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Solved case · 1999
Also known as Murder of Rocío Wanninkhof · Wanninkhof Case
The short answer
Rocío Wanninkhof, a 19-year-old Dutch-Spanish woman, disappeared and was stabbed to death near Mijas, Spain, in October 1999. Dolores Vázquez, her mother's former partner, was wrongfully convicted based on media prejudice rather than evidence and was later cleared after DNA linked the murder — and the 2003 killing of Sonia Carabantes — to Tony Alexander King, who was convicted of both crimes.
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Rocío Wanninkhof, a 19-year-old Dutch-Spanish woman, disappeared on the evening of 9 October 1999. She left her boyfriend's home in La Cala de Mijas around 21:30, intending to walk the 500 metres to her own home in the "La Cortijera" area of Mijas, Málaga province, on Spain's Costa del Sol, before meeting friends at a fair in Fuengirola; it was the only time she made that walk home alone. When she failed to appear at the fair, her mother, Alicia Hornos, and Hornos's partner Juan Cerrillo went looking for her the next day and found a pair of running shoes, a napkin, and blood stains near the road. The Civil Guard cordoned off the site; a blood trail, drag marks, and tyre tracks indicated the body had been moved by more than one person. DNA testing on 16 October 1999 confirmed the blood was Wanninkhof's. Her nude body was found on 2 November 1999 near a sports club between Marbella and San Pedro de Alcántara, disfigured and partially decomposed. An autopsy found she had been beaten, then stabbed nine times with a single-edged blade; sexual assault could not be confirmed given the condition of the remains.
Investigators focused on María Dolores "Loli" Vázquez, the former partner of Wanninkhof's mother, who had helped raise Rocío and her siblings after the couple separated in 1988. Amid intense media coverage that branded Vázquez a "dominant," "predatory" lesbian, a jury convicted her of the murder even though most of the factual evidence exculpated her; the prosecutor instead attacked her character and her past relationship with Hornos, and the verdict repeated the prosecutor's allegations almost word for word. Vázquez was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Three months later, the High Court of Andalusia overturned the conviction and ordered a retrial.
On 14 August 2003, 17-year-old Sonia Carabantes disappeared in Coín, Málaga, after her mother, Encarna Guzmán, found her daughter's sandals, purse, and phone next to a blood stain in the street. Carabantes's body was found on 19 August 2003, naked and covered with stones; an autopsy determined she had died of asphyxiation. DNA recovered at the scene matched evidence from the Wanninkhof murder, and further testing traced it to Tony Alexander King, a British national living in southern Spain. Vázquez's retrial was postponed on 18 September 2003 after the discovery of this new evidence, and the case against her was later closed; all charges were dropped and she was formally cleared on 2 February 2005, having spent 17 months in prison.
Tony Alexander King, born Anthony Bromwich, had a criminal record in the United Kingdom that included a 1986 conviction for the non-fatal strangulation and sexual assault of five women in London and a later robbery for which he was imprisoned until 1996. After his release he changed his name and married Cecilia Matilde Pantoja; in 1997, after he was identified from a CCTV recording of an attempted rape at Leatherhead railway station, King and Pantoja fled to Málaga, where he later worked as a real estate agent and then at a local pub. In 2005, King was sentenced to 36 years in prison for the murder of Sonia Carabantes and a further 7 years for an unrelated sexual attack; in 2006 he was found guilty of the murder of Rocío Wanninkhof and sentenced to an additional 19 years. Despite Vázquez's exoneration and King's convictions, Hornos has said publicly that she still believes Vázquez was involved in her daughter's murder. Vázquez's wrongful conviction has been called one of the most significant miscarriages of justice in Spain's modern judicial history.
9 dated entries · 1999–2006
Rocío Wanninkhof disappears while walking home alone in Mijas, Málaga; a blood trail, drag marks, and tyre tracks are later found near the route.
DNA testing confirms that blood found at the scene belongs to Wanninkhof.
Wanninkhof's body is found near a sports club between Marbella and San Pedro de Alcántara, disfigured and partially decomposed.
Sonia Carabantes, 17, disappears in Coín, Málaga; her sandals, purse, and phone are found next to a blood stain.
Carabantes's body is found; DNA at the scene is later matched to evidence from the Wanninkhof murder.
Dolores Vázquez's retrial is postponed after the discovery of new DNA evidence linking the Wanninkhof and Carabantes murders.
All charges against Vázquez are dropped and she is formally cleared, having spent 17 months in prison.
Tony Alexander King is sentenced to 36 years in prison for the murder of Sonia Carabantes and 7 years for an unrelated sexual attack.
King is found guilty of the murder of Rocío Wanninkhof and sentenced to an additional 19 years in prison.
4 named in this file
Victims first. Every legal label is set from public records and court outcomes, not from the prose.
19-year-old Dutch-Spanish woman; disappeared on 9 October 1999 while walking home alone in Mijas, Málaga, and was found stabbed to death three weeks later.[3]
17-year-old girl who disappeared in Coín, Málaga, on 14 August 2003 and was found dead five days later; DNA from the scene matched evidence from the Wanninkhof murder and led investigators to Tony Alexander King.[3]
British national (born Anthony Bromwich) with prior UK convictions for violent and sexual offenses; DNA evidence linked him to both the Wanninkhof and Carabantes murders. Sentenced in 2005 to 36 years for the murder of Sonia Carabantes plus 7 years for an unrelated sexual attack, and in 2006 to an additional 19 years for the murder of Rocío Wanninkhof.[3]
Former partner of the victim's mother; convicted of the murder by a jury largely on the basis of media prejudice against her sexuality rather than evidence. The conviction was overturned on appeal, and after DNA evidence linked the murder to Tony Alexander King, all charges were dropped; she was formally cleared on 2 February 2005, having spent 17 months in prison.[3]
From the record
3 cited
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