José María Zafra, 70, was drinking a beer on the terrace of the Victoria bar in Reus when he first called 112. He told the operator who answered that he had killed a man and that his body was in the garden of his house. right at the entrance. The operator transferred the call to a Mossos d'Esquadra agent in the room, who took the individual's data, while trying to hold the communication while sending a patrol to the address provided to verify the veracity of the data. But the man hung up. And he still made a new call. He telephoned his contact at the Legalitas consultancy to whom he explained the same thing, that he had killed a man, and that he had set fire to his body in the garden of his house.
When the Mossos de Reus patrol opened the main door of plot number 18 on Garrotxa Street in the Pinar urbanization, they found the lifeless body of a man, who had been burned on a small pyre fueled with fuel. The patrol confirmed the discovery and another pair of police officers went to the Victoria bar, near the Parc de Sant Jordi, where the suspect was detained without offering resistance. It seemed like they were waiting for them.
Nothing has emerged about the victim, except that she was 70 years old and that she had been involved in countless previous arguments with her attacker. Three weeks ago, the detainee received a certified letter from the courts at his home. He was happy and explained to his acquaintances that "finally" an old conflict that he had had for a long time with another person and that caused him a lot of headaches was being brought to justice.
The homicide group from the Camp de Tarragona police region took charge of the investigation and sealed off the house, the scene of the crime. A one-story house, surrounded by a dilapidated and neglected garden with an orchard and fruit trees. Through the windows you could see the dining room this Monday. A small table with a dirty oilcloth on it, an ashtray with some cigarette butts, an empty wine bottle and a can of beer. And open with a pencil next to it, a notebook with a page on which he had written down by hand, the telephone number of the Civil Guard and the telephone number of the Judicial Police. It is likely that before finally calling 112 and then Legalitas, where he was a client, the man thought about calling the Civil Guard or the National Police.
Investigators locate the crime on Saturday, and suspect that the detainee slept in the house with the victim's body. In fact, there was a mattress lying in the middle of the dining room. On Sunday morning, he decided to get rid of the body by setting fire to the corpse, but finally he interrupted what he was doing and went to the bar, almost in the center of Reus, from where he phoned 112 and the advice.
The neighbors of the urbanization and the house were few in words on Monday. The few who spoke said they noticed the burning smell, but thought they were burning stubble or having a barbecue. They had no idea what was really going on inside the house of a neighbor who until recently earned a bonus by renting rooms in the house.
The two large dogs that lived with him were removed by a local animal shelter.
