The case concerning the alleged murderer of homosexuals from Bilbao risks getting stuck in the courts as a result of the complications arising from the investigation. When it came to light 11 months ago, the case of the alleged murderer of the gay app continues to be divided into seven different judicial cases, two linked to accusations of attempted murder and five related to other alleged murders. Three of these cases, however, have been postponed provisionally, pending the resolution of the respective appeals, and only one of the proceedings for attempted homicide has been concluded.
The suspect, Nelsón David M. B., remains in provisional prison. According to this newspaper, he claims that he met and treated some of these men, who died between June and December 2021, but that he has no connection with the deaths, which were initially attributed to natural causes and investigated when suspicions arose. His story focuses on the fact that he stayed with them to rob them, as part of a plan with two people who have escaped.
The detainee would maintain the same version, and the same defense strategy, regarding the two accusations of attempted murder. He would have stayed there, with two other people, under the pretext of organizing a party, although with the sole intention of robbing them, and not murdering them.
At the opposite pole, the parties personated 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 killed them after being summoned through an app of gay contacts, in order to rob them using their cards after murdering them.
This thesis is based, first of all, on the testimony of the two men whom the defendant allegedly assaulted and attempted to murder. The two causes of attempted murder have similarities. In both cases, these men would have met with Nelsón David at their respective homes. At a certain point, while they were having sex, the accused would have tried to extort them through a kind of submission known as matalleón, although they would have managed to escape.
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 is asking for 9 years for attempted murder, while Gitu, a personified LGTBI association, is asking for 18 years for attempted murder with various aggravating factors.
The other key thread in the case has to do with the five causes for which other 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 in Bilbao. In three of these cases, the families reported after the deaths that there had been movements in the bank accounts.
The Ertzaintza would have come to the conclusion that it could be a possible serial killer of homosexuals linking these two threads; that is to say, relating the two attempted murders to the death by natural causes of middle-aged men after whose death crimes against property would have occurred.
However, the instruction of these causes faces great complexity. Investigations began once these people had been buried or cremated, when the Ertzaintza suspected that the deaths could have been provoked.
On the one hand, the history of the accused in dating apps has been traced and, according to sources familiar with the investigation, it would have been possible to link him to some of the dead. Tissue samples from the dead kept at the Basque Institute of Forensic 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 same postmortem organisms. Saul Castro, Gitu's lawyer in this case, points out that they have requested an investigation into whether the suspect could have committed the crimes by scaring the dead. In addition, he is very critical of the instruction of the case.
It was noted from the beginning that the investigation would be complex; today there is a real risk that the whole thing will end up in the courts.
