Overview
- Municipal workers found a plastic bag with a human skull in an inspection chamber in Alhaurín de la Torre in June 2025, which launched a Guardia Civil homicide inquiry.
- Genetic analysis in February 2026 identified the skull as 59-year-old Francisco José Agüera, who had been reported missing on April 28, 2020 during Spain’s COVID lockdown.
- The suspected killer was arrested on Tuesday, July 28, 2026 and immediately confessed that he killed Agüera in his Coín home, dismembered the body and disposed of parts around Alhaurín de la Torre.
- Investigators recovered bone fragments at sites guided by the suspect and those remains are awaiting laboratory DNA testing to be definitively matched to Agüera while the suspect has been remanded in pretrial detention without bail.
- The probe, named Operation Capibara, is led by the Guardia Civil’s Grupo de Homicidios and local judicial teams and the outcome of the genetic tests will shape the next steps in the criminal case and court process.