POLICE IN Spain investigating the murder of an Irish woman have arrested the chief suspect.
The British man was being detained last night after he was arrested for questioning about the murder of Dubliner Avril Flanagan (20). She was stabbed repeatedly in the neck.
Her body was found at 2.30pm on Friday in an apartment in the Hotel Playa Marina in the resort of Cabo Roig near Alicante.
The suspect fled the scene after the killing and was arrested just before 6pm in the town of Olivia, 160km (100 miles) north of the murder scene. The 24-year-old from Liverpool was known to Ms Flanagan.
Ms Flanagan was killed when she called to the man’s apartment on Friday afternoon to see him before she left Spain for a holiday in Dublin. She had lived in the hotel apartment block where she was murdered. Reports in Spain suggest a resident in the hotel heard a woman’s screams coming from the apartment at about 11am and informed hotel staff. A resident in the hotel said staff knocked on the door but got no answer.
When Ms Flanagan’s mother, Barbara, who lives in Spain, telephoned her friend’s house to be told she had left hours earlier, concerns for her safety grew. It was at that point the police were called and the remains were found.
It is believed Ms Flanagan’s mother found her daughter’s body. Both had been due to leave Spain for Dublin on Friday afternoon. A source close to the investigation said Ms Flanagan had been stabbed up to 10 times in the throat. As soon as the remains were found, Spanish police circulated a description of the suspect’s car. He was detained in Olivia after a car chase during which he crashed. He is expected to appear before the courts in Spain this morning.