This Thursday, a crowd of civil guards and journalists collapsed the access to Calle Uno of the El Romeral urbanization in Traspinedo (Valladolid, 1,300 inhabitants), as in 2022. More than four years have passed since the disappearance and death of Esther López, a 35-year-old resident of the municipality, and the investigation is underway again after it was discovered that she had killed the woman. Óscar Sanz, 40, never revealed the existence of that room, nor did his family. This Thursday he returned to the property after the judge authorized the agents and the former owner, who had recently sold the chalet, to access it.
The police force has distanced the media to try to imitate the conditions of that night as much as possible, without so many mobile phones connected to the repeaters. Before the registration, the client and his lawyer “have argued and gesticulated.” Agents have 72 hours, which can be extended, for their duties. Sources close to the case have assured that “today they are going to make him suffer.”
The inspectors will try to clarify the biggest doubt they had after the alleged crime: why the subject’s smart watch revealed “descents and ascents in a house without stairs.” While other specialists will look for traces of blood or DNA in the cell and more experts will focus on knowing when and how the trapdoor that gave access to the cabin was sealed, as detailed by police sources.
Sanz arrived in Traspinedo with his lawyer minutes before nine in the morning and got out of his car at 10:05, wearing gray pants and a blue sweater, accompanied by agents from an elite corps of the Civil Guard, active since early morning. The area is full of posters with the photograph of the deceased and reading “Justice for Esther.” The objective is to analyze in his presence the room where, under some tiles hidden under a bunk bed, there was a “trap door” that led to that room.
The Civil Guard report, which EL PAÍS has accessed, reveals that the new owner who bought the house from Sanz “detected dampness in the house, began to chip a tile on the floor and, after removing the tile and the polyurethane foam, found a trap door that led to a basement that did not appear on the plans of the house.” and they saw a space “about 2.5 meters high and about four meters by three meters wide and long” and “with a water level of about 30 centimeters along with remains of rebar, two jugs, floating wood and what appears to be a water extraction pump; access to the cabin is through a rusty ladder in poor condition and without some steps.”
The space fits with the thesis of the researchers, who always believed that López was hidden in another place before being deposited in the ditch where she was found weeks after the early morning of January 12 to 13 in which she disappeared. The body had fungi incompatible with the terrain adjacent to the road where it was found, sandstone was also not present at that point and it had “washerwoman’s hands”, that is, wrinkles related to having been in contact with liquids before dying.
Another of the evidence collected was the accused’s smart watch, which revealed that that night he made “descents and ascents in a house without stairs.” Neither he nor his family revealed, either in the investigation or to friends before the event, that there was ever a cellar or basement there, as they now claim to defend themselves. Sources from the Civil Guard explain that the main objective is to corroborate whether the technological device reacts the same if they go down with Sanz to the cellar and displays the same data as at a quarter to four on January 13.
In addition, they will begin to apply technologies to try to find traces of blood or DNA of the deceased in that small space and will also seek to find out “when the cabin was sealed” to calculate if there is a relationship with the possible events of 2022.
López’s family has reacted to the new stage of the investigation with a statement in which they accept that the Provincial Court of Valladolid has returned the case, which was waiting for a date to prosecute Sanz with the facts known until then, to the investigation phase to incorporate the findings and investigations linked to the cell. The relatives of the deceased are grateful for the police work that has led to the Prosecutor’s Office accusing him of murder and demanding 18 years in prison.
The statement recalls that, according to investigators, Sanz and López argued and he ran over her with his car at 40 kilometers per hour “with the intention of killing her.” In addition, she clarifies that the blow was not fatal, as confirmed by the autopsy, but that the suspect did not help her “letting her death occur.” It is during this interval where, according to the inspectors, Sanz was able to leave the dying victim in the cellar, where she would die before moving her to the ditch the following night.
The family condemns the “obstructionist, lying and lying attitude” of Esther López’s former friend, because he never revealed the existence of that hidden space although they asked him on several occasions if there were rooms on different levels in the house. “The delay that this new discovery could entail in the trial only increases the pain that this family has already more than paid for,” they lament, and repeat that they have requested that the individual be placed in provisional prison, which the judges in the case have not considered at this time. “In freedom he only hinders, lies and attacks an excellent investigation,” they say.
Relatives and investigators agree that they do not understand why the suspect decided to sell the Traspinedo chalet in December, knowing that the agents had not found the cellar that could incriminate the Sanz family. Theories point to a possible “overconfidence”, with the accused believing himself superior to the investigators, or the erroneous “strategy” to try to disassociate himself from the house if one day, as has happened now, the trap door was found with other owners.
