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A man killed his mother-in-law in Mallorca.
Clara Margais/dpa
A 74-year-old Swiss woman is beaten to death in Mallorca in the fall of 2024 - presumably by her son-in-law. New information is now weighing heavily on the Spanish authorities.
One year after the violent death of a Swiss pensioner on Mallorca, new, serious allegations have come to light: the crime could possibly have been prevented. This is what the Spanish trade union federation CGT claims to the "Tagblatt" - and speaks openly of a failure on the part of the authorities with a tragic outcome.
On September 25, 2024, the 74-year-old woman was found seriously injured in the garage area of her house in Colònia de Sant Jordi. A neighbor had heard cries for help and alerted the police. When the emergency services arrived, the Swiss woman was still alive but died on the spot from massive head injuries.
As the Mallorcan newspaper Diario de Mallorca reported at the time, the alleged perpetrator - her son-in-law - allegedly hit her with an axe.
According to the investigation, the crime escalated after an argument - allegedly because the perpetrator found no beer in the fridge, the St. Galler Tagblatt newspaper now reports. The man, a 47-year-old Portuguese man at the time, had already attracted attention several times for domestic violence. He was arrested twice in 2023, yet he continued to live in the house with his partner, the victim's daughter.
The allegations that have now been made public are serious: according to CGT, the social worker responsible for the case left her post a few months before the crime. Due to a lack of staff, her successor is said to have barely looked after the endangered family.
Neither psychological support nor protective measures were introduced. The union speaks of systemic failure - and goes even further: according to the CGT, the responsible department of the island council actively tried to conceal the failures from the public.
The tragedy is apparently not an isolated incident. According to local media reports, there are currently around 300 victims of gender-based violence on Mallorca who have not been assigned a counselor. The case of Erika R. is a drastic illustration of what can happen when warning signs are ignored and victims are left alone.
