Spain: Google Street View image helps arrest murder suspects

Spanish police reported Wednesday that they had arrested two people for their alleged involvement in the disappearance of a man. The event occurred after an investigation in which a Google Street View image where the suspect is shown putting a bulky bundle in his car appeared as evidence.

The case dates back to November 2023, when a relative of the victim - who resided in the province of Soria, in northwestern Spain - filed a missing persons report after an extended period of time without word from him.

"One of the clues that investigators had to solve the crime, without being decisive, were some images they detected during the inquiries in a location search application," the police said in a statement.

In the image obtained on the Google Street View virtual navigation application, a person is seen trying to stuff a bulky white bundle into the trunk of his car.

On November 12, police in Soria arrested the missing man's partner and her ex-partner, who appeared in the Google Street View images. Both were placed in pre-trial detention.

“At this point in the investigation, once the detainees were in prison and the bulk of the evidence and clues collected, the investigations focused on locating the missing person, resulting in the discovery of a human torso in an advanced state of decomposition, buried under the ground of the cemetery of a town in Soria, which, in the absence of definitive identification, could correspond to the missing person,” said the police.