Since the beginning of the investigation into the death of an 83-year-old woman in her home in Burgos, the Police have always believed that the two detained minors, aged 16 and 17, could not have acted alone. The inquiries have uncovered a plot that points to much more complex planning of the assault than the initial arrests suggested. The robbery that ended the woman's life was allegedly not an improvised initiative by the initially arrested teenagers, but an operation organized by a drug-addicted man who lived in the same building as the victim, according to sources close to the EL MUNDO investigation. According to the information gathered, it was he who contacted the young individuals and another adult man to carry out the assault.
The new line of investigation thus places this neighbor at the origin of a plan in which several people with different roles allegedly took part. While the two minors and an adult were responsible for entering the house, two others — a minor and an adult man — allegedly participated in preparing the robbery, providing gloves and the necessary materials to carry it out and subdue the elderly woman, who died gagged and bound. They are believed to have been responsible for the logistical part of the plan.
The reconstruction of events thus portrays a different scenario from the one initially reported when the investigation focused on the two minors arrested after the discovery of the body. The authorities are now trying to clarify the involvement of each of those implicated, the level of planning behind the robbery, and the circumstances in which the woman ended up bound and unable to seek help.
The man who allegedly organized the assault lived in the same building as the elderly woman, a circumstance that is one of the relevant elements of the investigation. His knowledge of the building, the hours when she was alone in the house, and her surroundings would have facilitated contact with the participants in the robbery. The alleged mastermind is believed to have contacted two minors and an adult man to access the residence with the intention of robbing it. These three individuals — two minors and one adult — allegedly directly participated in entering the house, according to the reconstruction of events in the investigation.
The assault was not only prepared by recruiting the individuals responsible for entering the house. The investigation has also identified two other alleged collaborators, a man and a minor, who are believed to have provided the gloves and other materials used to carry out the robbery and bind the woman. Their arrests expand the police focus beyond those who directly entered the residence and indicate prior preparation. The distinction between those who allegedly participated in the entry and those who provided the means to carry it out is relevant to reconstructing how the group operated. Investigators must determine how tasks were distributed, what each person knew, and whether everyone was aware of the conditions under which the assault would take place.
The exact extent of the involvement of the man identified as the organizer is still to be clarified. The hypothesis placing him at the origin of the plan raises questions about how the residence was selected, the knowledge those involved had of the elderly woman, and their expectations when entering the house. The presence of multiple participants in different phases of the robbery is one of the central elements of the new investigation. It is not only about determining who entered the house but also about reconstructing the process that led there, from the initial contacts to the preparation of materials and the execution of the assault.
The initial arrests occurred after the woman's body was found in her home. Two minors, aged 16 and 17, whose origin the Police place in Bulgaria, were initially at the center of the investigation. Both were brought before the Juvenile Prosecutor's Office, following the procedure applicable to those under 18.
The elderly woman died from respiratory failure after being gagged and immobilized, preventing her from accessing the oxygen equipment she needed in her daily life. Investigators have concluded that the minors' intention was not to kill the woman but to rob her, and that her condition led to her death after she was gagged. The victim required constant care and had two caregivers: one in the morning and one in the afternoon.
It was precisely one of these women, who helped her with household chores, who found her body upon entering the house. Two hours had passed since the victim's nephew, who came to the residence to cover the time between one caregiver and the other, had left. With the six arrests, the National Police consider the operation into the elderly woman's death concluded.