] The struggle isn't over for me.
It's not so much about the monetary compensation.
It's more…
to show Spanish society that I am totally innocent,
That I always have been.
So that when I walk down the street, there aren't any little nudges.
Or when I go to El Corte Inglés to try on a pair of shoes,
I say El Corte-- Any shop.
And… within 20 minutes, I am surrounded by women.
[mock gasp] "Oh, look who it is! Look!"
I'm still asking for someone to apologize.