Casefile True Crime - Case 173: Rocio Wanninkhof & Sonia Carabantes

Episode Date: April 24, 2021

When 19-year-old Rocio Wanninkhof failed to return home after a night out with friends, her mother Alicia was immediately worried. The family lived in the small town of La Cala de Mijas, Spain – where teenagers felt safe going out alone. Alicia’s concern quickly turned to distress when she discovered Rocio’s shoes lying abandoned in a clearing near their home, alongside a pool of blood. --- Narration – Anonymous Host Research & writing – Victoria Dieffenbacher Editing – Erin Munro Additional writing & editing – Milly Raso Creative direction – Milly Raso Production and music – Mike Migas Music – Andrew D.B. Joslyn For all credits and sources please visit casefilepodcast.com/case-173-rocio-wanninkhof-sonia-carabantes

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The crowd stood in awe with mouths agape. Their wide eyes focused upwards. A pitched squill filled the air followed by a cracking bang. Then another and another. It was Wednesday October 6, 1999. The night sky above the Spanish coastal town of Fuengirola was a fiery spectacle of colour. As the fireworks heralding the start of the Fuengirola Fair were ignited. Held in the centre of town, the annual festival draws in locals and tourists alike.

For a week-long party of food, drink and dance. The fairgrounds take over a large thoroughfare a short walk from the harbour. Easily accessible by a nearby train line. At ten days enter through one of three ornate gold and white arches before blending into a large crowd moving between attractions. Traditional music emanating from the festival echoes down the surrounding blocks as dozens of marquees offer visitors an array of foreign delicacies, live performances, souvenirs and exhibitions.

Parades march down the street, providing a distraction for those waiting in line for the carnival rides. By Saturday October 9, 1999, the Fuengirola Fair was entering its third day and it was still as popular as ever. That night, a taxi driver dropped some passengers off in the Fuengirola area before heading south-west towards the coastal village of La Cala de Mijas. As he drove along a quiet, rural stretch of road between towns, he eyed his meter. It was exactly ten p.m. Suddenly, an SUV appeared up ahead.

It was parked on the side of the road facing the wrong direction. It was positioned in such a way that the taxi driver had to swerve to avoid colliding with it. Then he heard screaming, loud, terrified screaming. Fearing he was about to be carjacked, the taxi driver wound up his windows and sped up until the SUV disappeared in the darkness behind him. The next day Rocio Venenkov was looking forward to the Fuengirola Fair in October 1999. Juggling two jobs, one as an au pair and another as a waitress,

the 19-year-old saw the event as an opportunity to unwind after a busy week. On the third day of the festivities, Rocio was lounging in the kitchen of her family home in La Cala de Mijas. She spoke with her mother and sister in forming them of her plans for the evening. First and foremost, she would visit her boyfriend, Antonio Jose Jurado. At around 10pm, she would return home, shower, and then head off to the Fuengirola Fair. At 5.30pm, Rocio left her home to walk the 500 metres to Antonio's house. Rocio's mother, Alicia, said she would await her return. When 10pm came and went with no sign of Rocio, it was clear her plans had been interrupted.

Had she chosen to bypass her stop-home and go straight to the fair with Antonio, Alicia couldn't be certain. Overcome with worry, she had to reassure herself that Rocio would reappear safe and sound in the morning. Upon waking the following morning, Alicia headed to Rocio's room, only to find her bed empty. She hadn't come home during the night at all. This was out of character for the sensible and considerate Rocio. Alicia sent Rocio's older sister, Rosa, to check in with Antonio. It seemed likely she would have spent the night there. Antonio answered the door.

He confirmed that Rocio had made it to his place early the following evening. A couple watched television for a few hours, then Rocio decided it was time to get ready for the fair. She arranged to meet Antonio at the fairgrounds later. She said her goodbyes to Antonio's mother, who expressed concern over Rocio's outfit. Rocio was only wearing a t-shirt, and she was concerned the teenager would get cold on the walk home. To placate her concerns, Rocio pulled on a grey sweater she was carrying. Her boyfriend's mother helped her button it up. Rocio thanked her, adding that she would see her soon.

A minute later, Antonio was escorted Rocio outside, and she began the short journey back home alone. It was 9.30pm. However, instead of meeting up with Rocio at the when-he-roll affair as they had planned, Antonio fell asleep and never made it. But he'd heard that Rocio had been spotted there, so she most likely enjoyed the night without him and headed to a friend's house. Rosa returned home and shared Antonio's explanation, but Alicia found it odd. She couldn't shake the feeling that something was amiss.

As the day wore on with no word from Rocio, her worry increased. Her partner Juan tried to reassure Alicia that Rocio was of an age where nights out were expected, only for the young party-goer to show up later unscathed. He suggested they go for a walk to take her mind off things. Alicia and Juan headed in the direction of some picturesque ruins nearby. They stuck to the sidewalk alongside a semi-rural road surrounded by pine trees. Then, they turned and entered a clearing 300 metres from their home. It was there, amongst the grass and trees, where the couple spotted something.

Discarded on the ground were a pair of sneakers. They were Rocio's. Alongside them was a large pool of blood. Juan swiftly contacted the civil guard, the police counterparts outside Spain's metropolitan areas. Leading from the road were multiple specks of blood that trailed deeper into the adjoining clearing where the sneakers were located. A tissue caked with the dry blood was also discovered, as well as tire tracks that were likely caused by a compact car.

Testing confirmed the blood belonged to Rocio Vanenkov. It appeared as though the 19-year-old was set upon between 9.30 and 10.00pm when she was walking home after visiting Antonio's house. This would mean that reports that she attended the Fuenjirol affair that night were likely incorrect. The bloody tissue was of particular interest to police. It suggested that whoever had harmed Rocio might have offered her the tissue to clean her injuries. This indicated a level of care and trust between both victim and perpetrator, as though they knew one another.

Further examination of the crime scene uncovered a cigarette butt, 4mm in length. Circled around the filter tip was the branding of cigarette company Royal Crown. Analysis revealed the cigarette had been smoked by an unknown male. October 12 marked the final day of the 1999 Fuenjirol affair. Rocio Vanenkov had been missing for three days. Her disappearance had become major news in her small hometown. La Cala de Mijas is, and was still very much then, a tranquil traditional village. Its few thousand residents lived private lives.

The local community was overseen by a parish who dealt with the issues troubling townsfolk. This internalised sense of protectiveness ensured everyone was tight-knit and looked out for one another. Outsiders were mostly tourists, expats or seasonal workers drawn to the area's warm climate and picturesque coastline. Rocio relied on this steady stream of visitors. Her au pair job was for one of the many British families who lived in the region. Her second job had her working behind the bar at a hotel popular with holiday makers. The money she earned brought her closer to her dream of studying to become a teacher. It was on this third day of Rocio's disappearance when a regional taxi driver came forward to police,

realising he might have witnessed something significant. On the night Rocio failed to return home, he had been driving through the area where her shoes were later discovered. It was exactly 10pm when he spotted an SUV parked haphazardly on the side of the road. The taxi driver then heard screams, but fearing for his own safety, hastily left the area. At the time he passed the SUV, the taxi driver happened to see a man inside, sitting behind the wheel. He looked to be in his 20s or 30s and had short hair. This sighting facilitated a police sketch of the suspect, which was quickly distributed around town on flyers. Meanwhile, the wealthy English family who Rocio worked for came forward to offer a reward of 5 million paizettas,

the equivalent of more than 180,000 US dollars in today's currency, in exchange for useful information leading to her whereabouts. Hundreds of local residents volunteered to help search for Rocio. Strict schedules were organised, as nearby woods and towns were meticulously combed. On October 17, 8 days after Rocio had vanished, the biggest search yet was undertaken. The civil guard divided searches into groups of 6-8 cars and then sent them out in every direction. Nothing of value was uncovered. The last known person to have seen Rocio before she vanished was her boyfriend, Antonio Jose Horado. He would typically escort Rocio home after she paid him a visit, though she left his house alone on the key night.

He also lived close to the clearing where her shoes were discovered. He would have been able to hear any screams emanating from the area via his window, which faced the same direction. Antonio maintained he fell asleep after Rocio had left his house, causing him to miss catching up with her at the Fuenhirola Fair later in the night. His mother vouched that he was asleep, though police didn't believe this to be a strong enough alibi. Investigators questioned Antonio on six different occasions. They also tapped his cell phone. But in all conversations, Antonio stayed true to his version of events. When it was determined that Antonio didn't have a driver's licence, it seemed unlikely that he was the man seen behind the wheel of the SUV at the crime scene.

Police were willing to broaden their horizons and look for other possible suspects. On October 31, the Civil Guard informed Rocio's family that they were suspending all searches for the time being. But Rocio's family continued receiving support from local volunteers. Ever since she had vanished, a nightly tradition had been established. At 8.30pm each evening, searches would gather at the crime scene to share updates, possible developments and words of encouragement. Two days later, the owners of a tennis club in the resort city of Marbella stumbled across a disturbing site. Behind one of the courts and partially hidden by scrub was the badly decomposed body of a woman. She was naked, with her legs spread apart.

Two industrial sized garbage bags were beside her, one of which had the number 8 drawn on it. They contained some jewellery and clothing, including a Nike brand t-shirt. The exact same as the one Rocio Vanenkov was wearing the night of her disappearance. A missing person flyer was also found next to the body. It featured a picture of Rocio and detailed the known circumstances of her disappearance. However, the condition of the body indicated that the victim had been deceased for at least six months. Rocio had only been missing for a little over three weeks. That night, Rocio's mother Alicia was attending a community meeting when she suddenly received a call to return home.

As soon as she entered her house, she knew something was wrong. A police constable was standing in the living room, along with the town's parish priest. Alicia's daughter Rosa was seated at the table, holding her head in her hands as she cried. Alicia was informed of the body found at the Marbella tennis club. Police requested the family view the body in an effort to determine whether or not it was Rocio. Alicia couldn't face doing such a thing. Rosa opted to do so instead. Upon viewing the victim, Rosa noticed a familiar ring around her finger.

It was one Rocio always wore. Rosa knew it was her sister. Marbella wasn't particularly close to La Cala de Míjez. It was around 20 kilometers west from where Rocio's shoes were found, in the opposite direction of Rocio's intended destination of Fuenhirola. Police speculated what might have caused the rapid decomposition. The killer could have burnt Rocio's body first or placed it in acid. It was also theorized that a rare type of wasp might have fed on her remains, expediting the process.

The civil guard was still under the impression that Rocio knew her killer or killers. The bloody tissue at the crime scene was too intimate of an object to overlook, and an autopsy confirmed their suspicions. Rocio had been stabbed nine times, with eight wounds in her lower back and one to her chest. It was a viciously brutal attack, one that seemed deeply personal. It was almost as though Rocio's killer had been motivated by revenge. Despite having been found naked, there was no evidence of sexual assault. Yet, the way her body was posed was suggestive and undignified.

It was possible that the perpetrator intended to shame her. The missing person flyer left with Rocio's remains hinted that the killer was a member of her local community. Investigators pried into Rocio's inner circle of family, friends, acquaintances, and past flings. Each time they hit a dead end, they'd go back to the drawing board. Months passed with no major developments in the case. Then, on September 2, 2000, the Civil Guard paid Alicia a visit to share some big news. They were close to making an arrest for her daughter's murder. When Alicia asked who the suspect was, their answer astounded her.

18 years earlier in 1981, Alicia was still married to Rocio's father, a Dutch resident named Guillermo van den Koff. Guillermo left his wife and three children when Rocio was two years old. Prior to this, Guillermo worked at a hotel to financially support his young family. As there, he crossed paths with a colleague named Dolores Vasquez. Guillermo introduced Dolores to his wife and the two women soon struck up a friendship. Alicia confided that she and Guillermo were in the process of separating. She was concerned about how she would manage raising three children as a single mother. At that time, the two women developed romantic feelings for one another.

Eventually, they moved in together. They bought a house and shared the costs, although Dolores paid a larger portion and the contract was signed in her name. The couple lived together happily. Dolores helped Alicia raise her children. After almost 15 years, though, they decided to part ways. Their split was fairly amicable and they agreed to remain friends. Alicia and her children moved into another home nearby. Dolores stayed put and invited her mother, who was ill, to live with her.

When Dolores had learnt of Rocio's disappearance, she'd reached out to Alicia and offered support. She participated in searches, visited the family often, and even suggested that they hire a private investigator when it seemed the Civil Guard was making little progress. Unbeknownst to Dolores, the Civil Guard were making progress. They had spotlighted her almost from the get-go. During the first week after Rocio's disappearance, investigators noticed a strange car repeatedly driving through the clearing where Rocio's blood was found. Two men got out and approached the officers, seemingly trying to find out how the gathering of evidence was advancing. Extremely suspicious of the men, officers jotted down the car's license plate number.

When they looked it up later, they found the vehicle was registered to Dolores Vazquez. Investigators asked around about Dolores and were intrigued to learn she had close personal ties to Rocio's family. They called her into the station for an interview. When asked whether she'd lent her car to two men, Dolores firmly denied doing so. After the interview concluded, one of the officers escorted Dolores back to her car. As he glanced into the vehicle, he spotted a beige cap inside. One of the men seen at the clearing had been wearing the exact same hat. The investigators' suspicions grew stronger.

They were certain Dolores was lying about the car, and if she was lying about a relatively minor matter, what else might she be lying about? It turned out that the hotel where Dolores was currently employed was located very close to the tennis club where Rocio's body had been dumped. After 11 months, investigators decided it was time to share their theory with Rocio's mother. The thought that her former partner could be responsible for her daughter's death shocked and horrified Alicia. She struggled to believe that Dolores, who had essentially been a second mother to Rocio, could do such a thing. That night, Alicia picked up the telephone and dialed Dolores's number. As soon as Dolores answered, Alicia blurted out, Did you do it? Did you kill Rocio?

There was a pause. Then, Dolores replied in a quiet voice, How can you ask me that? This answer unsettled Alicia. Surely, if Dolores were innocent of such a heinous crime, she would loudly protest against the accusation and say it was ridiculous. But Dolores didn't scream. She didn't get angry. She just sounded heard. The pair didn't speak again. Three days later, on September 5, the media officially named Dolores Vasquez as a suspect in Rocio Vanenkov's murder.

The headline was accompanied by an image of Dolores doing her grocery shopping. A photographer snapped the candid photo while the unsuspecting Dolores was going about her day. Two days later, Dolores was interrupted at home by civil guard officers wielding handcuffs. She didn't make a fuss as they placed her under arrest. She was marched outside where crowds of television crews and angered onlookers were waiting. Dolores only spoke to ask a neighbour to please watch over her mother. She was bombarded with obscenities by the crowd who called her murderer. Some even tried to run her down and hit her.

During questioning, Dolores insisted that she was innocent. She claimed that she'd been home on the day of Rocio's disappearance. Because she was a caregiver to her sick mother, she didn't leave her alone often. Additionally, her niece had come to town that day for a night out with friends and left her two-year-old daughter in Dolores's care. Dolores explained that she wouldn't leave a toddler on her own. Detectives didn't believe her. On September 9, Dolores Vasquez was presented to a judge and ordered to stand trial.

The civil guard had compiled a document detailing 20 items of evidence against her. As she had a sister living in the UK, she was deemed a flight risk and transferred to jail to await her trial. With her former partner having been charged for the murder of her daughter, Alicia kept reflecting on their relationship. The more she thought about it, the more she realized there had been warning signs for some time. Things had been wonderful when her kids were small. Dolores had been like another parent to Alicia's three children

and had known Rocio since she was a toddler. Dolores assisted with their education and provided financial support. But cracks began to appear after about ten years, around the same time that Rocio hit puberty. The way Alicia remembered it, Dolores became controlling as the children got older. She always wanted them to do chores around the home and demanded they achieve good grades. After Rocio received poor marks at school one year, Dolores grounded her for an entire summer.

As time went on, the hostility between Dolores and Rocio grew. One day, Rocio came to her mother to complain about it and ended up screaming. One day, Dolores is going to kill me and you won't do a single thing about it. These words troubled Alicia and she'd ended the relationship soon after. She explained to Dolores that they could still be friends, but they couldn't be together anymore. Dolores was heartbroken. She didn't take the news well. The pair stayed in touch, but after a few years, Alicia began dating her current partner, Juan. When Dolores heard about the relationship, she showed up at Alicia's doorstep asking intrusive questions.

Alicia humoured her for a while, but the questions began to make her uncomfortable. She asked Dolores to stop. Dolores did, though she made one final remark. She told Alicia that one day she'd hit her where it hurt the most. Then Alicia would be left crying, quote, blood tears. Alicia had never forgotten this statement. When she called Dolores after learning she was suspected of Rocio's murder, she couldn't resist saying,

you've hit me where it hurt the most. Dolores replied, that is true. As far as Alicia was concerned, Dolores had just confessed to the crime. While Dolores awaited trial, investigators continued building their case against her. In an early search of her home, industrial-style garbage bags were found that matched the ones found with Rocio's body. Apparently, Dolores used them when she went running as a way to increase sweat production. Officers got their hopes up when they found a tracksuit with fabric that appeared to match some fibers recovered from Rocio's body. But this turned out to be a false lead when analysis revealed the two were unrelated.

Although investigators weren't having much luck finding physical evidence, the circumstantial evidence was stacking up. Acquaintances and colleagues described Dolores as cold, detached, and insensitive. Her ex-housekeeper said Dolores had a violent temper. Once, she'd smashed a cup of tea just because it was cold. Others felt that she'd behaved in an overly emotional way during searches for Rocio and at her funeral. She'd cried almost too hard in a way that felt performative. She also seemed protective of Rocio's family to the point of possessiveness. Dolores had claimed that on the night of Saturday, October 9, she'd been at home watching over her mother and grandniece.

But a neighbour said Dolores's niece and grandniece had arrived in town the following day, Sunday, October 10. A waitress who worked at a bar situated right outside Dolores's house reported that at around 11.30pm on October 9, Dolores had come in dressed in running gear. She'd bought some tobacco and when the waitress asked what Dolores was up to, she said she'd just gone on a run to clear her mind. The next day, Dolores attended a wedding. She asked a friend to drive her, explaining that her car was being repaired. When the friend arrived to collect her, she told Dolores that she looked beautiful. Dolores said she was surprised. She'd had a restless night and hadn't slept at all.

Several days later, the waitress who'd served Dolores on the night of October 9 saw smoke rising from Dolores's chimney. When another employee at the bar followed up with Dolores and asked what she was burning, she claimed she'd simply been clearing the chimney out. But the waitress felt the amount of smoke had been far too excessive to just be some soot. Several weeks later, on November 2, Dolores arrived home looking troubled. She was met by her housekeeper. When the housekeeper asked Dolores what was wrong, Dolores pulled out one of Rocio's missing person flyers. Then she picked up a knife, held it against the flyer and stabbed it repeatedly in the middle of Rocio's photograph. This incident had taken place on the same day that Rocio's body was found.

Dolores had apparently mimed how the 19-year-old was murdered before her cause of death was publicly known. In the months leading up to Rocio's murder, Dolores had been a frequent caller to psychic phone lines. Yet after Rocio went missing, these calls had virtually ceased. A psychic who Dolores had visited five months before Rocio was murdered was tracked down and interviewed. She claimed Dolores had confessed she was heartbroken. She wanted her former partner back, but the partner's child was standing in the way. Supposedly, Dolores had told the psychic that her ex would cry, blood tears. Investigators put together a theory as to how Rocio had been killed.

On October 9, Dolores went for a run between 9.40 and 10.00 pm. She carried a pocket knife as a safety precaution. In the middle of her exercise, she crossed paths with Rocio, who was walking home to prepare for her night out. The pair talked, and the bad blood between them caused an argument to break out. Dolores punched Rocio in the face, then gave her a tissue to clean her wounds. While Rocio was distracted by her injury, Dolores took out her pocket knife and stabbed her in the chest. Rocio turned and ran away, leaving spots of blood on the road. After running a short distance, she collapsed.

Dolores struck again, this time stabbing her repeatedly in the back. When Rocio was dead, Dolores realized she needed to dispose of the body. She went home and returned to the scene a few hours later with her car. She placed Rocio's body in the boot and kept it there for several days. That was why she'd needed a friend to drive her to the wedding on Sunday, and why she hadn't gotten any sleep that night. A few days later, she burned Rocio's body in an effort to disguise the remains, then dumped her at the tennis court in Marbella, along with the garbage bags full of Rocio's clothing. It was possible she'd enlisted the help of some young men.

This would explain why there was a cigarette butt with male DNA at the crime scene, and why two men were seen driving around in her car. In the lead-up to the murder trial, news anchors and television hosts debated whether or not Dolores was guilty, with most deciding that her anti-social-sounding personality pointed towards guilt. Members of the public were inclined to agree. The case was one of the biggest in the country. Everyone had heard of Rocio Vanenkov and Dolores Vasquez. In September 2001, Dolores's trial began.

Hundreds of reporters and curious onlookers piled into the courtroom to observe the proceedings. Dolores was pleading not guilty. Alicia testified for the prosecution, telling the jury that she was in no doubt that her ex had murdered her daughter. Various character witnesses were paraded through the court, sharing stories of Dolores's domineering and calculating personality. An undercover officer from the Civil Guard had even befriended Dolores while she was in custody, and provided a report describing Dolores as incredibly cold. The jury of five men and four women deliberated for 30 hours before returning with a verdict. Guilty.

The courtroom erupted in loud applause and cheering. Alicia and her family hugged one another tightly. As Dolores broke down in tears, photographers and news crews closed in, trying to get a close-up. Her attorney draped a coat over her to hide her distress. Dolores Vasquez was sentenced to 15 years and one day in prison. She was also ordered to pay 30 million pesetas in compensation to Rocio's family, close to US$220,000 in today's money. When asked if she had anything to say in response, Dolores quietly muttered. Continue searching, because the killer is still out there.

Sonja Carabentas grew up in Switzerland. When she turned 15, she moved with her parents to the inland Spanish town of Coyin. On Wednesday, August 13, 2003, Coyin was abuzz with activity. The annual Feria de Agosto, August Fair, had arrived in town. Streets were adorned with paper lanterns and floral displays. The sounds of flamenco and coplar music radiated from the fairgrounds, where crowds had gathered to take in the many festivities and performances on display. Among them was the now 17-year-old Sonja Carabentas.

She celebrated with her friends long into the night. Afterwards, Sonja headed home on foot, accompanied by a friend. At around 5am, the pair were within 200 metres of Sonja's home. As her friend lived on the opposite side of town, they said their goodbyes and continued on separately. The next morning, Sonja's mother opened her front door. On the pavement outside was a pool of blood. More blood was splattered across the hood of a car parked nearby. Sonja's mother edged closer.

She then discovered something even more upsetting. Scattered on the ground was Sonja's mobile phone, her purse, and a shoe she'd been wearing the night before, now covered in blood. The Civil Guard found more things lying nearby. A piece of a broken car tail light and a lock of hair that was the same dark brown as Sonja's. There were other notable objects. A cigarette butt and a tissue covered in dried blood. More than 700 of Koyin's residents volunteered to help search for Sonja Carabentas.

Divided into groups of ten, they covered much of Koyin and the surrounding area. On August 18, one group scouring a highway on the outskirts of town stumbled across a pair of jeans by the roadside. They resembled the pair that Sonja had been wearing on the night she went missing. When he heard about the jeans, Sonja's father travelled to the area with a clairvoyant. The clairvoyant led Sonja's father away from the road and into a dense, wooded area. She said she felt like Sonja was nearby, but they found no sign of her. The following morning, four volunteers took a sniffer dog to where the jeans had been found. It led the group into the same heavily wooded area that Sonja's father had visited the day before.

The dog was eager to get close to some trees so its owner loosened its leash. After racing forward a few meters, the dog stopped. Nearby, partially buried beneath a pile of rocks, was the half-naked, badly decomposed body of Sonja Carabentas. Sonja's lower half was exposed and her t-shirt had been pushed up. Her bra was torn. Though the attacker peered sexually motivated, there was no evidence that she had been raped. Her face had been struck repeatedly, her jaw almost broken. Then she'd been strangled to death.

Sonja put up a fight. Skin belonging to her attacker was found under her fingernails. Analysis revealed it belonged to a male. His DNA was also found on the cigarette butt discarded outside Sonja's home. Surprisingly, the DNA matched to a third item, another cigarette. This one was found three years prior, in a grassy clearing 25 kilometres away in La Cala de Mijas. The Royal Crown brand cigarette butt found at the Rocio-Vanenkoff crime scene was almost overlooked at the time. Luckily, it was spotted by an officer during a thorough sweep of the area.

Testing revealed it had been inhaled by a man. The Vanenkoff and Karabantas cases shared a number of similarities. The victims were only two years apart in age and roughly similar heights. Rocio was half Dutch while Sonja was Swiss. Both had long brown hair that fell below their shoulders, worn in almost identical styles. And both had disappeared while walking home after attending or planning to attend a local fair. Though they had been killed in different ways, they had been beaten. There was no evidence to prove either teen had been sexually assaulted, but both were found naked or partially naked.

In 2001, Dolores Vazquez was found guilty of Rocio's murder. The motive was believed to be personal. However, Dolores had no connection to Sonja Karabantas. And at the time of Sonja's murder in 2003, Dolores was at home under police surveillance. After Dolores was incarcerated, she began to spiral. She'd always maintained her innocence, but public opinion had cemented her as a killer. Once known as a quiet and calm person who was kind in a reserved way, it didn't take long for perceptions of Dolores to change following her arrest.

Soon, the narrative reversed. She was now described as cruel with a violent temper. Although investigators had done their utmost to coax a confession from Dolores, she never cracked. She was patient and compliant, even when questioned for two days straight. During her first night in detention, officers switched the lights on and off at random intervals. Dolores had an intense fear of the dark and was certain they knew about this. She felt they were trying to break her. At one point, an officer told Dolores,

we're going to make you famous and not even your lawyer will believe you. Following her guilty verdict, Dolores questioned her own memories. During a visit with her attorney, she asked, if I did it and can't remember it. Dolores's lawyer firmly believed she was innocent and encouraged her to maintain her faith while he worked on an appeal. Others also believed Dolores had been wrongly convicted. A group of attorneys and researchers who'd followed the case published a blog advocating for her innocence. Chief amongst their arguments was the fact that Dolores had been convicted without a shred of physical evidence.

They also pointed out a number of inconsistencies in the prosecution's case. From the beginning, Dolores had insisted that she'd been at home babysitting her niece's daughter on the night of Saturday, October 9. A neighbour claimed she'd seen Dolores' niece arrive the following day. However, the niece in question backed up Dolores' alibi. She said she'd arrived on Saturday night at 10pm, around the time Rocio was attacked. During the trial, the prosecution presented Dolores' telephone records to emphasise how often she called clairvoyance, which they found suspicious. But these same records were advantageous to the defence. As Dolores' attorney showed the court, Dolores had made two separate calls to friends on the night of Saturday, October 9.

One took place between 10.34 and 11.10pm. The other was at 11.17pm. If her niece arrived at 10pm and Dolores was on the phone from 10.34pm, she had barely any time to run four kilometres, encounter Rocio, murder her, then run back home again. And if the murder occurred before Dolores' niece arrived, there was an even smaller window for her to run from the crime scene to her home. Furthermore, tyre tracks found at the crime scene didn't match Dolores' car. They had been left by an older model Ford Fiesta. Dolores drove a newer Toyota Celica. To overcome this obvious discrepancy, the prosecution suggested Dolores stole a car to transport Rocio's body.

With every post shared by Dolores' supporters, the credibility of the case was further diminished. Journalists and more attorneys began to question the guilty narrative. Finally, on February 2, 2002, Andalucía's Superior Court of Justice agreed to annul Dolores Vasquez's conviction and order a new trial. On February 8, Dolores was released from prison under the proviso that she surrender her passport and submit to any and all searches of her home by the Civil Guard. Rocio Venenkov's family were very upset by this. They felt that by releasing Dolores, the courts had placed them in grave danger. What if Dolores decided to seek revenge against them? They requested that she be placed back in custody, but their request was denied. Several months later, on July 1, Rocio's family received another shock when a new report was published. Titled the Crespecio dossier, it had been compiled by Officer Crespecio, the first policeman who'd attended the Venenkov crime scene.

He wasn't a member of the Civil Guard. He was a forensic police officer for the city of Marbella, which is in the same region as La Cala de Mijas. As the case wasn't in his jurisdiction, he hadn't formally investigated it, but he'd always maintained an interest. After investigating Rocio's murder independently, Officer Crespecio concluded that Rocio's uncle had murdered her with assistance from her cousin. An irregular fingerprint had been recovered from one of the garbage bags near Rocio's body, and her uncle was known to have a V-shaped scar on one finger. Rocio's cousin was a young man who resembled the SUV driver spotted by the taxi driver on the night of the crime. The house he lived in was number 8. The garbage bag found near Rocio's body had that number drawn on it. There was little evidence to back up Officer Crespecio's controversial theory. It was subsequently dismissed due to lack of proper protocol and scientific approach. Some members of law enforcement believed Officer Crespecio had released his findings because he wanted 15 minutes of fame.

But news of the dossier did prompt Dolores Vazquez to make her first public statement in months. On September 20, she held a press conference in front of 100 journalists and 18 television cameras. She stated, I didn't kill Rocio. I've been arrested without proof. I've been taken to prison and trial without proof. The fingerprints are not mine, and I'm just asking, not for me, but for Rocio, for the investigation to reopen and to let whoever has to fall, fall. Despite her pleas, there were very few developments in the case over the next year. It was accepted that Dolores would be facing court again, with her retrial scheduled for August 2003. Then, just days before Dolores was due back in court, Sonja Carabantas was attacked. Despite the similarities between the Vanenkov and Carabantas cases, Dolores Vazquez couldn't have possibly committed both murders.

When Sonja was abducted, Dolores was under strict surveillance at home, awaiting her day in court. Upon learning that the two murders were connected via a male smoker, the Supreme Court postponed Dolores' retrial so that the investigation could pan out. Investigators examined other unsolved cases involving missing and murdered girls to see if they were dealing with a serial killer. The brutality of Rocio and Sonja's murders made them certain that whoever was responsible had attacked before. There were likely other women out there who'd encountered him. Not long after Sonja Carabantas went missing, a woman named Cecilia Pantoja met her ex-husband outside her home when he came to collect their daughter. As Cecilia and her boyfriend stood chatting with her ex, whose name was Tony King, they noticed that one of his hands was badly swollen and covered with cuts. Cecilia's boyfriend asked about the injury, and King said something about how he'd been speeding in his car and ended up injuring himself.

The story sounded far-fetched. Neither Cecilia nor her boyfriend believed it. It wasn't the first time Cecilia felt uncomfortable about her ex-husband. A few years earlier, when Cecilia was still married to King, a friend told her she'd seen him on a British television program about wanted criminals. Terrified by this revelation, Cecilia called Scotland Yard to find out more. They informed her that King had committed a series of robberies. Believing King's crimes weren't violent, Cecilia let the matter rest. On the night of Saturday, October 9, 1999, King arrived home close to midnight. He was behaving strangely. He ran straight to the bathroom and locked the door. Cecilia went to check on him. As he emerged, she noticed he had some minor injuries and was carrying a pile of blood-stained clothes.

King insisted on washing the clothing himself. Cecilia didn't inquire further. A few days later, she saw on the news how a 19-year-old named Rocio Vanenkov had gone missing. The same night King returned home with blood-stained clothing. Cecilia couldn't shake a sinking feeling that her husband was involved. When Sonja Carabentas disappeared, that same feeling returned. The Civil Guard had established a tip-line to assist them in identifying suspects in the murder of Sonja Carabentas. One day, a call came through offering them a promising lead. The police sprung into action. On the night of September 17, 2003, officers drove to the apartment complex where Tony King lived with his new partner and her three children.

But they didn't knock on his door. Instead, they waited and watched, just in case King decided to flee. But nothing indicated that he was aware his ex-wife had reported him to police. The officers made note of a small white Mazda parked in King's garage. It was consistent with a vehicle scene driving around Sonja's neighborhood on the night of her murder. It also had a broken tail light that perfectly matched the piece they'd found near her home. The following morning, when King walked out of the building, officers pounced. He was immediately handcuffed. He looked stumped as he was placed under arrest. During interrogations, investigators pieced together more information about their suspect.

King was a 38-year-old British man who'd moved to Spain six years prior. He'd worked odd jobs and was currently employed as a waiter in an English pub. King was informed that he was being investigated for the murder of Sonja Carabentas. He was told that his DNA was being analyzed at that very moment. Within a matter of hours, they would know whether or not he was the person who had attacked her. King paused for several seconds, seemingly processing the situation. Then he broke down and offered to share his side of the story. A month earlier, on Wednesday, August 13, Tony King visited a local pub at 3pm and stayed until midnight.

His girlfriend joined him for a couple of hours and the couple visited a few more bars. When they returned home, King took a sleeping pill and went to bed, but he couldn't fall asleep. After tossing and turning, he got up. He told his girlfriend he was going out to buy some tobacco. King claimed he couldn't remember much of what happened next. Muddled and hazy from the combination of alcohol and medication, he got into his car and drove to the Coyin Fair. As he was driving back home, he accidentally ran over a teenage girl who he later realized was Sonja Carabentas. Scared and unsure of what to do, he placed her body in the boot of his car. He headed northwest in the direction of Monda, 10km away.

At one point, he pulled over and moved Sonja into the backseat with the intention of abusing what he believed to be her dead body. Sonja regained consciousness and began to fight him off. That was when King strangled her. He dragged her body into the heavily wooded area where she was later found. He then grabbed rocks at random and used them to conceal her body. Investigators didn't believe King's actions were thoughtless. The rock placed on Sonja's head had been a different size and shape to the others, as though it was intended as a marker that someone could spot from a distance. They suspected King had planned to return to Sonja's body again. King also admitted to killing Rocio Vanenkov.

He claimed he'd spent the evening of Saturday, October 9, 1999 at a house belonging to his friend, Robert Graham. The pair smoked joints and drank together. As it was time to go, he left in a friend's Ford Fiesta that he'd borrowed after having an accident in his own car. As King drove along a quiet road, he spotted Rocio walking. He was immediately taken with her and started fantasizing about touching her. King followed Rocio as she turned down an even quieter path and overtook her in his car. Then he got out and showed her a knife, thinking it would intimidate her into submission. But instead of cowering in fear, Rocio launched herself at him, attempting to fight him off.

In response, King cut her throat, then stabbed her abdomen in a frenzy so she would stop screaming. King tossed the knife aside and fled the scene, only to return a few hours later to move Rocio's body. He molested her corpse before dumping her at the tennis court. It took King 10 hours to confess to these crimes. He also admitted to attacking at least three other women in the area. His motivation was sexual. He struggled to perform with his partners and preferred to masturbate while assaulting the bodies of unconscious or deceased young women. Investigators didn't buy King's confessions, which were riddled with false information.

Although he said he ran Sonja down as she was walking in front of him, his car was only damaged at the rear. The injuries he described inflicting on Rocio didn't match her wounds. But detectives had no doubt that King was involved in both crimes. King was held in custody while investigators gathered evidence. His clothing was bagged for testing. His white Mazda was transferred to the station and the Spanish Home Office asked their UK counterparts for details on King's prior convictions. But before they received the information, the British press beat them to the punch, turning the case on its head for the second time. On September 23, the Daily Mail and The Sun, two of the UK's most popular tabloids, revealed that Tony King's birth name was Tony Bromwich and he was originally from Holloway, North London.

Back in his country of birth, he was a notorious criminal who'd been dubbed the Holloway Strangler. At the age of 19, King started prowling the streets of North London on Monday and Wednesday evenings, the nights when he didn't see his fiance. He was looking for women who were walking alone. When he spotted one, he crept up on her from behind, then wrapped a cord around her neck and squeezed. Once the woman was rendered unconscious, King assaulted her. He did this to at least five different women, until he was caught red-handed. He was taken to trial, where the judge described him as possessing a jekyll and Hyde personality. By day, he behaved as a responsible citizen and a loving partner.

But two nights every week, he acted out his violent fantasies. King was sentenced to 10 years in juvenile detention, which was later reduced to five for good behaviour. A few weeks after his release, King attempted to rob a woman at gunpoint. He was sent back to prison, then freed again in 1995. Soon after this, he changed his name and moved to Spain. The British tabloids shared that UK authorities had forwarded King's criminal files to the Spanish police soon after he arrived in the country. They'd cautioned their Spanish counterparts to keep a close eye on King, as he posed a major threat to women. In addition to these revelations, King's ex-wife Cecilia publicly revealed that she had, in fact, reported her husband to police after he came home covered in blood on the night Rocío Vanencoff vanished.

However, the officer she'd spoken to never wrote a report or followed up with her. This made her reluctant to speak out when she became suspicious again in 2003, so a friend of hers called the tip line to report Cecilia's concerns instead. Spain's law enforcement and government found themselves under a barrage of criticism. How had they missed so many red flags about Tony King? Perhaps if they'd kept an eye on him from the beginning, or at least investigated him after Rocío disappeared, then some of his crimes might have been prevented. The Home Office Minister claimed Scotland Yard was partially to blame because they marked King's file as low priority. The National Police received hundreds of reports on international convicts every year. It was impossible to chase everyone up unless they were flagged as important. In the aftermath of his confessions, Tony King penned two letters. Both were published in the papers. They were addressed to Rocío and Sonja's mothers. To Alicia, he apologized for not owning up to his crime earlier and for causing a rift in her relationship with Dolores Vazquez.

He apologized to Sonja's mother for running over her daughter and said he hoped the trial wouldn't be painful for her. Neither mother was interested in hearing from King and publicly rejected his apologies. Almost immediately, King responded by saying he'd written the letters under false pretenses. A journalist with a law degree had posed as his newly appointed attorney and told King that apologies meant a lot in Spanish culture. If he wrote letters saying sorry to the victim's parents, then he might secure a lighter sentence. As well as coaxing the letters out of him, the journalist obtained an exclusive to our interview. After King's real lawyer met with his client, he told the media King had a difficult upbringing that made him prone to confessing things he hadn't done. To back up this assertion, the attorney pointed to discrepancies between King's version of events and the evidence in the Vanenkov and Karabentes cases.

He also made a startling claim that was related to King's friend, Robert Graham. King and Graham were close, hanging out on a daily basis. King said he'd been with Graham on the night of Rocio's murder. Detectives apprehended Graham two days after King's arrest and kept him in custody for 72 hours before releasing him. In those three days, Graham was interviewed extensively but claimed not to remember anything about that night four years earlier. He was insistent, however, that he wasn't with King at the time of the murder. Subsequently, investigators asked Graham to undergo hypnosis to see if there were any relevant memories locked in his subconscious. Graham agreed.

The session ended with an alarming statement. While hypnotized, Graham claimed that Dolores Vasquez had collaborated with King to commit the crime. As it turned out, King had previously worked as a waiter at a hotel where Dolores was employed in a managerial position. King's lawyer dismissed this claim, suggesting detectives concocted the entire thing to push their own narrative. Their investigation had been problematic from the start and here was a convenient way to cover up the holes in their case. He remarked that no matter how the investigators were choosing to proceed, the truth would come out. Graham's statement and the hotel link between Tony King and Dolores Vasquez saw Dolores dragged back into the case again. Just as she was getting momentum in her quest for innocence, rumors began circulating that she had indeed committed Roccio's murder with King's help.

In an effort to silence this gossip once and for all, Dolores held a press conference to state that she did not know King and had never met him before. He started working at the hotel long after she'd moved on to another job. She concluded by saying, I can't do this anymore. I didn't kill Roccio and anything I say is twisted and turned against me. What does this country want from me? Investigators were torn. On the one hand, they kept looking for a connection between Dolores and King. On the other, they discussed eliminating Dolores completely from the case. Some people were pressuring them to issue a public apology.

Detectives asked Robert Graham to provide a new deposition, but he fled to London after his previous interviews and said he was unable to return to Spain due to economic problems. Then, at a court hearing on November 13, King stunned everyone by providing a brand new version of what happened the night of Roccio's murder. He'd been hanging out at Graham's home when Graham received a phone call. After hanging up, he asked King to drive with him to meet someone. King agreed. They drove to a quiet road where Roccio was standing on her own, waiting. Graham got out of the car while King stayed inside. From where he was watching, it looked as though Graham and Roccio were lovers.

After a few minutes, Graham became violent and stabbed Roccio repeatedly. Afterwards, he asked King to help him move her. They hid her behind the tennis court where she was eventually found. In this version, King only participated by moving the body. He'd felt pressured to help Graham who had a domineering personality and dodgy associates. Now, the Spanish government was determined to do everything in their power to bring Graham back into the country. Graham finally agreed to return after negotiating via his lawyer. One month later, he appeared before a Spanish judge.

He denied having anything to do with Roccio's murder. He said the only thing he could recall from that night was what he'd revealed under hypnosis. He maintained that Dolores Vasquez was behind the crime as the master puppeteer. With so many varying statements and stories changing along the way, nobody knew where the truth lay anymore. Roccio's mother was deeply distressed by the constantly shifting claims. The last thing she wanted was for her daughter's murder to end up unsolved. Over the next year and eight months, Tony King attempted to derail the pending trial against him by hiring new legal counsel and changing his story yet again. He began to point the finger at both Robert Graham and Dolores Vasquez.

He also attempted to blame Graham for another well-known case involving a third missing girl. Yet, the irrefutable evidence was that King's DNA was found at both crime scenes. Further analysis revealed that one of his hairs was left inside a plastic bag dumped by Roccio's body. By February 2005, Dolores Vasquez and Robert Graham were completely eliminated as suspects in Roccio's case. Tony King would be subject to two consecutive trials. The first one would be for the murder of Sonia Carabentes. The trial for Sonia's murder began in September 2005. King was dragged into court kicking and screaming.

As he was escorted inside, he stared at the television cameras and shouted at the ceiling, I'm innocent and haven't done anything. As well as changing his claims about Roccio's murder, he was now telling a new version of events with regards to Sonia. In this story, he'd gotten out of his car after accidentally hitting her. As he knelt over her body to check if she was alright, someone bashed his head from behind several times, knocking him unconscious. When he came to, he was in the back seat of a car next to Sonia. His friend Robert Graham was driving. Graham eventually pulled over and dumped Sonia's body, covering it with rocks. As they drove home, King threw Sonia's jeans out the window in the hopes it would lead her to be found.

King claimed Dolores Vazquez had orchestrated the entire thing, supposedly paying for the crime to make herself appear innocent in the Roccio-Vanenkov case. King was a helpless pawn who found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. The prosecution called on lots of witnesses to refute King's claims. His girlfriend revealed he'd come home that night with blood splattered all over him and an injured hand. The second he saw her, he mumbled, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm bad. He told her he'd gone to buy tobacco and got in a car accident. There were no signs of any head injuries, as he was now alleging. One of her friends had also come forward to say she'd seen King at the Coyin Fair that night, loitering near the youth tent.

The same place Sonia had gone with her friends. A woman who owned a car wash said King had taken his white Mazda there and specifically asked her to clean the car's interior, but not the boot. While completing the job, she noticed red stains on the floor and seats. King claimed these were from ink. There was also a foul stench. The prosecution pointed to Sonia's injuries, telling the court she was killed as the result of an attack. Several witnesses had seen blood stains right outside Sonia's house, but none had seen paint spots or tire tracks that would indicate a car accident. Moreover, the location and direction of the blood, which was in between two parked cars and not on the road, indicated Sonia had most likely been struck in a surprise assault. Their theory was that King hid behind a tree waiting for Sonia as she walked home.

As she approached, he jumped out and hit her in the head, knocking her unconscious. Then he placed her in the boot of his car. He drove 12 kilometers to Monda looking for an isolated area and stopped in a clearing located in an industrial field. He moved Sonia from the boot into the back seat and sexually assaulted her. She came to and fought back, scratching him with her fingernails. King beat her, causing internal and external injuries that were so serious they alone could have caused her death. But King didn't stop there. He grabbed Sonia's t-shirt and used it to strangle her. Afterwards, he carried her body outside and hid it under some heavy rocks.

In summing up, prosecutors reminded the court that King initially admitted to the crime without any coercion. He also confessed to three other attacks that they weren't even investigating him for. He'd acknowledged that he saw women as prey and enjoyed attacking them so he could later masturbate to the memory. Tony King was found to guilty and sentenced to 23 years for murder, 8 years for sexual aggression and 5 years for illegal detention. In total, he was to serve 36 years in prison. He also had to pay €300,000 in compensation to Sonia's family. King was dragged out of court behaving in exactly the same way as he had on his way in. He kicked and screamed that he was innocent and was being used as a pawn in somebody else's plan.

But his trials were far from over. He still had Rocio's murder to answer for. When King's trial for the murder of Rocio Vanenkov began in November 2006, he arrived in court repeating what had now become his signature carry-on. Photographers and television crews shot him as he screamed at the top of his lungs that he was innocent. In his opening statement, King's attorney told the court, Nobody stabs another person 9 times to commit a sexual aggression. If somebody stabs another person 9 times, it has to be powered by hate and cruelty. The defense was arguing that this attack had been personally motivated and Dolores Vasquez had to be the killer. When King took the stand, he gave what became his fourth version of the events of October 9, 1999.

He had gone to Robert Graham's house and the two drank and did drugs for a few hours before Graham made a strange request. He wanted to try hypnotizing someone and asked if King would volunteer. King agreed. After Graham hypnotized him, things became confusing and strange. Three individuals arrived at Graham's house, two men, one of whom was known to King and Dolores Vasquez. One of the men soon left. From then on, King couldn't recall much else. He remembered waking up in the front passenger seat of a British car with its steering wheel on the right side

and driving up to a village near La Cala de Míaz. They stopped at an isolated area. King turned around to look behind him and saw Rócio Vanencoff in the back seat with Dolores Vasquez. Dolores began stabbing Rócio repeatedly while laughing maniacally. King saw that Dolores was holding Rócio's underpants in one hand. After this incident, he had no further involvement in the case. He hadn't even been present when Rócio's body was moved. When Rócio's mother, Alicia, was asked for her thoughts outside the courtroom,

she said she believed King's new story completely. Rócio had been such a careful young woman that the only way Alicia could make sense of her murder was if she'd been lured in by someone she knew. Rócio's family couldn't shake the belief they'd held for years, that Dolores Vasquez was behind at all. They agreed King was involved, but investigators had previously told them the murderer had to be a woman. Rócio's aunt even testified that she thought Dolores was behind the murder, saying she'd seen Dolores hit or scream at Rócio on three separate occasions. She believed Dolores had truly hated Rócio.

A psychiatrist who treated King in prison said that while King was on remand, he'd penned a personal manuscript about the murders of Sonja and Rócio. While he always admitted involvement in Sonja's death, he never took the same responsibility for Rócio. Instead, he implicated Robert Graham and Dolores Vasquez. King had told his psychiatrist that the only reason he ever confessed was because he felt threatened by police. He was scared that if he didn't, something bad would happen to his daughter. In summing up, the prosecutor dismissed all of the conspiracy theories by listing the bare-bones facts of the case. When King had initially confessed to Rócio's murder, the knife he described using perfectly matched her injuries.

His DNA was found at the site where she was attacked, as well as in one of the plastic bags by her body. King was well acquainted with the area where Rócio had been dumped. And finally, investigators had been unable to find any evidence to verify King's later version of events. After the prosecutor closed his case, there was a cry from the public gallery. Rócio's mother, Alicia, unsure of what to believe any longer, screamed loudly, Who killed my daughter? Without missing a beat, King shouted back. Dolores Vasquez, she paid. Just as Alicia tried to ask how much Dolores had paid, court guards escorted her outside to calm down.

King was given a final opportunity to speak before the jury left to deliberate. Addressing to court, King gave a fifth version of how Rócio had been killed. In this story, two unknown individuals in two different cars cornered Rócio in the middle of the road, hit her in the head, then threw her down a hill. King said this explained why the clearing where the attack occurred had a large puddle of blood, but no footprints nearby. After several hours, King was found guilty on all counts, though the jury believed he'd had help from one or two people. He was sentenced to 19 years for murder and ordered to pay 210,000 euros to Rócio's mother and 42,000 euros to each of her siblings. Outside of court, Alicia told the media that she was thrilled with the result, but now the rest of the guilty parties needed to pay.

Alicia was determined that Dolores Vasquez and Robert Graham betrayed for her daughter's murder as well. Over the past few years, she'd experienced some disturbing incidents that she now pointed to as proof that some of her daughter's killers were still out there. It started in September 2005, when King's trial for the murder of Sonja Carabantas was about to begin. Someone left a plastic bag outside Alicia's home. Inside was a pair of bloody underpants, which she believed belonged to Rócio. Then, just as King's trial for her daughter's murder was starting, a second plastic bag was deposited at Alicia's house. It contained hair and 400 coins that were valued at roughly 348 euros. Alicia had no idea what they were supposed to signify, but she was convinced it was connected to her daughter's case.

She took both bags to her lawyer, arguing they should be entered as evidence against Graham and Dolores. Her request was denied. To this day, Alicia remained suspicious of Dolores Vasquez. Over the years, Tony King has sent her letters sharing even more stories about what supposedly happened to Rócio. Numerous TV hosts and journalists who've interviewed Alicia have put it to her that it was impossible for Dolores to be behind the crime. But she remains certain Dolores is responsible because she feels no other explanation makes sense. Tony King has also been convicted of an attempted rape that occurred in 2001. The survivor recognized him when she saw a news report about Sonja Carabantas's case.

King had attacked the woman as she was walking towards her car. Upon seeing his photograph, she immediately reported him to the police. He was subsequently sentenced to an additional seven years. King denied committing the crime, saying that if he'd wanted to rape the woman, it wouldn't have ended in an attempt. King and his friend Robert Graham were also looked into for another cold case. In August 2000, 18-year-old Maria Teresa Fernandez Martin vanished in Motril, 150km from La Cala de Mijas. King and Graham were reportedly seen in the area around the same time. When investigators were interrogating King, he made several references to Maria Teresa's disappearance and alluded to being involved.

To this day, however, the case remains unsolved. In 2010, Tony King asked to be relocated to a British prison for the remainder of his sentence. His request was denied. He isn't scheduled to be released until 2059. After her conviction was quashed, Dolores Vazquez was left devastated by the impact the allegations had on her. She battled with depression and post-traumatic stress. In 2006, Dolores filed a formal complaint against Spain's Department of Justice, citing physical, psychological and emotional scars that would never go away. She was asking for 4 million euros in compensation.

Eventually, the department acknowledged that mistakes had been made during the initial investigation and trial, and offered Dolores 120,000 euros. They said this was a generous amount. Ordinarily, they offered a rate of 120 euros per day to compensate for an injustice, but they were giving Dolores 231 euros for every day she'd spent incarcerated. Through her lawyer, Dolores reminded the department of the amount she had been seeking. It took years for the issue to be resolved. Early in 2011, the Department of Justice reassessed Dolores Vazquez's case and determined she didn't deserve compensation at all. A new law that passed in 2010 decreed that because there had been a murder, compensation wasn't available, even if Dolores was innocent of the crime. Rocio Vanenkov's case had a significant impact on the Spanish legal system.

It led to people questioning the role of jury trials, which were only introduced in Spain in 1995, four years before Rocio's murder. When jurors determined that Dolores Vazquez was guilty, they did so without citing any evidence they'd used to draw that conclusion. This troubled legal experts, as there was no physical evidence implicating Dolores. Some questioned whether citizens with no legal training or experience are suited to make a judgment on someone else's guilt or innocence. Jury trials are still prevalent in Spain, however lawyers and judges make frequent references to the conviction of Dolores Vazquez, cautioning juries that such a trial not be repeated. Dolores Vazquez tried moving to the UK to start a new life, but eventually returned to Spain. It's been suggested that prejudices about Dolores' sexuality contributed to the hostility against her. She was often portrayed by the media as a, quote, predatory lesbian, who relentlessly pursued Rocio's mother.

In the years since her daughter's murder, Alicia has said that Dolores manipulated her into having a relationship, and has denied being bisexual. In 2013, Dolores made a rare public appearance. She was invited to speak in front of legal activists who were studying her case and the problem of what Spain had dubbed parallel trials. A parallel trial is when a case is essentially being tried by the media while also going through the courts. In such instances, what happens inside the courtroom is typically dictated by the narrative in the press. Dolores described how her life had changed since being implicated in Rocio's murder. She keeps a detailed journal noting everywhere she goes, just in case she gets taken in for questioning again. She drops down license plate numbers of cars she thinks might be stalking her.

It's hard for her to go about her normal life without strangers stopping and staring at her. To this day, some people in Spain still believe Dolores to be guilty. She explained that more important than any monetary compensation is an apology from the government and a public declaration that she is innocent. .