Murder of Marta Calvo
Marta Calvo Burón | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1994 Estivella, Spain |
| Disappeared | 7 November 2019 (aged 25) Manuel, Spain |
| Status | Murdered |
| Cause of death | Jorge Ignacio Palma |
Marta Calvo Burón was a 25-year-old Spanish woman who disappeared on 7 November 2019, in Manuel, Valencia after a date with a man she met on an online dating site. The man she met, Jorge Ignacio Palma, confessed to her disappearance. It later emerged that he was a serial killer responsible for other murders.[1] He was sentenced to 159 years in prison.[2]
Background
[edit]Marta Calvo was born in Estivella, the daughter of a construction worker and a supermarket clerk, as the eldest of two siblings.[3]
Disappearance
[edit]During the early hours of 7 November, the young woman, as usual, told her mother the location of a party she was attending: number 9 San Juan Bautista Street, in the Valencian town of Manuel in the Ribera Alta region. This house was the last place she was seen, Marta had agreed on a price for a "white party." In the absence of any news, her mother decided to go to the place from where her daughter had sent her last WhatsApp message to find out her whereabouts.[4] She even spoke with Jorge Ignacio Palma, who said he did not know Marta, and subsequently absconded. After two days without any news, her mother reported Marta missing at the police station on 9 November at 9:15 p.m.[5]
Investigation
[edit]The Civil Guard's homicide unit took charge of the case, fearing the worst, while the man she had arranged to meet was missing. On 25 November, investigators were reinforced by the Homicide, Kidnapping, and Extortion section of the Civil Guard's Central Operational Unit (UCO), which deployed from Madrid to Valencia.
After initial investigations in the rented property, which had been thoroughly cleaned with bleach, the tenant became the prime suspect. The attempt to dispose of his vehicle at a scrapyard in El Puig added further reasons for the search.[5]
Initially the search operation was carried out in the Albaida River, in caves and wells, with the support of the Special Group of Underwater Activities (GEAS) and with the aim of finding Marta's body.[6]
The main suspect, Jorge Ignacio Palma, a Colombian on parole for drug trafficking,[7] turned himself in on Wednesday, 4 December, at the Civil Guard barracks in Carcagente (Valencia). In his statement, he stated that the death was accidental after having sex mixed with alcohol and cocaine. When he woke up and found the young woman lifeless, he didn't know what to do; he considered suicide and finally decided to get rid of the body. To do so, he bought latex gloves, saws, plastic bags, bleach, and acid from various stores.[8] The next day, he got rid of the body, dismembering it into pieces that he put in plastic bags and distributed among different containers in the towns of Alcira and Silla. That same day, the police ordered the Guadassuar Recycling Plant to be shut down in an attempt to find remains of the body.[9]
Following his appearance on 10 December before Court No. 6 of Alzira, the judge confirmed the detainee's provisional, communicated, and non-bailable detention.
Accompanied by the alleged murderer and by dogs trained to detect biological remains, the Civil Guard again carried out an exhaustive inspection of the pipes in Manuel's bathroom, after the floor had been lifted with a pickaxe and a radial saw by City Hall workers. The investigators, agents from the Central Team of Ocular Inspections (ECIO) of the Civil Guard and the criminalistics laboratory of the Valencia Command, found remains of skin and some hair in the pipes.[10] These samples were sent to the Madrid Criminalistics Service laboratory to see if they matched Marta Calvo's DNA.
Connections to other crimes
[edit]On 13 June 2022, the trial of Jorge Ignacio Palma, 40, an alleged serial sexual offender, began after his modus operandi was revealed.[11] He was accused of the murder of three women and the sexual assault of eight others, all prostitutes, over a period of fifteen months, between 25 July 2018, and 7 November 2019.[12] He would hire the services of the victim, and during sexual intercourse, he introduced high-purity cocaine vaginally and anally without their consent, causing a rapid overdose with seizures. This led to the death in the case of 32-year-old Brazilian Arliene Ramos on 24 March, who died in hospital after a week in a coma.[13] 26-year-old Colombian Marcela Vargas, who had two young children in her native country, died on 14 June 2019.[14] This was just months before the disappearance of Spanish woman Marta Calvo on 25 November.[15]
The forensic report exposed his status as a serial killer, who acted knowing the danger of his actions, seeking sadistic pleasure in watching the victim's agony.[16]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Digital, Redacción (2022-07-05). "Cronología del caso Marta Calvo: tres víctimas, cocaína y un asesino despiadado". COPE (in Spanish). Retrieved 2025-06-01.
- ^ "The murderer of Marta Calvo, sentenced to 159 years in prison for killing her and two other women". Bay Radio Spain - Music, News & Events in the Costa Blanca Spain. 2022-09-02. Retrieved 2025-06-01.
- ^ Marrahí, Juan Antonio (2021-11-05). "Marta Calvo | El trágico final de la aspirante a modelo". Las Provincias (in Spanish). Retrieved 2025-06-01.
- ^ "Asociación por Marta Calvo Burón – Mis derechos dónde están". Por Marta Calvo Burón (in Spanish). Retrieved 2025-06-01.
- ^ a b Montero, Luis Miguel (29 November 2019). "Lo desconocido hasta ahora del caso de Marta Calvo, Niky". elcierredigital.com. Retrieved 18 December 2019.
- ^ Bono, Ferran (17 December 2019). "Hallados restos orgánicos en una tubería de la casa donde desapareció Marta Calvo" (in Spanish). El País. ISSN 1134-6582. Retrieved 18 December 2019.
- ^ "El detenido por la muerte de Marta Calvo estaba en libertad provisional cuando desapareció la joven". www.20minutos.es - Últimas Noticias (in Spanish). 13 December 2019. Retrieved 18 December 2019.
- ^ "Guantes de látex, dos sierras... las imágenes que delataron a Jorge Ignacio Palma comprando tras matar a Marta Calvo". LaSexta (in Spanish). 2025-04-18. Retrieved 2025-06-01.
- ^ "Caso Marta Calvo: Las incógnitas y contradicciones del crimen de Marta Calvo". Antena 3 Noticias (in Spanish). 9 December 2019. Retrieved 18 December 2019.
- ^ "Hallan jirones de piel en una tubería de la casa donde el narco descuartizó el cuerpo de Marta". Las Provincias (in Spanish). 18 December 2019. Retrieved 18 December 2019.
- ^ Sanjuan, Laura Martin (2024-09-23). "Caso Marta Calvo: prisión permanente revisable para el asesino". Diario AS (in Spanish). Retrieved 2025-06-01.
- ^ "El descuartizador confeso de Marta Calvo, a juicio por el asesinato de tres mujeres y los abusos sexuales a ocho". 13 June 2022.
- ^ García, Sonia (2022-06-16). ""Arliene murió en mis brazos": El espeluznante relato en el caso de Marta Calvo". ESdiario (in Spanish). Retrieved 2025-06-01.
- ^ Martínez, Javier (2022-06-10). "Asesinato Marta Calvo: Lady Marcela | El trágico final de Lady Marcela: «Le apagaron todos sus sueños»". Las Provincias (in Spanish). Retrieved 2025-06-01.
- ^ "Los once zarpazos de un depredador letal". 12 June 2022.
- ^ "¿Cuántas mujeres fueron víctimas mortales del asesino de Marta Calvo y cómo las agredió?". 13 June 2022.