A SPANIARD has been arrested in New York 20 years after murdering his wife.
The accused fled to the USA the night of the killing, and her body was found eight months later in Viladecans (Barcelona province).
Originally from the Dominican Republic but with a Spanish passport, the killer had been in a relationship with the victim, a Colombian national who had two small children, for just six months.
She wanted to break up with him a few weeks before her death, but her boyfriend was so furious that he decided if he could not have her, nobody could, and threatened her with a shotgun.
On the day of the crime, he turned up in her house in Barcelona, where she lived with her children and other relatives, on the pretext of collecting some documents.
Using violence, threats and deception, he forced her to get into his car, and this was the last time she was seen alive.
Her body was found by a passerby near Barcelona airport, in Viladecans in May 1998.
The murderer had caught a plane to New York that same day and had never returned to Spain.
It turned out he had been living in the USA illegally since October 1997.
He was caught with the help of Spanish National Police and the Spanish Embassies in Washington DC and Santo Domingo, together with the Dominican Republican Consulate in Barcelona, just four months before the crime would have expired under the statute of limitations, which placed a cap of 20 years, due to run out on the anniversary of the murder on October 5 this year.
The accused, who has not been named, will be extradited to Spain for trial.
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