THE case has been reopened against Diana Quer's killer for the reported rape of his wife's twin sister when the victim was just 17 after a lady judge in a court in Noia, A Coruña province, found a legal loophole.
As the alleged rape was in 2005, it is considered to have 'expired' under Spain's statute of limitations, but investigators believe there are similarities between this and Diana's ordeal, as well as that of a young woman the killer attempted to kidnap on Christmas Day and which led to his arrest and interrogation and the discovery of Diana's body.
José Enrique Abuín Gey, 43 – alias 'El Chicle', or 'chewing gum', because a speech impediment as a child made him sound as though his teeth were stuck together – was accused by his sister-in-law of trying to rape her in his car 13 years ago, but his wife Rosario, now 30, is said to have talked the victim out of pressing charges.
The judge in Noia says 'several witnesses never ended up giving statements' in court in connection with the attack and, as it relates to the recently-discovered murder of Diana Quer and a similar, thwarted incident a week before her body was found, together with the fact it was not fully investigated, the prosecution has agreed the 2005 rape cannot be considered as having expired.
Abuín Gey kidnapped 18-year-old Diana as she walked the three kilometres back to her family's holiday home in A Pobra do Caramiñal (A Coruña province) from the village fiestas at around 02.20 on August 22, 2016.
The sixth-former, who lived in Pozuelo de Alarcón (Greater Madrid region) but spent every summer in A Pobra, was missing for 16 months, and a police copy of her mobile phone SIM card traced her last movements to the town of Rianxo around 20 kilometres away.
Her father, Juan Carlos Quer eventually came to terms with the idea his daughter was no longer alive, whilst Diana's sister Valeria, then 16, and their mother Diana López-Pinel – a devout Catholic – were convinced she had either run away from home or was being held against her will and that she was still living.
But Diana's naked body was found, weighed down with concrete blocks, eight metres down a well shaft inside an industrial warehouse in Rianxo, on New Year's Eve.
It is believed she was tied up with reins from a bridle and forced into the boot of Abuín Gey's car, and although it is not clear whether he raped her, it is thought that this was his intention.
Juan Carlos Quer said afterwards: “It's pretty obvious he didn't tie her up and put her in the boot in order to take her to church.”
A 32-year-old Ecuadorian woman walking home on Christmas Day in the dark in the same part of the province was approached by 'El Chicle' in his car, but her screams for help were heard by two men walking nearby.
She was already in the boot, minus one leg, and now believes that if the men had not confronted 'El Chicle' there and then, she would have been 'the next Diana'.
The victim memorised his registration number, and he was arrested within days.
Police had apparently kept him under scrutiny from a distance since Diana went missing, but were waiting for him to slip up so they could arrest him.
