KILLERS OF COSTA BRIT KNEW VICTIM
Police hold mum and teen son
A BRITISH pensioner found shot dead in her Costa Blanca villa may have known her killer, it is feared, as police quiz a mum and her son.
The Spanish woman, 46, and her son, 16, were being grilled yesterday after the widow, 81, was found dead under a bed.
The victim, named locally as Monica Warren, had been shot three times with a .22 calibre pistol at her £350,000 home.
A plumber was said to have alerted police on Wednesday after he was called to her house for an emergency repair.
He called officers after seeing two people leave the property and speed away in a black Peugeot as he arrived.
Detectives are investigating a theory the female suspect, who is said to have practised target shooting, shot the widow before asking her son to move the body.
Police arrested the pair on Thursday
after finding her car had been gutted in a fire hours after the killing.
She also reported her licensed gun as stolen the day after the body was found. Spain’s National Police in Alicante said: “Detectives are working on the basis the mum could be the suspected killer and was helped by her underage son.”
Detectives are said to have ruled out a bungled burglary and believe the victim knew the suspects. Officers were still combing the gated property in a village near Elche, a short drive from Alicante, yesterday. Alan Benson, 70, paid tribute to his neighbour, who was described as “very private”. She had lived in the property for 20 years, having retired from London with her husband John, who later died. Mr Benson said Monica, who he believed was originally from Germany, was “worried about Covid” and had expressed fears about delivery men “casing her home”.
He said: “She was incredibly thin. You could knock her over with a feather.” Detectives have until Sunday to hold the pair before handing them over to a judge for questioning.