Two quizzed over couple murders

Two quizzed over couple murders

Anthony and Linda O'Malley were looking for property

Two men are being questioned by Spanish magistrates over the murders of a north Wales couple in Spain.

Linda and Anthony O'Malley, from Llangollen, went missing in September last year while looking for a holiday home.

Their bodies were found at a villa in south-west Spain on Tuesday - they may have been held prisoner for up to two weeks and forced to hand over money to their captors.

On Thursday, police revealed that they thought an advert for a villa in an English language paper in Spain may have led them to their deaths.

The two men, thought to be Venezuelan, were taken from police headquarters to the central court building in Valencia after being interrogated by detectives for almost 60 hours.

Two other judges are also expected to question the men, aged 53 and 38, although the investigations could take several months.

Home-made gun

Linda O'Malley, 55 and Anthony, 42, were in the Benidorm area on a two-week holiday looking for a property to buy as a retirement home.

Police in Spain are now convinced the couple fell into a well-organised trap.

The villa where the couple's bodies were discovered

They believe the couple were held for up to 15 days in a cellar little over a metre high, and could have been tortured.

It is thought Mr O'Malley was taken frequently to cashpoints and forced to hand over £18,000 in cash.

Police are still awaiting the results of the post mortems.

But one theory they are investigating is that Mrs O'Malley may have died as a result of the conditions she was being held in, and the abductors then murdered Mr O'Malley to cover their tracks.

A home-made gun could have been used in the case, police have said.

Car arrests

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

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.

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".