THE MAIN suspect in the disappearance of Madrid sixth-former Diana Quer has been arrested after allegedly attempting to kidnap another young woman, and his wife has been detained and charged with aiding and abetting for concealment.
Guardia Civil officers say the accused lives in the Boiro area of the province of A Coruña, Galicia, is a 41-year-old Spaniard and married with a daughter.
A grey Alfa Romeo family saloon is being inspected and the suspect's house searched.
He was arrested in Rianxo, a short drive from A Pobra do Caramiñal where Diana, 18, holidayed every summer in her family's second home since the age of three and where she disappeared in August 2016 whilst walking the two kilometres home from the town centre after an open-air disco at the local fiestas.
Police have been watching the suspect, who works in a mussel-canning factory, since soon after Diana vanished, but have never had any evidence concrete enough to pin on him and allow them to make an arrest.
He is known to have a criminal record for sexual assault and drug-dealing, and to have committed at least one sex offence within his own family.
The arrest is the result of a report made by a young woman in Boiro on Boxing Day about a man who attempted to steal her mobile phone at knifepoint and tried to force her into the boot of his car.
Two pedestrians heard her screaming and rushed to her aid, managing to get her out of the boot – and probably saving her life.
Her assailant confronted the two witnesses, but fled the area when he realised he was overcome.
Eye-witnesses and the victim gave a description of a car which matched the one the Guardia Civil has on record as having been possibly involved in Diana's disappearance, and they identified the accused from photographs.
Court authorities handling the Diana Quer case say they have 'proof' that connects the car to the student from Pozuelo de Alarcón and to the recent attempted kidnap victim.
The assault happened close to the bridge between Boiro and Rianxo where Diana's mobile phone signal stopped at around 04.00 on the night she vanished, about an hour and 40 minutes after the last WhatsApp messsage she sent whilst walking home.
Her mobile, an iPhone, was later recovered from the river by a fishermen and the contents analysed by specialists.
Guardia Civil officers have revealed some details of the suspect, including the fact that he is a keen runner who posts photographs of himself taking part in competitions; details of his home, although not his address – a 'green house' in Rianxo – and his first names and initials, José Enrique A.G.
His Facebook photos show him posing with his wife and 10-year-old daughter, and blowing out candles on his 41st birthday, and just nine days after Diana's disappearance, pictures of him decorating his house in green.
He and others had been arrested in the past in a drug-dealing operation, and José Enrique was caught with two kilos of cocaine in his car.
His nickname is 'El Chicle' ('the chewing gum').
When Diana first went missing, her family life was thrust into the spotlight – the youngster, who was studying for her driving theory exam whilst on holiday, had suffered from anorexia and depression, and her sister Valeria, then 16, had suffered panic attacks and self-harming.
Their parents had gone through what appeared to be an acrimonious divorce four years earlier, and the girls appeared to be caught up in ongoing family conflict, with rows reported the day Diana disappeared between the three women in the family.
No theory has been ruled out in Diana's having gone missing – her mother Diana López Pinel believes she has disappeared voluntarily, whilst her father, a property tycoon in Pozuelo, is not expecting to see her alive again.
The case has remained sub judice until now and full details of the police line of inquiry have not yet been revealed.
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