In December 2001, a librarian named Helena Jubany suffered a fatal incident that set in motion a lengthy forensic investigation. A subsequent DNA analysis, ordered by the Sabadell court and conducted with the involvement of the University of Santiago de Compostela, compared the genetic material recovered from the jersey Jubany wore with two suspects linked to the case, Santiago Laiglesia and Xavi Jiménez. The aim was to determine whether the material on the garment could be tied to either individual and, by extension, to the crime itself.
The analysis represented a more advanced approach than prior efforts undertaken by the National Police and the National Institute of Toxicology and Forensic Sciences. Those earlier studies, performed at the Galicia research center, involved separate comparisons between each suspect and the garment’s traces; in both cases, the results were negative.
The Ministry of Justice pledged to reimburse the advance payment and described the event as a procedural error.
At the request of Benet Salellas, the attorney who represented Jubany’s relatives in the private portion of the case, and contrary to the prosecution’s position, the Sabadell court ordered this broad comparative analysis. The more comprehensive laboratory work by scientists at the Center for Forensic Sciences of the University of Galicia took longer than anticipated because the Ministry of Justice refused to cover 605 euros, the cost of the examination.
Learning of the government’s refusal, Jubany’s family paid for the test themselves to overcome the financial blockade. Helena Jubany’s sister, Joan Jubany, noted that the funds were raised through community campaigns. After inquiries by the Crimes Program, the Ministry of Justice reviewed the matter and pledged to rectify the situation. Government sources confirmed that the initial rejection stemmed from a procedural error and that the ministry would reimburse the 605 euros to the Jubany family.
The first-instance court examining the case changed its judge for the sixth time
The unit handling the request, which was initiated by the family in September 2023 and evaluated for its complexity and technical difficulty, stated that the costs arising from these actions could be covered within the established procedure and directed the matter back to Sabadell court for consideration. This decision underscores the ongoing procedural turbulence that has haunted the case from the start.
In the years since the crime, the investigative process has faced numerous hurdles. The 22-year timeline has left unresolved what happened to the librarian in Sentmenat, who was found unconscious in the early hours of Sunday, December 2, 2001. Sabadell police are probing why the owner of the first-instance court number 2 changed so many times during the course of the proceedings.
Judge Juan Diaz Villar demonstrated unwavering effort by exploring every possible avenue to determine the extent of Laiglesia and Jiménez’s involvement in Jubany’s murder. He relocated from the Plaza de Sabadell to Badalona during the investigation, becoming the sixth judge assigned to the case. The next judge will be responsible for communicating the DNA results from Galicia to the parties and deciding how the inquiry should proceed based on those findings.