The plight of the would-be squatter who found woman's mummified body in neighbour's Malaga flat

Juan Cano

Malaga

Wednesday, 26 March 2025, 07:30

Germán Martín - the squatter who found the mummified body of a neighbour he had never met - has been going through a bad patch for some years. Before the pandemic, the father of one, 50, got into debt over some renovation work on his house and fell victim to his mortgage, which he was close to paying off.

As a result, he was forced to resort to the second chance law, which allows debtors an alternative repayment plan or partial/total exoneration of debts. His two-bedroom flat, which is located on the same floor of the Camino de Suárez building as the flat where he found the body, ended up in the hands of a vulture fund, leaving Germán a step away from the street.

Germán, who has an 11-year-old daughter with his ex-partner and works at the Carranque sports centre, found a solution just a few metres from his flat, behind the doors of a home nobody ever entered or left. He thought about what he was about to do for a long time. "I always looked at the door as I walked past. I felt that everything was going to go well, something was pushing me to get in. I was hesitant, because I had never done such a thing, but I started to think about it more seriously when I realised that I had no way out, not even with the second chance law. I was desperate," said Germán.

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"First, I had to check if anyone lived in the house. I knew the name of the owner from the name on the letterbox, but I had never seen her before." Everything suggested abandonment and opportunity. "The owner owed more than 5,000 euros in residential community fees. The windows were always open. You don't go away voluntarily and leave them like that. There were things that were illogical," said Germán.

In the end, he entered without planning it - it was a spur-of-the-moment decision after he summoned the courage. In the afternoon on 17 March, Germán, accompanied by his daughter, approached the door of the flat and opened it. The lock had been tampered with and the chain only needed a little push.

He asked his daughter to wait for him and entered the house "very slowly". "I turned to the sofa and saw it stained, yellowish. When I looked at it properly, I saw the skull, which was looking at me."

Germán left the flat in a rush, fearing for what the police would think when he tried to justify why he had entered. He said that, at first, he couldn't tell his daughters what had happened, so he waited a bit. The two are now supporting each other while Germán is trying to overcome the shock and figure out his future.

When the police arrived at the property, they activated the judicial commission for the removal of the body. Everything has suggested that it was the owner of the house, Elisa P. G., born in 1924. Apparently, she had no children. The investigators have located a nephew of the woman who lives in another Spanish province and who believed that she was in New York, where she had another residence. The investigation has not yet been able to determine the date of death, although the hypothesis points to 2011.

Germán went to a church the day after he found the body. He wanted to light a candle for the woman's soul. While he tries to digest what happened, he continues to look for a solution for himself and his daughter. "That's why I'm speaking up. I need to send a message for help, I don't want to lose my house. If someone can contact the vulture fund to see if they would reconsider taking my home away from me or if someone can offer me a house at a reasonable price... I can pay," said Germán in a desperate plea for help.