Image by Esther López. Atlas ATLAS
Three years after the young woman’s body was found in a ditch in Traspinedo, Valladolid, the case remains unsolved
Jan 20, 2025 . Updated at 1:05 p.m.
It was only a week ago that his sister made a desperate appeal. «January 12, same day, Super Cup, same teams… Do you know what is not the same? My life. Do you know what is not the same? My sister’s life. It was the cry of Inés López, who continues fighting so that the attention on the death of his sister Esther does not wane. And it has been three years since The body of this resident of Traspinedo, Valladolid, appeared lifeless in a ditch after 23 days missing.
This Monday it was the courts that made a move. The Court of Instruction Number 5 of Valladolid has denied the provisional detention that the private prosecution had requested for the only one under investigation in the case of Esther López, Óscar SM
The judge, in accordance with the criteria already stated by the Provincial Court of Valladolid in a previous ruling, has rejected the request of the private prosecution representing Esther López’s sister and maintains the freedom of the investigated person, for whom already established precautionary measures in advance. These measures consist of the obligation to appear periodically. In addition, his passport has been withdrawn and he is prohibited from leaving the national territory.
The private prosecution argued its request for imprisonment in the possibility of the risk of escapealleging that the person under investigation has a travel agency and financial means that could facilitate his escape, and stated that, from his point of view, it was proven that he had lied and that, based on police work and forensic reports, he is the main known perpetrator.
In response to this request, the Prosecutor’s Office maintained its opposition to the measure and argued that the facts are the same as when the decision to ratify freedom was made because there are no new facts, no trial, or conviction by sentence.
What happened to Esther López?
«It’s been just three years since she was intentionally murdered, They let her die of painthey avoided asking, nor that she could ask for any type of help… », her sister published on January 12 on social networks.
That afternoon in 2022, Esther was having drinks with Óscar along with other friends. According to the investigation, after consuming alcohol, hashish and cocaine, They both left together in his car.At around 3:00 a.m., he left her on a road because he wanted to walk to another friend’s house.
The Civil Guard has another theory. At 3:00 a.m., Óscar and Esther arrived at the investigated man’s house. “There is no evidence that during the journey there was a stop so that Esther could have gotten out of the vehicle,” says the UCO report.
Both of their phones locate them in the surroundings of the home. at 3:22 and 3:26 hours. The Civil Guard assumes that Esther did not part with her phone, since the terminal was located next to the body – and her backpack – in the ditch where the body was found. “The positions and connections allow us to speculate that he would have arrived with Óscar aboard his vehicle to the home he has in the El Romeral de Traspinedo urbanization,” the researchers point out.
The last report of The UCO supports the hypothesis that Óscar ran over Esther minutes later fruit of a “hot outburst” after an argument of unknown origin. According to the police report, Óscar and the car were still at 3:40 “at the rear of his family residence.” Later, Óscar’s phone, according to investigators, was located inside the home. The UCO reiterates that the cause of death was being run over by a car, at medium or low speed, when the victim was on his back, with the confluence of other factors such as alcohol intoxication, cocaine consumption and hypothermia. And he further concludes that the woman did not die instantly but survived for an indeterminate amount of time. According to the autopsy, the immediate cause of death was due to multifactorial shock.
The report concludes that after hitting her with the car, the suspect hid the victim’s body inside the family residence and left her to die. The body would have remained hidden until the suspect decided what to do with it. In fact, during the investigation, it was proven that the accused carried out different searches on Google Maps, coincidentally in which the scene in which the victim’s body was located appeared and where years before he had run off the road due to driving drunk. In this regard, Óscar has not been able to explain the reason for this circumstance but he has stated that these searches are carried out daily, “thousands of queries”, for the travel agency he runs. To this we must add that the victim’s DNA appeared in the trunk of the car. A vehicle that was washed the next day.
