The body of a missing woman has been found dismembered in Tenerife as her husband remains missing. Married couple Laura T and Marc O, from Belgium, were last seen on April 22 when they were meant to go to a yoga class not far from their home.
“Neighbours saw them leaving on foot for a yoga class in the village on Monday evening,” a friend of Laura’s told Belgian newspaper 7sur7. “They looked happy, they were just enjoying their life on the island.”
The same evening their home alarm went off at around 9.30pm in the village of Callao Salvaje, where they have lived for more than 16 years.
The next day, a pool maintenance man discovered one of the doors to the house that leads to the storeroom wide open and the bathroom light was also on.
At the same time, people close to the couple learned that they had never shown up for their yoga class. Still unreachable, several friends went to their home and discovered that their car had also vanished.
However, the car keys and Laura’s mobile phone were still inside the house.
“She would never have left the house without these items. Normally, she always has them with her,” the couple’s relatives told the Belgian media.
They were then reported missing on April 24.
Three days later on April 27, the body of a woman was found in the ocean by a fisherman off the coast of Arico, in the south-east of the island of Tenerife.
The body was quickly identified as Laura. According to the daily El Dia, the autopsy report indicated a ‘violent death’.
Her body had been dismembered, with no legs and one hand missing, and her head was covered in a yellow plastic bag.
Police believe her body had been in the water for between two and four days, and was in an advanced state of decomposition. Her husband is still missing.
A few days after the body was discovered, the couple’s car was found unlocked in a street in Callao Salvaje. Clothes, sunglasses and a knife were found inside.
According to the Belgian website RTL Info, CCTV footage from the villa opposite the couple’s home filmed a man entering the house at around 1am on the night of the disappearance. He stayed there for a few minutes before leaving by car.
“I can tell you that a judicial enquiry has been opened by the local authorities. The FPS Foreign Affairs in Brussels and the Belgian Consulate in Tenerife are following this case closely, in collaboration with the relevant Belgian and Spanish authorities,” said Nicolas Fierens Gevaert, spokesman for the Belgian Federal Public Service (FPS) Foreign Affairs.
On May 3, an investigation was opened by the Belgian authorities, according to RTBF.
Investigators now believe it to be a case of a burglary gone wrong.
A friend of Laura’s also told 7sur7 that ‘men from Eastern Europe knocked’ on the couple’s door a few days before the disappearance.
She said: “She didn’t understand them and they left quickly. She found it very strange.”