Law enforcement officers from the UDEV Center and the Jerez Police Station connected border patrol efforts with a high-stakes arrest. They confronted an elderly man suspected of a brutal killing, dismemberment, and concealment in a well. Reports indicate the authorities suspected a serial killer lurking behind the retiree’s quiet, unassuming exterior. An ongoing investigation into the disappearance of Buran Forouzan, an Iranian national missing for about two months, led detectives to scrutinize Miguel, the last person seen with her. Records show that, before settling in Jerez in 2019, Miguel had spent 22 years in prison for two separate attempts on his ex-wife’s life and for killing an immigrant in Almería.
“There’s someone in my bed”
On August 27, Miguel opened his door to the officers nearly naked and uttered the chilling line, “There’s someone in my bed.” The room revealed a disturbing scene: Miguel’s companion, also unclothed, lay in an explicit position, a hyper-realistic sex doll with dark skin, priced around 2,500 euros.
The pensioner’s strange introductions
Neighbors later learned that Miguel introduced the doll as his baby, even presenting it to passersby who joked about his “partner” and sometimes called him “mute.” Investigators uncovered the man’s unsettling fixation with sexual encounters, including involvement with prostitutes, and a preference for involving his doll in intimate situations. A woman who had recently crossed paths with Miguel after Buran’s disappearance learned of his prior encounters with her. Years earlier, Miguel had met a 64-year-old Iranian woman in a bar. The woman, vulnerable after a rough period, had checked into a hostel in Jerez and had remained on the radar of those trying to locate her.
“A lot of people disappear and don’t come back”
Rather than consoling his friend, Miguel offered a grim perspective: “There are a lot of people who disappear and don’t come back.” His conversations with the woman grew more troubling when he insisted that she had warned him that she would not reveal what happened. By July 6, the trail had gone cold, and the woman’s departure from a shelter to Miguel’s home became a potential turning point in the case. According to Buran’s sister, the pair had met intermittently, and after one date the woman expressed fear for her life.
“I will see this man”
Before a summer meeting with Miguel, the woman sent a voice message warning him about the individual she described as a murderer who had previously fled prison. The message included Miguel’s home address and a plea that she would reach out after leaving a shopping trip at El Corte Inglés in Jerez. Authorities later determined that Buran did not leave Miguel’s residence alive, and the mobile phone linked to her vanished traces. Miguel initially admitted that he and Buran were together that day, but the woman claimed she had driven him to a safe point, and security footage from local streets offered no corroboration of that narrative.
A suitable retiree
The police shadowed Miguel, who spoke to almost no one and lived a quiet retirement, hoping he would reveal a lead. He tended a garden beyond the town and maintained a calm routine, cycling to his property daily and working for hours. The investigation intensified in August as investigators expanded their search to wells and land around Jerez. Eventually, Miguel grew anxious and checked the conditions of a body, inadvertently guiding authorities to a vital clue. They tracked him to a rural road near the Shower Farmhouse, just north of the city and near the airport access road. They observed him lingering near a dry well, half-hidden by bushes, then noticed him discarding stones into the well. Soon after, officers recovered the remains of the missing woman from the well, found dismembered and divided into four bags concealed beneath debris.
blood on the roof
Inside Miguel’s home, investigators found blood on the roof, a mace, a knife, and a saw. He eventually confessed to seasoned officers that he had once traveled from Madrid to kill, dismember, and dispose of a body. He described paying a woman for sexual favors, then coercing her into a demand for money or legal trouble, and eventually luring her to the attic. He stated that his intention was to kill her, and that he had protected himself with calculated steps to avoid detection. He explained that he stored items such as shoes from his victims and kept a variety of bottles in storage for use during his confinement. He described the last victim’s footwear matching a size found among the recovered items as part of the evidence trail.
He described methodically moving a forklift through two floors of his home, a habit he maintained to manage his daily life, along with a habit of consuming whiskey to sleep. The way he recounted these details suggested a calm, almost routine demeanor in the face of serious accusations.
crime reconstruction
Following his arrest, the killer agreed to reconstruct the crime in detail for the judge, his lawyer, and a team of investigators. He described the final moment of the woman’s life as she sat on a roof, and he described striking her head repeatedly with a butcher’s tool before stabbing her in the chest when she did not die immediately. He then walked through the dismemberment process, claiming that it took thirty to forty minutes and detailing each step with a clinical, almost instructional precision.
“Who would suspect an old man?”
As the scene was re-enacted, Miguel grew agitated when pressed about whether anyone had observed him disposing of the body. He argued that the neighborhood’s quiet streets and the heat of the afternoon made it unlikely someone would notice. He questioned why anyone would interfere with a man who appeared to be merely an elderly retiree, and he resisted further questions about the disposition of the body in the well.
He’s been on the street for three years
The last public words from the killer portrayed a man who had served 22 years for killing a neighbor, an immigrant, after a bar argument, and for two attempts on his ex-wife’s life. He returned to prison three years after his release, choosing not to cooperate with investigators thereafter. In a final request before his arrest, he asked authorities to take care of his baby.