Man allegedly behind the deaths of Paula and Sibora in Torremolinos could be linked to more cases in Italy

Italian authorities have requested the collaboration of Spain's National Police to investigate disappearances in an area of Rome, where Marco G. R. had lived

Juan Cano and Irene Quirante

Malaga

Monday, 12 June 2023, 15:59 | Updated 16:09h.

Italian authorities have requested the collaboration of Spanish police to investigate other cases linked to the man who allegedly killed Paula in Torremolinos last month, and who is thought to be behind the death of another ex-partner, Sibora Gagani, in 2014, pending DNA results.

Sources close to the case confirmed to SUR that Marco G. R. has been linked to other disappearances in the Nettuno area in Rome where he previously lived, and the provincial police station of Malaga had received a request for information from the Italian police to help them investigate.

Marco G. R. was arrested on 17 May for allegedly stabbing Spanish mother-of-three Paula at their flat in La Carihuela.

The court is still awaiting DNA results in the case of Sibora Gagani, the 22-year-old Italian-Albanian girl who disappeared in July 2014 from Torremolinos, shortly after breaking up with Marco.

A confession by Marco G. R. that Sibora’s body was hidden in the wall of the apartment they lived in together was confirmed on Tuesday, 6 June, when police discovered a corpse in the property in the Calvario neighbourhood of Torremolinos.

Tattoos

Officers found the body in a hidden space the suspect had created by altering the dressing room of the upper floor of the duplex apartment. They also found a bag that apparently belonged to Sibora. The clothes she was wearing also matched, as did the tattoos still visible on the body.

Investigators also believe she was stabbed with the knife found inside the same space, which still had traces of blood on it. An inspection of the clothes and a forensic examination of the body revealed at least four stab wounds on her back.

Officers discovered the hiding place after noticing something odd in the arrangement of the floor tiles. Inside they found a wooden box where the body was wrapped in plastic and completely covered with sand and lime. Investigators believe that this was intended to neutralise the bad smell and prevent possible leaks on the floor below or on the walls.

On top of the body, which was inside a sleeping bag, there was also a bouquet of flowers. The discovery of the body came after a remark Marco made while being led down into the cell after his arrest last month.

Confession at the police station

The suspect had refused to make a statement before officers of the National Police, who were investigating him for the fatal stabbing of Paula, 28, with whom he had been romantically involved until March this year.

But then, while passing a missing persons poster with Sibora's photograph, Marco blurted out said that Sibora was in the flat they had shared, buried behind a wall.

Paula's alleged murderer, however, did not confess to killing Sibora. SUR has been told that he acknowledged that they had a fight and only revealed: "I went too far with her."

Following these statements, the judge authorised a search of the home that the suspect shared with Sibora between 2011 and 2014. The apartment, located a few metres from the town hall and Torremolinos local police station, is spread over two floors with a terrace.

Detectives visited the flat four times. The first time they drilled into the walls of the house to introduce micro-cameras in order to see if there were any skeletal remains inside.

The last time, last Tuesday, they used an X-ray system. When they brought it close to the partition wall that should not have been there, they detected a change in density and opened a hole in the wall that led them to the corpse.

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