Laura Trappeniers, the 66-year-old woman who was reported missing on the Spanish island of Tenerife together with her husband Marc Olbrechts (71), was violently killed, according to local media. Her body was found in the sea, with a bag over her head. Olbrechts is still missing.
Laura Trappeniers and Marc Olbrechts, two Flemish people who have lived in Tenerife for sixteen years, were reported missing last Wednesday. The photos and description of the Flemish couple have since appeared on the website of the Spanish National Center for Missing Persons (CNDES).
On Wednesday, the Spanish authorities amended the investigation report of Laura Trappeniers to report that the 66-year-old woman had been “located”. However, it was not stated whether she was found alive or not. First the French-language news site RTL reported that it had heard from a good source that the woman had died, now local media are reporting the same on the authority of the Guardia Civil. The FPS Foreign Affairs confirmed the news on Thursday afternoon and reported that the family had been informed.
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Last Saturday, remains of a mutilated woman’s body were found in the sea near the municipality of Arico, about 50 kilometers from Callao Salvaje, where the Flemish couple lived. Although the identity of the victim was not (or could not be) immediately revealed, it was immediately clear that the woman had been killed violently. The body, found by a fisherman, was legless, missing a hand and had a plastic bag put over its head. According to the Spanish newspaper El Dia, it is Trappeniers’ body.
The arrest report for her husband Marc Olbrechts remains unchanged.
Alarm
Acquaintances and friends of the couple believe that they have disappeared since Monday, April 22. “They were last seen in their hometown, Callao Salvaje,” it said. That Monday evening the alarm reportedly went off in the couple’s home. The emergency center would then have contacted the people who had registered Laura and Marc, in case an emergency occurred. But those people – another Flemish couple from the village – were on holiday outside Tenerife that day.
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The dark blue Opel Mokka with a Spanish license plate ending in JNG has also disappeared, according to the search report. The door to their home was unlocked and they did not take their mobile phone or house keys with them.
In recent days, friends wrote on social media that they feared the worst and hoped to get clarity as soon as possible.
The FPS Foreign Affairs reports that it will continue to closely monitor the file together with the Belgian consulate in Tenerife, in collaboration with the competent Belgian and Spanish authorities. Furthermore, the FPS refrains from commenting and the Guardia Civil in Santa Cruz is also silent in all languages for the time being about this mysterious disappearance or about the fate of the recovered woman.
