Sources close to the investigation into the murder of 15 year old Fernanda Fabiola Urzúa have clarified further details about the case.
It seems that a young immigrant was key to the identification and subsequent arrest of 28 year old Héctor Fabio Francisco Giraldo (main photo, centre), who has confessed to the murder. The informant advised police that he had seen a blue Dodge pick-up on the camino Don Virgilio where Fernanda disappeared at the time she was initially reported missing.
The police source explained that: "We had the great good fortune that its owner did not have a garage and left it parked in the street. We immediately identified the owner who had a previous conviction for sexually assaulting a tourist in Los Cristianos in 2002." Giraldo was arrested after items belonging to the missing girl were found inside the vehicle.
During a preliminary court hearing last Friday, Giraldo confessed that he stopped to talk to Fernanda as she was walking home.
He said they were chatting normally until he proposed that they have sex together whereupon the girl threatened to report him to the Guardia Civil.
Giraldo claimed that he did not hit Fernanda initially, but that she fainted when he made a grab for her.
She was bundled into the pick-up, but when she came round and started screaming shortly afterwards, Giraldo admits beating her over the head with a stone with sufficient force to cause death, but denies raping her.
He then partially buried the corpse with stones and sand in an area that was subsequently searched unsuccessfully three times by police.
Fernanda suspect remanded without bail after confession By: thinkSPAIN Saturday, August 4, 2007
28 year old Colombian national, Héctor Fabio Franco Giraldo, was remanded in custody without bail after confessing during a preliminary court hearing held at Arona municipal court to the abduction and subsequent murder of 15 year old Fernanda Fabiola Urzúa, whose body was found last Thursday after Franco himself had led police to it.
Franco, who lived close to his victim, has a previous conviction in Tenerife for sexual abuse dating back five years. He is being held in Tenerife II jail and has been charged with abduction, sexual aggression and murder, although prosecutors are still awaiting the results of the autopsy to confirm whether or not Fernanda was in fact sexually abused.
Fellow residents of the El Fraile district where both the victim and her murderer lived, report that Franco was not a very talkative young man who seemed to have few friends. Franco raised suspicions locally when he declined to take part in the search operation for the girl, who was missing for a week before her corpse was found.
He was arrested after being confirmed as the owner of blue 4x4 all-terrain vehicle spotted near where Fernanda was last seen, and inside which were subsequently found a number of the victim's belongings.
Local gossip also indicates that Franco had been "obsessed" with Fernanda for some time and had even confessed to "liking her" and being "in love."
A second man arrested in connection with Fernanda's murder, a Rumanian national, was subsequently released, but may be charged with obstructing police in their inquiries.
Body of missing 15 year old girl found By: thinkSPAIN Thursday, August 2, 2007
Guardia Civil investigators found the body of 15 year old Fernanda Fabiola Urzúa at 5am this morning less than a kilometre away from her home based on information obtained during the interrogation of a foreign man who was arrested yesterday evening.
The man told officers where the body was concealed and also confessed that two other people - both of whom have also been arrested - were involved in her abduction.
A MAN declared dead at his home in the province of Tarragona was on his way to the funeral parlour when he turned out to be alive, according to police sources.
A NEW child protection law named after a British musician living in Spain has been approved in Congress and is set to be signed off by the Council of Ministers on Tuesday, June 8.
