Spain releases couple's bodies

Tony and Linda O'Malley's bodies will be flown home

The bodies of a north Wales couple kept prisoner before being murdered in Spain have finally been released 12 months after they disappeared.

Anthony and Linda O'Malley left Llangollen in September 2002 to look for a retirement home on the Costa Blanca.

Their bodies were found six months later in March 2003, buried in the cellar of a house near the coastal resort of Benidorm.

The official release of their bodies by a judge in the town of Alcoy, inland from Benidorm, ends months of anguish for their families and will enable them to go ahead with planning their funerals.

A flight is now being arranged to bring them home, but it is not clear whether they will be returned at the end of this week or early next.

DS Steve Lloyd has developed a close relationship with the family

North Wales Police will meet the bodies, which will be taken to Wrexham Maelor Hospital for post-mortem examinations to take place.

Death certificates will be issued and the bodies released to the family.

"I spoke to the family yesterday...it was a bit of a mixed reaction really, they'd resigned themselves that it could take months and months to get the bodies back," said Detective Sergeant Steve Lloyd.

It is not known why the bodies have finally been released by the Spanish authorities.

Two South American men await trial for the murder of Linda O'Malley, 55, and her husband, who was 42.

The couple, who were originally from Liverpool, disappeared while on a two-week holiday to look for property.

They had been the subject of a missing persons inquiry for six months before they were discovered at a house in Alcoy.

A post mortem examination revealed Mrs O'Malley had been badly beaten before being strangled.

Mr O'Malley's body was found with a plastic bag over his head.