The disappearance that shook La Cala de Mijas | Forensic Files

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The crowd stood in awe with mouths agape. Their wide eyes focused upwards. A pitched squeal 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 trainline. Attendees 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 southwest 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 10PM. 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. Rocio Wanninkhof 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, Roccio was lounging in the kitchen of her family home in La
Cala de Mijas. She spoke with her mother and sister, informing 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. The 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 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 Fuengirola fair 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
partygoer 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 dry blood was also discovered,
as well as tyre tracks that were likely caused by a compact car. Testing confirmed the blood belonged to Rocio Wanninknof. It appeared as though the 19-year-old
was set upon between 9:30 and 10PM, when she was walking home after visiting Antonio’s house.
This would mean that reports that she attended the Fuengirola fair 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 - 4 millimetres
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 Fuengirola fair. Rocio Wanninkhof 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 holidaymakers.
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 pesetas – the equivalent of more than 180,000 U.S
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, eight days after Rocio had vanished, the biggest search yet was undertaken.
The Civil Guard divided searchers into groups of six to eight 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’ Jurado. 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 Fuengirola 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 license,
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, searchers 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 sight. 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 Wanninkhof 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 Mijas. It was around 20 kilometres west from where Rocio’s shoes were found - in
the opposite direction of Rocio’s intended destination of Fuengirola. 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
theorised that a rare type of wasp might have fed on her remains - expediting the process.
The Civil Guard were 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 daughters murder.
When Alicia asked who the suspect was, their answer astounded her. Eighteen years earlier in 1981, Alicia was still married to Rocio’s father, a Dutch resident named
Guillermo Wanninkhof. 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.
It was there he crossed paths with a colleague named Dolores Vazquez. 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.
Over 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 of 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 dialled 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 hurt. The pair didn’t speak again. Three days later on September 5,
the media officially named Dolores Vazquez as a suspect in Rocio Wannninkhof’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 Vazquez 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 realised 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 10 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 doorstop, 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 fibres 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 grand-niece. But a neighbour said Dolores’s niece and grand-niece 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 10PM. 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 realised 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 burnt 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 antisocial-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 Wanninkhof and Dolores Vazquez.
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 thirty 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 Vazquez 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 220,000 US dollars 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.”
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Sonia Carabantes grew up in Switzerland. When she turned 15, she moved with her parents to the inland Spanish town of Coín.
On Wednesday August 13 2003, Coín 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 copla 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 Sonia Carabantes. She celebrated with her friends long into the night.
Afterwards, Sonia headed home on foot, accompanied by a friend. At around 5AM, the pair were within 200 metres of Sonia’s home. As her friend
lived on the opposite side of town, they said their goodbyes and continued on separately.
The next morning, Sonia’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. Sonia’s mother edged closer.
She then discovered something even more upsetting. Scattered on the ground was Sonia’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 Sonia’s. There were other notable objects:
a cigarette butt and a tissue covered in dried blood. More than 700 of Coin’s residents volunteered to help search for Sonia Carabantes.
Divided into groups of ten, they covered much of Coin 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 Sonia had been wearing on the night she went missing.
When he heard about the jeans, Sonia’s father travelled to the area with a clairvoyant.
The clairvoyant led Sonia’s father away from the road and into a dense, wooded area. She said she felt like Sonia 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 Sonia’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 metres, the dog stopped. Nearby, partially buried
beneath a pile of rocks, was the half-naked, badly decomposed body of Sonia Carabantes.
Sonia’s lower half was exposed and her t-shirt had been pushed up. Her bra was torn.
Though the attack appeared 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.
Sonia 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 Sonia'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 Wanninkhof 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 Wanninkhof and Carabantes cases shared a number of similarities. The victims were only two
years apart in age and roughly similar heights. Rocio was half-Dutch, while Sonia 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 Sonia Carabantes. And at the time of Sonia’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 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: “What 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 neighbor claimed she’d seen Dolores’s niece arrive
the following day. However, the niece in question backed up Dolores’s 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 clairvoyants, which they found suspicious. But these same records
were advantageous to the defence. As Dolores’s 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 4 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’s 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’s supporters, the credibility of the case was further diminished. Journalists and more attorneys began to question the guilty narrative.
Finally, on February 2 2002, Andalucia’s Superior Court of Justice agreed to annul Dolores Vazquez’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 Wanninkhof’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 Crespillo Dossier, it had been compiled by
Officer Crespillo, the first policeman who’d attended the Wanninkhof 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 Crespillo 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 Crespillo’s controversial theory. It was subsequently dismissed due to lack of proper protocol and scientific approach.
Some members of law enforcement believed Officer Crespillo 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 re-open and 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, Sonia Carabantes was attacked.
Despite the similarities between the Wanninkhof and Carabantes cases, Dolores Vazquez couldn’t have possibly committed both murders.
When Sonia 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’s 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 Sonia’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 Sonia Carabantes 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 ending 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 enquire further.
A few days later, she saw on the news how a 19-year-old named Rocio Wanninkhof had gone missing the same night King returned home with
bloodstained clothing. Cecilia couldn’t shake a sinking feeling that her husband was involved.
When Sonia Carabantes disappeared, that same feeling returned. The Civil Guard had established a tip line to
assist them in identifying suspects in the murder of Sonia Carabantes. 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 seen driving around Sonia’s neighbourhood 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 stunned 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 Sonia Carabantes.
He was told that his DNA was being analysed 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 Coin fair.
As he was driving back home, he accidentally ran over a teenage girl, who he later realised was
Sonia Carabantes. 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, 10 kilometres away. At one point, he pulled over and moved Sonia into the backseat
with the intention of abusing what he believed to be her dead body. Sonia 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 Sonia’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 Sonia’s body again. King also admitted to killing Rocio Wanninkhof. 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.
When it was time to go home, 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 fantasising 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 Sonia 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 U.K 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 fiancee. 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 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 U.K 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 Rocio Wanninkhof
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
Rocio 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 every one 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 Rocio and Sonia’s mothers. To Alicia, he apologised for not owning
up to his crime earlier and for causing a rift in her relationship with Dolores Vazquez.
He apologised to Sonia’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 victims’ parents, then he might secure a lighter sentence.
As well as coaxing the letters out of him, the journalist obtained an exclusive two-hour 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 to 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 Wanninkhof and Carabantes 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 hypnotised, Graham claimed that
Dolores Vazquez 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 Vazquez
saw Dolores dragged back into the case again. Just as she was getting momentum in her quest for innocence, rumours began circulating that she had
indeed committed Rocio’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 Rocio, 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 Rocio’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 Rocio 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 Rocio were lovers.
After a few minutes, Graham became violent and stabbed Rocio 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 Rocio’s murder.
He said the only thing he could recall from that night was what he’d revealed under hypnosis.
He maintained that Dolores Vazquez 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. Rocio’s mother was deeply distressed by the constantly shifting claims.
The last thing she wanted was for her daughters 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 Vazques. 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 also revealed that one of his hairs was left inside a plastic bag dumped by Rocio’s body.
By February 2005, Dolores Vazquez and Robert Graham were completely eliminated as suspects
in Rocio’s case. Tony King would be subject to two consecutive trials: the first one would be for the murder of Sonia Carabantes.
Sonia’s trial 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 Rocio’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 backseat 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 Rocio Wanninkhof 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 Coin
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 Robert 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. Robert 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 backseat 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 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 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 euros 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 Wanninkhof 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 [nine] times to commit a sexual aggression.
If someone stabs another person [nine] times, it has to be powered by hate and cruelty.”
The defense was arguing that this attack had been personally motivated and Dolores Vazquez 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 hypnotising someone and asked if King would volunteer.
King agreed. After Graham hypnotised him, things became confusing and strange. Three individuals
arrived at Graham’s house: two men – one of whom was known to King – and Dolores Vazquez.
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 Mijas.
They stopped at an isolated area. King turned around to look behind him and saw Rocio Wanninkhof in the backseat with Dolores Vazquez.
Dolores began stabbing Rocio repeatedly while laughing maniacally. King saw that Dolores was holding Rocio’s underpants in one hand. After this incident, he
had no further involvement in the case. He hadn’t even been present when Rocio’s body was moved.
When Rocio’s mother Alicia was asked for her thoughts outside the courtroom, she said she believed King’s new story completely. Rocio 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.
Rocio’s family couldn’t shake the belief they’d held for years: that Dolores Vazquez was behind
it all. They agreed King was involved, but investigators had previously told them the
murderer had to be a woman. Rocio’s aunt even testified that she thought Dolores was behind
the murder, saying she’d seen Dolores hit or scream at Rocio on three separate occasions.
She believed Dolores had truly hated Rocio. A psychiatrist who treated King in prison said that while King was on remand,
he’d penned a personal manuscript about the murders of Sonia and Rocio. While he always admitted involvement in Sonia’s death, he never took the same responsibility for
Rocio. Instead, he implicated Robert Graham and Dolores Vazquez. 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 Rocio’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 Rocio had been dumped. And finally,
investigators had been unable to find any evidence to verify King’s later versions of events.
After the prosecutor closed his case, there was a cry from the public gallery. Rocio’s mother Alicia, unsure of what to believe any longer, screamed loudly: “Who
killed my daughter?” Without missing a beat, King shouted back: “Dolores Vazquez, 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 the court, King gave a fifth version of how Rocio had been killed. In this story, two unknown individuals in two different cars cornered Rocio 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 Rocio’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 Vazquez and Robert Graham be tried 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 Sonia Carabantes
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 Rocio.
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 four hundred 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 remains suspicious of Dolores Vazquez. Over the years, Tony King has sent her letters sharing even more stories about what supposedly happened to Rocio.
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 recognised him when she saw a news report about Sonia Carabantes’ 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, 150 kilometres 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 Wanninkhof’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 judgement 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’s sexuality contributed to the
hostility against her. She was often portrayed by the media as a, quote: “predatory lesbian”
who relentelessly pursued Rocio’s mother. In the years since her daughters 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 has 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 jots 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.

Case 173: Rocio Wanninkhof & Sonia Carabantes

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 – a safe area where teenagers felt secure going out alone...

CREDITS

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

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RESOURCES

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Brief Summary

The episode details the murder of Rocio Wanninkhof, the wrongful conviction of Dolores Vazquez, and the eventual arrest of Tony King.

Key points

Grove Collaborative: Your Green Solution. Grove Collaborative simplifies the transition to healthy, eco-friendly products for your home.
The Disappearance of Rocio Wanninkhof. Rocio goes missing after a night out, leading to a frantic search.
A Shocking Accusation. Alicia confronts Dolores about Rocio's murder, leading to a chilling response.
Alicia's Heartbreak. Alicia confronts Dolores, expressing her pain over the situation. 'You’ve hit me where it hurt the most.'
Dolores' Chilling Statement. After her sentencing, Dolores claims the real killer is still at large. 'Continue searching because the killer is still out there.'
The Crespillo Dossier. A controversial report suggests Rocio's uncle may have been involved in her murder, raising new questions about the case.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Making the switch to natural products has never been easier.

Promoting the ease of using Grove Collaborative for natural products.

0:49WatchApr 24, 2021

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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