Overview

• The Guardia Civil arrested the victim’s 54-year-old son on Monday and a judge ordered him into pretrial imprisonment on homicide charges.
• A friend of the suspect was released under judicial safeguards that include passport surrender, a national travel ban and thrice-weekly court check-ins.
• Officials discarded the son’s original claim of a home invasion by masked intruders after finding his DNA in Rita Ortiz’s blood and no evidence of forced entry.
• Investigators relied on over 100 DNA and fingerprint tests from the Barcelona forensics institute, a process that took two and a half years to complete.
• Sources say the son’s longstanding drug addiction may have fueled a violent altercation and his shifting accounts to authorities.