THE ONLY suspect in the murder of American-Chinese tourist Denise Pikka Thiem, who was killed whilst walking the Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage route, is now on trial and has so far refused to testify.
Miguel Ángel Muñoz Blas, 41, insists he is innocent, despite creating and uploading a video of a reconstruction of the crime and allegedly bragging about how he helped police find the body.
Whilst the prosecution considers his declining to testify as a tactic, Muñoz Blas' lawyer says his client felt 'overwhelmed' by the situation and 'was unable to think straight'.
“What the prosecution has presented as irrefutable proof is in fact only indications of my client's guilt,” says the solicitor.
These 'indications' include Denise's blood on a hacksaw found in his isolated rural home near where the US national went missing.
No other DNA from the victim was found in the house, but Muñoz Blas knew exactly where her body was when police searched the area.
She was naked and both her hands had been sawn off, although it is not known whether this was before or after she was killed.
Denise, 41, had last been seen in the Hotel Suero de Quiñones in the León province village of Hospital de Órbigo on April 4, 2015, and her body was found five months later near Astorga.
A man then described as a 'local hermit' was arrested in nearby Grandas de Salime, just over the northern border in Asturias.
He led officers to a piece of land he owned close to Astorga, where Denise's decomposed body was found in a shallow grave made from tree branches.
Muñoz Blas lives in a log cabin in the outskirts of Astorga, having moved there just three years before the murder.
Locals claimed they were 'not surprised' when he was arrested, and described him as 'very bad-tempered', saying the police had 'had him on record for years' and that he would 'chase female pilgrims, insulting them'.
The prosecution believes the area where the body was found was 'so remote' that nobody bar the killer would have found it.
It is also suspected he cut Denise's hands off to hide evidence of a struggle between them when he killed her.
