The Spanish village of Tajueco and its 56 souls is not among the liveliest in the country. It’s even a mild euphemism to say that nothing ever happens there. And yet it is here that the improbable happened. A photo taken on Google Maps’ Street View function allowed police to identify one of the suspects in a murder case.
An absurd coincidence
According to daily information El País published this Wednesday, it is an investigation which mobilized the police for several months after the body of a Cuban in his forties was found in a nearby cemetery. Local authorities finally announced the arrest of two suspects: his wife, and another man who was allegedly her lover.
Spain, killer scoperto dopo anno grazie a Google Maps: l’uomo è stato immortalato da Street View mentre caricava in auto il corpo di un cittadino cubano, di cui si erano perse le tracce nel November 2023. L’immagine è stata decisiva per solve a case of omicidio avvenuto… pic.twitter.com/wJKWQTmtVC
— Ultimora.net (@ultimoranet) December 18, 2024
And it was precisely the discovery of a photo of the suspect on the Mountain View firm’s application that played a decisive role according to the police. He is seen putting a large bag in the trunk of a red car.
Residents are in shock
There was amazement on the spot, and for good reason, the inhabitants could not imagine for a single second that their peaceful town would be the scene of a murder. Another big surprise: this Google cliché that is familiar to them. One of them explains to our Spanish colleagues: “We didn’t imagine he was doing anything strange and we didn’t give it any importance! »
Others even refuse to believe it: “It doesn’t 100% look like it’s him, it could be someone carrying firewood… but we didn’t think there could be a body in the trunk photo either. »
For its part, Google did not wish to explain how often it takes images of the streets for its application or whether it planned to delete the photo which is at the heart of this sinister affair. In its rules, the web giant specifies that “visible content may be a few months to a few years old” and that, to delete a photo, there must be a request that justifies it.
What to remember:
- A murder case has just been solved in Spain
- One of the suspects was identified using a photo from the Street View function of Google Maps
- On site, the residents are surprised and shocked
