(Mijas, Malaga) The Policia Nacional are investigating the grisly discovery of a partially mummified and dismembered corpse, that was found in a sleeping bag at the bottom of a barranco in Mijas.
The body was located, thanks to a request sent by a Finnish law court, which had received information concerning the whereabouts of 18-year-old Jenna Lepomäki, who went missing on the 29th of June whilst on holiday at a friend’s house in Fuengirola. The tip-off named the Los Espartales area, in particular farmland known as La Meri.
Finnish police officers, together with their Spanish counterparts, searched the area and quickly came across the sleeping bag containing the body.
The farm in question, which cultivates fruit trees, has been rented out by a Finnish family for a number of months.
The dessicated state of the body appeared to indicate that it had been left there at the beginning of the summer, yet the bones show considerable deterioration, making it difficult to judge the sex of the cadaver, let alone discover the identity prior to an autopsy.
Update: In the days following the information contained in the above article, much has been discovered. Four arrests have been made: Joona P. and Joel L., 18 & 20 years old respectively, arrested in Finland together with Salla P., who is the 37-year-old mother of Joona, who stands charged with attempting to cover up a crime. Meanwhile, here in Spain, the 47-year-old boyfriend of the mother and the tenant of the farm where the body was found, Jukka K. P., was arrested in Mijas He is also charged with covering up a crime.
Apparently, the two young men had met the victim on the Internet and had invited her to come and stay with them in Mijas. At first she was staying at a hostal, but when the Joona’s parents left for Finland, the three moved into the farmhouse together.
Things had deteriorated by the 27th of June, when the girl went to the Guardia Civil to denounce that the two men were trying to force her into smuggling drugs, believed to be cocaine, into Finland. She also reported that they had taken her passport off her. And then the trail went dead.
Two days later her mobile phone ceased to function and there had been no movements on her credit card. The parents of the girl flew to Spain, but in the meantime the two men had left for Finland via Ireland. In desperation, the parents reported her missing upon arriving back in Finland.
The two men claimed that they had last seen her at a party when she had left, crying, saying that she was returning to Finland because of her father’s illness. Owing to the fact that the two men both had criminal records, the police decided to heavily investigate the two, which lead to the discovery of the body.
The body was missing an arm and a part of a leg, which were later found elsewhere on the property. The police believe that the men attempted to dismember the body, but then decided to try and burn the remains.
(News: Mijas, Costa del Sol, Malaga, Andalucia)