On a nearly deserted street in northern Spain, the images appeared to show a man hunched over the back of a red Rover, gingerly loading a bulky white sack into the trunk.
A passing Google Maps camera car captured the suspicious moment as it unfolded in the village of Tajueco in October. Two months later, police cited the image, which continues to appear on Google Maps, and others taken by the car’s camera as clues that helped arrest two people after a man disappeared last year.
The case dates back to November 2023, when a family member reported the disappearance of a Cuban citizen residing in Spain, according to El País newspaper. The man lived in the municipality of Soria, in northern Spain, where he appeared in the hope of locating a woman believed to be his partner.
A relative of the Cuban told police that he became suspicious after receiving a series of text messages from the man’s phone, telling him that he had met another woman, that he was leaving Spain and that he would get rid of the phone, the police said. police. in a statement. “This made the complainant suspect that the messages had not been sent by the missing person and led him to report it to the police.”
The investigation soon focused on the Cuban’s ex-partner and another man with whom she was believed to be romantically linked. Last month, police arrested the couple, alleging their involvement in the death and disappearance of the Cuban national. Weeks later, a torso believed to be that of the missing man was found in the cemetery of a nearby village.
Police declined to provide further details, saying only that the investigation was continuing.
However, they were quick to highlight the role that Google Maps had played in capturing the harrowing images apparently related to the murder. “One of the clues investigators used to solve the crime, although inconclusive, were images detected during an investigation of a mapping application,” police said, stating that these images had helped “detect a vehicle that may have been been used in the course of the crime.”
On Wednesday, El País surveyed residents of Tajueco, with 56 inhabitants, where several people said they had seen the images captured by Google Maps, but had given them little importance.
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“We would never have imagined he was doing anything and we didn’t think anything of it,” said one resident, while another noted that “we didn’t think there would be a body in the photo of the boot.”