One woman dead, two devastated families, and three orphaned minors in a town, Alhaurín el Grande (Málaga), Spain, shocked by the pain of this new gender-based crime, the first in the province this year. A man stabbed his ex-partner in front of their children on Saturday, who went out to the street to ask for help: "My dad has killed my mum".
Of British nationality, Victoria, the murdered woman, was 33 years old. Her family, like many others from the United Kingdom, moved to the Costa del Sol some time ago. In the town, she met Juan Antonio, the father of her children and also her alleged attacker. They had been together for over a decade and had three children together, an 11-year-old boy and 7-year-old twins, who will turn 8 next February. The girls will celebrate their birthday without their mother, and it seems likely also without their father, accused of stabbing the young woman and already arrested.
Shortly after the crime, Juan showed up at the Alahurín de la Torre prison, also in Málaga, and surrendered. There, he confessed to the officials that he had stabbed his ex-partner to death and indeed, the children were at home when it all happened.
Outside what until Saturday had been Victoria and her children's home on Tomillo Street, still cordoned off by the police, relatives and neighbours mourn the violent death of the young woman. "We knew they had separated and things weren't good," says a neighbour, "but we didn't know things were this bad. I found out today," he adds.
The murdered woman's situation was so serious that she had gone as far as reporting her ex-partner, and he had a restraining order that, evidently, did not prevent the crime. Both were registered in the Comprehensive Monitoring System for Gender Violence cases VioGen. Although Victoria's case, still with an active restraining order and prohibition of communication with the victim, was considered low risk.
They led a very discreet life, and neighbours in the La Paca urbanization do not recall hearing or seeing anything from the Guardia Civil there before the day of the crime. "Their closest relatives were aware of what was happening," another neighbour points out. "I - she says - even thought they had reconciled because last weekend Victoria told me they had been in the mountains with her father-in-law."
Victoria had gone out with her friends on Friday, her ex-partner found out and apparently, "couldn't handle it," a acquaintance of the detainee tells EL MUNDO.
On Saturday morning, those who crossed paths with Juan saw him looking "serious and upset", to the extent that they even asked him. He didn't give many explanations, but "knowing that his ex was capable of moving on without him disturbed him," they say, and everything indicates that this could have been the trigger for him to show up at the house where the woman lived with the three children they had together and stab her to death.
In Blas Infante Avenue, where the alleged attacker's family runs a rotisserie chicken restaurant, nothing else is being talked about. Around 10:00 on Saturday morning, the now detained individual was at his father's business and picked up bread as usual, comments the owner of El Rubio bakery, located a few meters from the poultry shop.
"I'm okay", the alleged killer responded when asked how he was feeling because they noticed he was serious. Just an hour later, he would have gone to the house where his partner and children lived and stabbed her.
The screams of the victim and the three children, who were in the house at the time of the crime, alerted the neighbours in the urbanization. At 11:40, a woman called the Emergency 112 Andalucía service, followed by a man.
The children went out into the streetasking for help, and a neighbour entered the house. Inside, Victoria was lying on the floor, covered in blood. Beside her, a knife.
The emergency coordination centre alerted the 061 health services, the Guardia Civil, and the Local Police of Alhaurín el Grande, who immediately went to Tomillo Street, but upon arrival, they could do nothing to save the woman's life.
"We've been through a terrible time," comments a man at Bar Peńa. "The town can't catch a break", says another sitting next to him. Everyone knows the detainee and his family, "they are lifelong residents of Alhaurín." "Juan's father is devastated," another emphasises, and they recall that last December a teenage couple lost their lives in a fire on San Rafael Street, and just a few days later, the Fahala River flooding due to the storm claimed the lives of Antonio Morales 'el Mori' - a baker - and Juan Francisco Zea - a teacher.
The City Council of Alhaurín el Grande is once again in mourning for the loss of one of its residents, the third time in a month.
In a municipal announcement posted on social media, the Alhaurín Council has expressed its "strongest repudiation and condemnation" for Victoria's murder, and this Monday, January 26, at 5:00 p.m., they have called for a gathering in the Town Hall Square in memory of this young mother whose ex-partner brutally took her life.
The number of women murdered in Spain in the early days of 2026, including the recent victim from Alhaurín, would now be 6. The total figure stands at 1,347 since 2003, when these data began to be collected.