On October 15, 2019, Emilce, a hairdressing student, announced to her mother that she was leaving the house for a walk shortly before midnight. Although it is not the most common, it is not a strange time in Spain. She thought she was going to smoke, something she wouldn’t allow him to do inside.
Actually, He went to the house of Leonardo V., a Colombian who was 27 years old at the time.. There, according to the reconstruction of the facts, had a few beers and consumed a sedativepossibly Rivotril, which authorities found in the defendant’s home.
Her last contact with the outside world was a photo she sent to her boyfriend Jason with the pill in the mouth.
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The Civil Guard believes that between one and three in the morning the tattoo artist, who he called himself the ‘Butcher’, murdered the young woman. Taking advantage of her drowsiness, he moved behind her and tried to choke her with his arm.
He couldn’t because he didn’t have the strength because he had taken drugs and he tried to do it with a cable. He didn’t make it either, so without letting go, plunged a knife into his abdomen.
The He then took her to the bathroom tub in the main room and dismembered her. He made a Y-shaped cut from her navel to her collarbones, similar to a gruesome image she kept around the house.
He cut out two tattoos that he had done before —a dagger and a rose— and kept them in brine as a “trophy”, according to the Civil Guard.
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At dawn, the neighbors smelled a barbecue smell that surprised them. They did not suspect that Leonardo was trying to burn remains of the corpse.
Later he asked his girlfriend, Celia, to help clean up. They went to buy the necessary products and, when she saw the traces of the murder that he himself confessed to, took some photos and reported it to the Civil Guard.
I was obsessed
with death
When the members of the Civil Guard went to the residence, a place that it had occupied since 2014 when it had entered illegally after the previous tenants had been evicted, they found a “scene of violence”.
“We find more than 50 weapons of all kinds and all kinds of sadomasochistic elements perfectly placed”, explained one of the agents who arrived at the scene of the crime. “I was obsessed with death,” said another. He had photos of famous serial killers and gaunt sculptures which were missing members.
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That October 16, he was returning home with a blood-stained market cart when he saw the Civil Guard. He knew they were looking for him and sensed that his girlfriend had ratted him out. They took him prisoner and since then he has been in the Estremera jail waiting for the trial to take place.
the trial
The trial began on March 7 and took place at the Provincial Court of Madrid with a popular jury.
The Prosecutor asks 25 years in prison for the accused for murdering the young woman and five months for desecrating her corpseas well as a compensation of 102,852 euros for each of his parents and 46,284 for his sister.
The private accusations request permanent reviewable prison and three years in prison for Celia, for a crime of concealment.
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The family’s lawyer makes an appeal about the vulnerability of Emilce, who had been a victim of serious crimes before. Her mother explained that at the age of eleven she was involved in a case of child sexual exploitation videos and at 14 she suffered an episode of domestic violencefor which a restraining order against his father.
The young woman’s mother, Sandra, is also an agent of the Civil Guard. “I had been saving a lot of time to rent a place to set up a business, I was a very good make-up artist,” she said at the Provincial Court of Madrid in reference to her daughter.
The defense, for its part, requests three years for reckless homicide and requests consideration for the defendant’s past and for his condition as a cocaine addict.
The lawyer said that his client had “a very sad and horrible life because his father had brought home prostitutes.” According to Marcos García Montes, “the situation got out of hand.”
Leonardo has remained serious throughout the trial.
The butcher
Leonardo is a short, stocky man with several tattoos. One of them, with the image of an aggressive dog, peeks out of the neck.
He was known as ‘Butcher’, ‘Butcher’ or the ‘Valdemoro tattoo artist’, alluding to the area of Madrid where he had lived since he had taken over the empty house where he had also set up his studio.
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He was married before. Her ex-wife commented that she always treated her with respect and that she was curious about her sadomasochism. she also that he liked bladed weapons, to the point that he had several hanging on the walls of his house.
Celia, who was his partner until she discovered the crime, assures that she wanted to break up with Leonardo because of some strange attitudes that they scared him. A week before the crime, when she woke up, she saw that her boyfriend was next to her and was taking her pulse. while holding a machete in hand.
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He also contacted an ex-girlfriend of Leonardo, who had denounced him for gender violence. According to what he said, he had not taken legal action because he was afraid they would put him in jail for not too long and that, when he was released, he would take revenge on her.
In these days the trial will conclude and the sentence for her and Leonardo will be known. In his case, it is known that he will spend several years in prison. Spanish society is awaiting the verdict of one of the most heinous crimes of recent years.
Juanita Samper Ospina
Correspondent in Spain
TIME
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