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CRIMINAL

Man held for murder after new body parts find

A man has been arrested on the suspicion of murdering a 20-year-old woman who vanished three weeks ago in northern Sweden, and whose body parts were uncovered on Monday.

Published: 24 May 2013 07:48 CEST
Man held for murder after new body parts find

“This is a question of murder and a serious crime. He has been interrogated and denies the crime,” prosecutor Anna Bergström told the TT news agency.

The man is suspected of murdering a 20-year-old woman, Vatchareeya Bangsuan, who was last seen on May 4th in Boden, northern Sweden. The woman’s body parts were found in an unused military base by volunteer search organization Missing People on Monday.

Police received DNA confirmation that the body was Bangsuan’s on Friday afternoon, following forensic tests at a clinic in Linköping, central Sweden.

Prosecutors refused to comment on the suspect’s relation to the woman.

The suspect was arrested in Boden on Thursday afternoon, but police refused to comment on the man’s reaction to the arrest. He is currently in a jail in Luleå. It is believed he acted alone.

Police chief Kenneth Rautio told reporters at a press conference that he hopes the case is solved now.

TT/The Local/og

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SKIING

Spain mourns Blanca Fernández Ochoa, the Olympian skier found dead in Madrid’s sierra

The body of former Spanish alpine skimedallist Blanca Fernández Ochoa was found Wednesday in a mountainous area near Madrid after days of searches for her by hundreds of police and volunteers, officials said.

Published: 5 September 2019 09:34 CEST
Spain mourns Blanca Fernández Ochoa, the Olympian skier found dead in Madrid's sierra
Archive photo of Blanca Fernández Ochoa during her Olympic career.

The 56-year-old — won a bronze skiing for Spain in the 1992 Winter Games in Albertville, becoming the country's first female Winter Olympic medallist — had been missing since she was last spotted on surveillance video at a shopping centre on August 24th.

Her car was later found at a parking lot near the start of a hiking trail in Cercedilla, a mountainous village near Madrid. The authorities said they are still investigating the cause of her death.

“Solidarity, support and human warmth have been felt these days in the mountains of Cercedilla. Security forces and many volunteers have taken part in the search for Blanca Fernández Ochoa. But nothing could be done. My affection to all her family,” Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez tweeted.

Hundreds of police, firefighters, forest rangers and volunteers, backed by helicopters, drones and tracking dogs, had taken part in the search for Fernández Ochoa.

Her family only alerted the authorities about her disappearance on August 29th because they said it was not unusual for her to go on hikes in the area, even without her phone, according to Spanish media reports.

Police on Saturday issued an appeal on social media for help from the public in locating Fernández Ochoa along with a picture of her, which drew media attention to her disappearance.

She was well known in Spain, where she had taken part in several TV reality shows after retiring from sports.

Her older brother, Francisco Fernández Ochoa, won a gold medal for skiing in the 1972 Winter Olympics in Japan. He is the first and only Spaniard to have won a gold medal at the Winter Olympics.   

There is a statue in his honour in Cercedilla.   

Until 2018 the brother and sister were the only Spaniards to have won medals at a Winter Olympics.

“It is a very sad day for Spanish sports,” Spain's secretary of state for sports, Maria Jose Rienda, said in a statement.

READ ALSO: Snowboarder from Ceuta wins Olympic medal for Spain

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