MALAGA has recorded its worst month for violence against women in its history after a fifth suspected killing in barely three weeks.
Four of the five deaths have already been confirmed as gender-violence murders – and July still has nine days left to run.
The fifth, in Benahavis, in a gated Los Arqueros neighbourhood, remains under investigation by the Guardia Civil.
The victim, believed to be a Hungarian woman, 45, was also reported to have been in Spain’s VioGen system, the police’s centralised risk-assessment system for domestic violence cases.
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The most recent confirmed case struck in Antequera 45km north of Malaga on July 20.
Maria, 30, was found stabbed to death at a property on Calle Maderuelos.
Her ex-partner, Antonio, 35, fell to his death from the town’s Alcazaba fortress walls a short time earlier, in what investigators believe was suicide.
The couple had two children together, aged four and seven.
Antonio had also been flagged in VioGen since 2023, after Maria reported him for abuse.
His restraining order had lapsed just five days before the killing, closed by mutual agreement between the two of them.
READ MORE: Horror in Malaga: Woman’s body discovered in well as three detained – including her ex-partner
Maria’s niece has since described him as ‘an ogre,’ according to El Espanol.
Hours after killing Maria, Antonio sent messages insulting her in a WhatsApp group used by parents at their children’s school, including accusing her of ‘not loving her children’.
The chain began on July 1, when the body of Cristina, 35, was found in a well in Rincon de la Victoria, a coastal town just east of Malaga city.
A week later, Maria, 61, and her daughter Patricia, 31, were found dead in Mijas, inland from Fuengirola on the Costa del Sol, after a house fire.
The Guardia Civil are treating the deaths as a suspected gender-violence case.
Andalucia has recorded nine gender-violence murders so far in 2026, more than any other Spanish region, according to Spain’s equality ministry.
Seven of those killings happened in Malaga province alone.
Guardia Civil have not yet confirmed whether the Benahavis case will be formally classified as gender violence.
Sadly, the violence against women has not been restricted to just Andalucia.
A 45-year-old woman was murdered yesterday in a home in Alameda de la Sagra, Toledo. Her partner, a 48-year-old man, was quickly arrested.
Meanwhile, another suspected case took place in Almoradi (Alicante) this week.
However, it was ruled that a woman whose body was found with signs of violence after falling down some stairs had in fact died of natural causes.
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