Suspects arrested over Irishman's death

Guardia Civil reveal details of Irishman Carl Carr’s disappearance and death

The disappearance of Irishman Carl Carr last September turned into a homicide investigation following the discovery of his body by the Guardia Civil last week and the arrest of five suspects.

THE DISAPPEARANCE of Irishman Carl Carr in Orihuela Costa last September turned into a homicide investigation following the discovery of his body by the Guardia Civil last week and the subsequent arrest of five suspects.

Following numerous unconfirmed reports in the Spanish, Irish and UK press, the Guardia Civil have released official details of how they ‘cleared up’ the crime.

According to a force spokesman, the suspects are three British women, an Irishman and a Spaniard – all aged between 23 and 48, who had links with the victim and with drug trafficking.

Mr Carr, aged 37, was reported missing by his girlfriend, who had last seen him in the early hours of September 16 at a nightspot in Cabo Roig with his flatmate and three other women.

“His mother, who lives in Ireland, and the mother of his two children, who he used to call every day to ask after them, had not heard from him either,” noted the spokesman.

The investigation focused on the flatmate and the other women who had been with him that night, who all said they had several drinks together.

However, the statements of the last people to see Mr Carr alive diverged when each one described their return to the home he shared in Torrevieja, making officers suspect that his disappearance had not been voluntary.

Furthermore, his girlfriend told them that the flatmate would not let her in and that when she went to the window, the room looked ‘too tidy and there was a strong smell of bleach’.

The Guardia Civil also looked into the Irishman’s background, finding that people who knew him described him as ‘a bit dangerous’, that he was mixed up with people who ‘could be connected with drug dealing’ and he ‘often got into fights and problems’.

Mr Carr had moved to Spain around three years ago having served an eight-year sentence for being caught with cocaine and heroin valued at €1.4m in Ireland in 2008.

A combination of the witness statements, international police cooperation and a reconstruction of the events leading up to the disappearance enabled the officers to arrest the suspects and find the place where the body had been buried.

“It seems that the victim died on the same night he disappeared, as a result of a fist fight with his flatmate, who killed him,” alleged the spokesman.

“Afterwards he was taken in a car to the place where they buried him.”

This was an extensive area of woodland in Rojales, where the victim was found in the ground by two bottles of bleach, ‘which had possibly been used to clean the home where the events occurred’.

Also key to the investigation was the evidence taken from the home and from the vehicle of one of the suspects by the Alicante judicial police crime laboratory and the central ocular inspection team of the Guardia Civil in Madrid, who also helped to exhume the body.

The suspects are variously accused of homicide, illegal possession of weapons, drug trafficking, obstructing justice, giving false testimony and extortion.

“The dangerousness of the company kept by the Irishman was confirmed by the discovery of a nine-millimetre short firearm,” added the spokesman.

The investigation was carried out by a Torrevieja court, which has ordered four of the suspects to be remanded in custody.