Judge Juan Diaz Villar Helena approved Jubany family efforts to keep testing both DNA samples connected to the ongoing case. The investigation involves the National Police and the National Institute of Toxicology and Forensic Sciences. The president of the Sabadell court, where the case of the librarian who died on December 2, 2001, was revisited, directed the police units to coordinate the testing anew. A previously unidentified DNA sample found on Jubany’s sweater on the day of the crime was analyzed along with the genetic profiles of the victim and the two men under scrutiny, Xavier Jimenez and Santi Laiglesia.
This sequence follows previous testing that compared Jubany’s body samples collected during autopsy, including material from a fingernail and from the genital area, with the profiles of Jiménez and Laiglesia separately. The results were negative in both cases. Judge Díaz Villar instructed the National Police to perform a fresh comparison and report whether the new results differ or offer any meaningful insight as the joint analysis updates the genetic profiles of the victim and the two suspects.
The victim’s brother expressed satisfaction with the judge’s decision to pursue the evidence, yet he criticized the prosecution’s stance at this stage of the investigation. In comments to EL PERIÓDICO, he stated that he did not understand why new tests were not proposed, and he voiced opposition to the positions advanced by the authorities.
female DNA
Jubany’s family also asked that the unidentified DNA samples be compared with the genetic profiles of two women previously investigated in connection with this crime, Montse Careta and Ana Echaguibel. Judge Díaz denied this second request but ordered the institute and the police to examine whether any of the unidentified DNA samples originate from a woman. In brief, the judge noted that comparing the samples with Careta and Echaguibel could be valuable again if new information emerges. Careta’s sister, who died in prison after being arrested for the crime, always maintained her innocence and claimed she acted under the pressure of her partner Laiglesia.
The judge rejected Jubany family’s final request to assemble a new police report that would consolidate all available evidence and to entrust future investigations to a centralized homicide unit within the Mossos d’Esquadra, known for handling unresolved cases.
DNA samples from Jubany’s body and shirt were found to belong to an unidentified man who, based on current testing, is not Santi Laiglesia or Xavier Jiménez. Letters the victim received prior to the murder were also noted in the case records.
biological clues
The clothes Jubany wore the day she was killed remained in a courthouse for two decades. A degraded biological sample containing the victim’s DNA was recovered from the brown sweater and suggested the involvement of two or more individuals. One person was Jubany, and the other an unidentified man. The judge therefore called for a renewed comparison of this sample with the profiles of Laiglesia and Jiménez.
Meanwhile, the National Institute of Toxicology and Forensic Sciences, urged by the Sabadell court, retrieved samples collected during the autopsy shortly after the crime. These included cloth swabs and samples from the victim’s fingernail. With modern testing methods, the material from the nail and the swabs revealed the genetic material of another unidentified person, these analyses indicating the presence of a second man at the scene.
Negative previous matches
Results from the separate comparisons of the two suspects with all tested unidentified samples consistently returned negative outcomes.
The initial test compared the unidentified DNA with Jiménez and proved negative. A subsequent test compared the same unidentified DNA with Laiglesia and also yielded a negative result. The jury had requested another run of the DNA mix from the jersey, but authorities decided it should be re-tested using the combined profiles of Jubany, Laiglesia, and Jiménez for a more robust joint assessment.
The judge pressed for further DNA testing, convinced that there were reasons to suspect that Jiménez and Laiglesia were involved in Jubany’s violent death. While Jubany’s family and the National Police see Laiglesia as the leading suspect, the judge noted that several observed details pointed to Laiglesia. He observed that the suspect had spent nights near the location where Jubany’s body was dumped, a fact that raised concerns about possible involvement.
Laiglesia had often stayed overnight at that building because Careta, Laiglesia’s partner in 2001, lived on the same floor. Boxes of the drug Noctamide, a benzodiazepine with detectable residues in the victim’s body, were found in the same residence. Additional matches were noted on the roof, supporting a theory that parts of Jubany’s body may have been burned. Questions also arose about conversations between Laiglesia and Careta, and phone calls Jubany received from Careta’s landline in the days leading up to the crime, which Laiglesia may have arranged or influenced.
Jubany’s murder was officially counted as an open case late in 2021, marking twenty years since the crime. The investigation into Laiglesia continued until 2005 when the case was closed, and Careta and Echaguibel’s actions were similarly unresolved. As a result, the possibility of reopening charges against Laiglesia or Echaguibel remains for 2025, pending new evidence or testimony that could shift the balance of the case.