The National Police has detailed this Friday that the arrest of the accused of raping and murdering a woman whom he approached in a garage in the Añaza neighborhood, in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, nine years ago, occurred thanks to a partial genetic screening of two samples that allowed the reconstruction of the author's family lineage until his location, and they do not rule out more victims.
This was detailed by inspector Gara Toledo during a press conference, in which she offered details of the procedure that is still ongoing, along with the Government delegate in the Canary Islands, Anselmo Pestana, the chief of police, Jesús Gómez Martín, and chief inspector Javier Sarmiento.
Toledo explained that everything began when the DNA samples collected from the victim's body and from a handkerchief that the suspect left in the area where he apparently tried to assault another woman half a year after that crime, yielded a partial match, which corresponded to a man who was arrested five years ago for another crime.
“Normally, DNA identifications are made taking into account the complete DNA code. In this case, the novelty is that only a part is used. Only with the Y chromosome haplotype. From there, this gives us a very relevant piece of information, and that is that the author is related by paternal line to this gentleman who was arrested for another reason,” indicated the inspector.
Thanks to this information, she continued, which is based on the particularity of the Y chromosome, which is a unique combination of genetic markers that is transmitted almost unchanged from father to sons, they were able to establish that there is a blood relationship between both subjects, which could range from great-great-grandfathers to great-grandfathers, brothers, cousins, or uncles, hence the complexity of the investigation.
It was at that moment when they began to cross-reference genetic information, which established a physical profile based on probabilities, with the consultation of archives and parish registers from the early 19th century to the present day, which involved the manual consultation of documents from 1800 to the present day to establish a family tree.
“The family is branched out in various areas of the island, although the most likely one, on which we focused from the very beginning, was in the vicinity of the Añaza neighborhood. Specifically, in the Santa María del Mar area, which is barely a kilometer away. And from there, starting with age, we began to descend, taking statements and sweeping social media,” Toledo indicated.
A task “complicated,” he continued, as not everyone “has their children registered” and there was “a lot of family related through the paternal line,” while he stated, after questions from journalists about whether the detainee studied the victim or not before committing the crime, that the “investigation is still ongoing,” so they cannot reveal more details.
What he did confirm is that after analyzing the data and identifying the possible perpetrator of both incidents, they proceeded to collect all the “samples and evidence of the crime that were abandoned in public places” that contained a DNA sample of the accused, such as a handkerchief or a soda can, to confirm the match and proceed with his arrest.
016 telephone for victims of gender-based violence
Suspicions of new victims
The inspector also stated that they suspect there may be “quite a few more victims” at the hands of the accused, so she took the opportunity to call on all those who have suffered an assault and “perhaps have not dared to report it,” to contact the Police at the station on Tres de Mayo avenue in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
“That will be our next step: to look for more victims. It is known that in these types of crimes, it often happens that people do not dare to report out of fear, especially if it is someone they know or a neighbor,” she detailed.
The inspector thanked all the people who have been part of the investigation during these nine years, especially the team of the National Police of Tenerife, but also the Scientific Analysis Unit and the DNA Biology Laboratory.
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