A Google Street View camera image showing a person loading a large white sack into the trunk of a car has helped Spanish police arrest two people following a man’s disappearance.
On Wednesday, Dec. 18, the Spanish National Police confirmed officers had arrested a man and a woman in the province of Soria on Nov. 12, per a translated release.
Authorities confirmed the arrests came after a relative reported a man — who hasn’t been named — missing in November 2023 after they received “suspicious” messages from him.
“The officers traveled to two towns in Soria where they arrested a woman, the missing person’s partner, and a man, who had been the detainee’s partner, as alleged perpetrators of a crime of illegal detention aggravated by failure to provide information on the whereabouts of the missing person,” police said, per the translated release.
Google Maps
The update comes after a Google Street View image taken in the town of Tajueco in October 2023 captured a man loading a large white bag into the trunk of a red car down a quiet street.
The two people arrested have reportedly been accused of “killing and dismembering a Cuban man,” per Spanish outlet El País.
“Subsequently, with the necessary judicial authorizations, two raids and searches were carried out at the homes of both detainees, as well as a technical police visual inspection of the vehicles of the arrested, where they managed to find elements relevant to the investigation,” police said.
“In addition, the investigators had some images that they detected during the investigation in which, in a location tracking application, they detected a vehicle that could have been used in the course of the crime,” they added.
Police said the images found online had been “one of the clues” that helped investigators “solve the crime.”
A second Google Maps image reportedly showed a “blurred silhouette of someone” who was “carrying a large white bundle on a wheelbarrow,” El País reported.
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Police confirmed the man had been reported missing by a relative after they received “suspicious” messages. Despite the two being “close” the person said they “had not heard” from the missing man “for some time.”
“The complainant stated that he had received a series of messages from the missing man’s phone in which the latter told him that he had met a girl, that he was leaving Soria and that he was getting rid of the phone,” the police release stated.
“All of this made the complainant suspect that the messages had not been sent by the missing man, so he decided to report it to the National Police,” it added.
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Police confirmed in the release that a “human torso in an advanced state of decomposition” had since been found “buried under the ground of a cemetery in a town in Soria” on Dec. 11 which “could correspond to the missing person.” However, the remains are yet to be identified.
Police also shared a video of authorities digging up the remains on X (formerly known as Twitter).
October 2023 marked the first time in 15 years that the Google car had been to the town of Tajueco, per the BBC.
The Spanish National Police didn’t immediately respond when contacted by PEOPLE for additional information.
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