Cameras capture the killer entering at dawn, calm and unhurried. A chalet in Las Gabias, Granada, becomes the stage for a brutal crime. The assailant wears tracksuits and black gloves, stands just over six feet tall, and hides his face behind a Covid-era hat and mask. As visitors approach, two Belgian Shepherds stationed at the door greet them with an uncanny familiarity, one of them even picking up a toy in its mouth to invite play before the danger becomes real.
Despite the killer wearing a long, pointed collar, the dogs remain unfazed by the arrival or attack. An iron spear is in the attacker’s hand, but the dogs do not react with aggression. After a brief moment, the man gains access with a key and drags Rosario, 38, and her sleeping three year old son into the room. The killer murders the child quietly, then strikes Rosario and stabs her while she is eight months pregnant. Before fleeing, he attempts to burn both bodies and the house, but the flames fail to take hold.
crime sounds
No footage shows the interior, but cameras outside captured the sounds of the crime along with the entry video. Those audio clues, combined with the exterior footage, became crucial to the investigation. The Granada Civil Guard solved the case and arrested the perpetrator within two days [Citation: Civil Guard investigation report].
Rosario’s husband reported an intruder had entered their chalet on May 27 and attacked his wife and son. The man, a professional pilot, was not home that day; he had flown to Mallorca the night before. Yet the advanced video surveillance system allowed him to witness his family’s distress almost in real time from his mobile device. He was initially treated as a suspect but was quickly cleared.
Investigators concluded that the killer knew Rosario and her family well enough that the dogs trusted the intruder. The Civil Guard conducted tests on the canines and observed a notable shift in behavior: the dogs were friendlier to some people while showing measured suspicion toward others, including agents, firefighters, and even Rosario’s husband’s relatives.
Evidence suggested the crime had a personal motive and a high level of brutality. An important detail emerged when examining the audio: Rosario named the killer by name as soon as she saw him enter the house [Citation: Audio analysis notes].
A dog trainer
A short audio fragment, where the victim’s voice blends with other sounds and echoes from the room, became a fixation for the Civil Guard. Realizing the potential lead, the Judicial Police team members entered a room one by one to avoid contamination and listened to Rosario’s voice together. It sounded to them as if the victim was calling a name: Jose [Citation: Sound analysis briefing].
The team then traced Rosario’s life and found that months earlier she had approached a dog trainer named Jose for help with training. The Civil Guard kept a close watch on this individual, especially after showing the trainer a video of the suspect to his partner and suggesting that the person in the footage was his friend Jose. Investigators also confirmed that the trainer was tall and well built, bearing a strong resemblance to the man they sought [Citation: Suspect profile review].
“Why do you want to kill me?”
Despite these clues, investigators used skilled judgment to avoid arresting the wrong man. They consulted with audio and structural experts who reviewed the recordings. Their analysis produced a new lead: while the attack was ongoing, Rosario whispered a question that redirected the investigation. The experts heard the killer’s breathing and Rosario asking, in effect, why the attacker intended harm [Citation: Expert testimony].
Investigators noted that sounds produced by Rosario’s agitated brother resembled the cries of a wild boar, matching noises captured during the crime. This surprising parallel would become a pivotal thread in the case.
The lead centered on Rosario’s younger brother, Manuel. He had trained one of the family’s dogs as a youth before giving it to Rosario for the Las Gabias chalet. The family history included a strained relationship between Manuel and Rosario, with both siblings growing up in the municipality of Torredelcampo (Jaen). Rosario later married a pilot and accumulated wealth, while Manuel tended olive trees on the family farm and had a daughter with his longtime partner [Citation: Family background dossier].
Jealousy and legacy
Investigators uncovered a pattern of jealousy and resentment in Manuel toward his sister and her family. They learned that Rosario and Manuel’s father had died in December, with the inheritance slated to be shared equally between the siblings. Manuel rejected this division, viewing it as unfair [Citation: Inheritance dispute].
After stabbing his nephew, his sister, and his unborn child, Manuel returned home and proceeded to a troubling breakfast routine with his wife and daughter.
One officer had already taken Manuel’s statement but was so shaken by the deaths that the interrogation paused. The agent noticed Manuel displaying signs of panic, including a fall to the ground and labored breathing. The team revisited this testimony and recognized the boar-like sounds from Rosario’s brother as a consistent thread with the attacker. The killer’s marks matched Manuel’s known engravings.
They reconstructed Manuel’s morning steps and cross-checked them with traffic camera data. A radar camera near Las Gabias captured Manuel driving toward his sister’s chalet and then heading home to Torredelcampo just minutes later [Citation: Traffic surveillance records].
He faked a heart attack
When the Civil Guard summoned Manuel again, he pretended to comply but offered a polished heart attack performance. He collapsed and began breathing as in his earlier statement. Experts recognized the pattern and warned: keep listening to the breath; it matched the cadence he used while killing his sister [Citation: Forensic breathing analysis].
Manuel stopped emitting noise but denied harming his sister and nephew. The confrontation intensified when traces of blood were found in his car, leading to a confession and the discovery of crucial evidence. Investigators guided Manuel to a stream off the Granada-Jaén highway, where he discarded the clothes and other items used in the crime. Among the recovered items was an iron spear, once crafted for the murders, and several shotgun cartridges stashed in latex gloves, close to a hunting rifle he had hidden in his father’s closet. The civil guard also recovered the gear used in the attack and confirmed the sequence of events [Citation: Evidence ledger].
After arrest, Manuel agreed to recount the crime but did so in a guarded manner, answering only the detectives’ questions. He showed reluctance to elaborate on his motives, offering vague apologies. His stated remorse stood in stark contrast to the brutality of the act and the cold aftermath: after stabbing his sister, nephew, and unborn child, he returned home to take his wife and daughter to a breakfast of churros, a grim attempt to normalize the moment.