IT reads like something straight from the script of a low-brow TV series – yet it really happened in a sleepy Costa del Sol town.
A man has confessed this week to murdering an acquaintance in 2020, dismembering the body using methods drawn from crime dramas, and scattering the remains around a quiet Malaga town.
The 65-year-old was arrested on July 28 as the presumed killer of Francisco José Agüera, a 59-year-old Coin resident who vanished during the Covid lockdown in April 2020.
At the time, Guardia Civil treated the disappearance as low-risk, since Agüera was an independent adult who could plausibly have left of his own accord.
That assumption held for five years.
However, in June 2025, municipal workers in AlhaurÃn de la Torre made a grim discovery while carrying out routine works in the Pinos de AlhaurÃn urbanisation.
Inside a drainage chamber, wrapped in a plastic bag, was a human skull.
Investigators from the Grupo de Homicidios and the Laboratorio de CriminalÃstica of the Guardia Civil took over the case, dubbed Operación Capibara.
A first forensic pass reportedly misattributed the skull to a woman, according to El PaÃs, delaying the breakthrough by months.
It was not until early 2026 that a full genetic analysis confirmed what investigators had begun to suspect: the skull belonged to Agüera.
With identification confirmed, detectives turned their attention to the missing man’s inner circle.
Analysis of documentation, databases and court-authorised technological measures pointed investigators towards someone who knew him well.
The net finally closed two weeks ago on July 28 , when human remains believed to be part of a torso were found on an access road in AlhaurÃn de la Torre, barely a year after the skull turned up nearby.
The same day, Guardia Civil arrested the suspect: a 65-year-old acquaintance of the victim.
Under questioning, he initially denied everything.
“I didn’t do it. You have nothing against me. And I know you can’t prove it because I have plenty of free time and I’ve watched CSI and lots of other police series,” he is reported to have said.
According to investigators, he also referenced the TV series Dexter, whose title character famously dismembers his victims to avoid leaving forensic evidence.
The bravado did not last.
He went on to confess that he killed Agüera inside the victim’s own home in Coin.
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Before dismembering the body, he lined much of the house in plastic sheeting to avoid leaving biological traces, a process that reportedly took several days.
Each body part was double-bagged, along with the latex gloves used during the dismemberment.
He then drove the remains — in a car he had also lined with plastic — to various points around the Pinos de AlhaurÃn urbanisation in AlhaurÃn de la Torre.
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One of the disposal sites was a cave that took investigators around five hours to locate.
Guardia Civil have so far recovered part of the torso, but the search continues, complicated by new urban development that has covered some of the locations the suspect pointed to.
The suspect has been remanded in custody without bail, and is under investigation for murder.
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