Tragic pair tricked by villa advert

Tragic pair tricked by villa advert

Anthony and Linda O'Malley were looking for property

Police believe an advert for a villa in an English language paper in Spain may have unwittingly led a north Wales' couple to their deaths.

The six-month hunt for 55-year-old Linda and Anthony O'Malley, 42, ended after police unearthed their bodies at a villa in south-west Spain on Tuesday.

The couple, from Llangollen in north Wales, were in Spain to look for a holiday home - they may have been held prisoner for up to two weeks and forced to hand over money to their captors before being shot.

Spanish police are continuing to question two men arrested in connection with their deaths.

Under Spanish law, police have until Friday to interrogate the two arrested men, aged 53 and 37, before taking them to court.

From Friday, a team of judges will begin investigating the case, which could take several months.

The villa where the couple's bodies were discovered

They were in the Benidorm area on a two-week holiday looking for a property to buy as a retirement home.

The O'Malleys answered an advert in the English-language paper Costa Blanca News giving details of a property supposedly for sale.

They went to view the villa in the town of Alcoy, about 12 miles inland from the coastal resort of Benidorm, which had been rented by the suspects as part of a property fraud scam, police said.

They believe the couple were held in the cellar at the house for two weeks, while Mr O'Malley was taken frequently to cashpoints and forced to withdraw large sums of money.

He also gave the alleged captors £18,000 in cash from an account the couple had opened in Spain to use as a deposit on a house.

Police think the couple were murdered after their British bank cancelled their card because of uncharacteristic spending patterns.

During the two weeks in the cellar, the couple may have been tortured, it has been speculated.

They were probably shot with a home-made gun, police have said.

Spanish police are still not certain of the arrested men's identities, but know they are brothers-in-law.

The O'Malleys' bodies were found in this basement

The men had Venezuelan passports, but forged documents were found at the villa, and their fingerprints have been sent to Venezuela to try to confirm who they are.

Their wives were also arrested initially but have been released so they can look after their children.

Detectives said they faced possible charges of being accomplices, although they were not involved in kidnapping or murder.

The police agency Interpol is making checks across Europe and Latin America to see if they can find any other similar cases.

A senior Spanish officer said: "We have certainly not had a case like this in Spain before.

"But if they were capable of doing this to this couple from Wales, they could have done it to others.

The men were arrested after police officers stopped the car they were driving, which was the same one the O'Malleys had hired, but fitted with false plates.

On Wednesday, Mr O'Malley's brother Bernard described the discovery of the bodies as "sickening".