A few days ago we mentioned the "parking garage murders". Two women were murdered in the same parking garage within twelve days in the middle-class neighborhood of El Putxet, right next to our neighborhood of Gràcia. The garage was a private one, open only to the owners or renters of the parking spaces located in the basement of a large apartmemt building. The only way in is if you have the key or the remote control that open the door, unless you somehow manage to sneak in directly behind an entering car and not get noticed. It is held as a condominium by the owners of the parking spaces, most of whom live or work very close by. The murdered women, coincidentally, both held parking place number 15 but on different floors. Everybody associated with the parking garage has apparently been checked out.

The most interesting lead is a guy who telephoned the first woman's husband asking for €2000 in exchange for the identity of the murderer; they set up a meet with him but he didn't show. The cops definitely suspect him. They're passing around photos of known criminals who meet the following description: 30-ish, white, well-built. The killer, assuming it's the same guy, is known to have stolen the first victim's bank card and to have withdrawn €300 from her account from a cash machine without a videocamera, but the motive is thought to have been murder rather than robbery. The most interesting speculation that I've heard is that the second victim's husband hired a hit man to kill her. He screwed up the first time and killed the wrong woman on the wrong floor of the garage but in the right space. So he went back after the heat was off and killed the right woman. The reasons I like this hypothesis are that it provides a motive for both actions. Also, whoever did it was a pro as he left few clues behind him. This would also provide a reason for the different methods of the two murders; the first one was stabbed and the second woman was beaten to death. The pro did it that way because he knows that normally a killer uses only one technique no matter how many people he kills, and in this way he throws off the cops.

The neighborhood is in terror. Some people are parking in the street because they're afraid to go into parking garages. Husbands are picking up wives who work in the neighborhood. They're setting up impromptu watch organizations though there are "more police than at the Moncloa". The Vanguardia reporter says that the tension in the neighborhood is growing rather than shrinking because of the lack of progress made in the investigation and that "no one talks about anything else (in the cafés), not even Van Gaal (Barcelona's much-hated just-fired soccer coach)."

Also, a young woman doctor from Tarragona disappeared eleven days ago and there's no trace of her. The cops are looking for her boyfriend, who disappeared the day after the woman. He took money out of a bank machine near the airport and is suspected to have taken a flight to Holland. A blanket from the woman's bedroom, stained with blood, and fingerprints were found inside her car. He is known to have quarreled with her recently because he told her a stack of lies about himself, including that he was a teacher of English, when he was really a taxi driver. However, their wedding was still on for the upcoming autumn. The cops are waiting for some DNA results to come back before they put out a warrant for him.