The 17-year-old boy detained by the Civil Guard on Sunday for the murder of his ex-girlfriend Cloe, 15, allegedly stabbed in the neck, a wound that proved fatal shortly after, is also linked to threats against another minor. A week earlier, he is said to have targeted a 16-year-old girl who attends the fourth year of secondary education at IES Playa Flamenca in Orihuela Costa, the same institution where Cloe studied and where he had begun his high school journey before moving into a late-afternoon vocational training program.
Parents at this school, the lone secondary option along the Orihuela coast, have stressed in recent days that conflicts are common in the institution, which serves around a thousand students.
Peleas, acoso, agresiones, abusos, comas etílicos, drogas, absentismo y armas son some of the issues cited by the AMPA Gabriel Celaya and the AFA Enric Valor. The tragic death of Cloe has exposed a pressure cooker in the school community.
Fights are daily and occur among both girls and boys, often involving weapons. In September, a 12-year-old girl was brutally beaten and had to be hospitalised, an incident her parents reported to the Alicante Fiscalía de Menores.
Sometimes these clashes begin inside the school and spill out onto streets, or they are organised via Instagram in a shack outside the campus, in gardens, and in a place they call “the Chinese house” in an abandoned townhouse on La Nutria street, near the alley where Cloe was killed and just 500 meters from the spot where the Civil Guard suspects the boy burned the clothing and knife that allegedly cut her throat.
Tthe Local Police of Orihuela detects drug trafficking in the vicinity. The Unit of Minors has been involved in the area for months, though there are few officers available.
Families say there are individuals near the school distributing small amounts of drugs for free to hook young people, who are then recruited to commit thefts or sell substances, and many of them carry knives for protection once they are drawn into the network.
There is also growing friction between the friends of Cloe and those of the alleged killer, even seen in a WhatsApp group that has intensified tensions.
At the School
The boy finished primary school at Romualdo Ballester in Torrevieja, where sources say he also grabbed a girl by the neck, and began secondary studies at IES Playa Flamenca in Orihuela Costa. In that transition, he started moving with questionable company and adopted risky habits such as drug use at age 12, which later extended to the sale of substances, even within the school grounds.
Trickles of information about drug dealing and other conduct led the Orihuela Local Police to file several drug-related records and to monitor truancy, according to sources close to the case. Officers even requested the assistance of the Torrevieja Police, since the family resides in Los Balcones, the home district where he was eventually detained as the alleged killer of his ex-girlfriend.
Juvenile Center
After giving a statement, without admitting guilt, he remains interned in a juvenile facility. He has provided the Alicante Fiscalía de Menores with a version of his relationship with the victim and the hours leading up to the murder.
The Civil Guard contends the crime may have been planned rather than a spontaneous act, while investigators from the Equipo Mujer-Menor (EMUME) of the Alicante Police’s Judicial Unit are convinced the minor slit his ex-girlfriend’s throat and then tried to dispose of evidence to shield himself.