The case surrounding the alleged murderer of homosexuals in Bilbao runs the risk of running aground in court as a result of the complications arising from the investigation. 11 months after it came to light, the case of the alleged murderer of the gay app continues to be divided into seven different legal cases, two linked to separate charges of attempted murder and five related to as many alleged murders. Three of these cases, however, have been provisionally dismissed, pending the resolution of the respective appeals, and only one of the proceedings for attempted homicide has concluded.
The suspect, Nelsón David M.B., is still in pretrial detention. As this newspaper has learned, he maintains that he met and dealt with some of these men, who would die between June and December 2021, but that it is not related to their deaths, initially attributed to natural causes and investigated when suspicions were aroused. . His story indicates that he stayed with them to rob them, as part of a plan hatched together with two other people who were on the run.
The detainee would maintain the same version, and the same defense strategy, with respect to the two accusations of attempted murder. He would have stayed with them, along with two other people, with the excuse of organizing a party, although with the sole intention of robbing them and not murdering them.
At the opposite pole, the parties appearing as the prosecution believe that Nelsón David could have murdered five middle-aged men in Bilbao between the summer and autumn of 2021. He would have done so after meeting with them through a gay dating app, in order to rob them using their cards after murdering them.
This thesis is supported, first of all, by the testimony of the two men whom the defendant allegedly assaulted and tried to kill. The two causes for attempted homicide are similar. In both cases, these men would have met Nelson David at their respective homes. At one point, while they were having a relationship, the accused would have tried to strangle them through a type of submission known as mataleón, although they would have managed to get away.
One of these two cases is still in the investigation phase, while the oral trial for the other could be held in the coming months. The Prosecutor's Office asks for nine years for attempted homicide, while Gehitu, an LGTBI association in person, claims 18 years for attempted homicide with various aggravating circumstances.
The other key thread in the case has to do with the five causes for which as many possible homicides are being investigated. Each of these causes is related to the death, in principle attributed to natural causes, of middle-aged homosexual men that occurred in Bilbao. In three of these cases, the families would have denounced after the deaths that there would have been movements in their bank accounts.
The Ertzaintza would have reached the conclusion that it could be facing a possible serial murderer of homosexuals linking these two threads; that is to say, linking these two homicide attempts with the death by natural causes of middle-aged men after whose death crimes against property would have occurred.
However, the investigation of these causes faces great complexity. The investigations began once these people had been buried or cremated, since the Ertzaintza suspected that their deaths could have been provoked.
On the one hand, the defendant's history has been tracked on dating apps and, according to sources familiar with the investigation, he would have been linked to some of the deceased. Tissue samples from the deceased preserved at the Basque Institute of Legal Medicine have also been analysed. At first it was speculated that he had achieved chemical submission through GHB, a drug that is difficult to find in an autopsy and that, on the other hand, is secreted by the organisms themselves post mortem. Saúl Castro, Gehitu's lawyer in this case, points out that they have requested an investigation into whether the suspect could have committed the crimes by strangling the deceased. In addition, he is very critical of the investigation of the case.
From the beginning it was pointed out that the investigation would be complex; today there is a certain risk that it will run aground in the courts.
