OLIVE PRESS
The
MALLORCA
FREE
Vol. 5 Issue 123
Your expat
voice in Spain
www.theolivepress.es January 28th - February 10th 2022
HEALTH
Our tips on how to get fit and well in our health special
& HAPPINESS The best foodie escapes in Food, drink & travel section
INSPIRATIONAL: And award-winning, (from left) Aponiente, Noor, Marc Fosh of Voro (inset) and Asador Etxebarri
FIND HIM!
American tourist sought over killing and dumping his wife in woods in Spain THE body of an American woman missing since Christmas has been discovered in a shallow grave on the Costa Blanca. Police suspect that Yana Rose, 40, was beaten to death by her husband during a festive row on the Costa del Sol. Detectives worked closely with Cadiz and Italian police located her body buried in woods, just outside
By Elena Goçmen Rueda
Alzira, near Gandia. An international arrest warrant has been issued for husband, Michael Martin H, who is believed to have returned to the US, where the FBI has launched a manhunt. The couple’s rental car was located at Milan airport on January 11, when he is understood to have flown back to Denver. Police have revealed that the 55-year-old appears to have driven his wife’s body six hours across Spain from their rented holiday home in Sotogrande just after Christmas. They managed to locate the body in woodland, near Alzira hospital, at the weekend. The couple had flown SAD ENDING: Yana Rose in happy times from America for a festive break touring around Europe, visiting I t a l y , France and Spain. It is not k n o w n exactly where they stayed, but they certainly made it to a luxury apartment in
Discover hassle-free currency transfers
147 834 SP18206EN - Front page Ewn adverts v2.indd 4
Portals Nous, 07181, Mallorca.
14/02/2020 23:25
HUNT: FBI is on trail of Michael Martin H, pictured with Yana Sotogrande for Christmas when Yana’s mother Natalia spoke to her from America. But subsequent attempts to reach her daughter failed and when the elderly woman called her son-inlaw he claimed the couple had rowed and Yana had gone off to visit a friend in Valencia. He added that her phone was broken. “My daughter, Yana, hasn’t been in touch with me or anyone we know since December 27,” Natalia wrote in an online appeal. “She left after an argument with husband and has not come back since.” The friend, who she had allegedly gone to visit near Valencia, reported her missing at Abastos police station, on January 9. She told police that her friend, who is Russian, but has American citi-
Tel: 952 147 834
See pages 5 & 9
TM
zenship, had never arrived to stay. When police began to probe her whereabouts they found CCTV footage from the urbanization in Sotogrande showing Martin carrying something ‘very large and lumpy’ to his car, at 10pm, on December 27. Remarkably, they were able to locate the hire car company at Milan airport, which had kept GPS data for the couple’s entire holiday. This, in turn, showed that the husband had spent long periods, over several nights, parked up by the patch of woodland in the grounds of a derelict mansion near Alzira. Police quickly discovered the body buried in a shallow grave hidden under branches on Friday, January 21. It was naked and showed signs of bruising. A post mortem is expected to show she had been badly beaten about the head and face. Last night her mother Natalia told the Olive Press, she was ‘devastated’ with the death. She confirmed the photo of Michael and added: “I can’t comment as the investigation is live, but thanks for your sympathy.”
Shadier and shadier CORRUPTION in Spain has got worse, according to a new international transparency poll. The country has dropped one place in the annual Corruption Perception Index (CPI), seeing its rating go down from 62 to 61. Spain is now 34th in the table of 180 countries, coming far behind joint leaders Denmark, Finland and New Zealand, who score a rating of 88. The global table, compiled by Transparency International, is a highly-regarded measure of anti-corruption efforts. Each country’s score is a combination of at least 13 different corruption surveys and assessments, from bodies including the World Bank.
Illegal
Spain scored badly on the now accepted ‘illegal’ lockdowns during the Covid pandemic, as well as the availability of public information in regional and municipal bodies. South Sudan comes bottom with 11, followed by Syria and Somalia on 13. A spokesman insisted that a country like Spain in the world’s top 15 economies should not be scoring below 70 if it ‘wants to maintain its image and competitiveness’. The Olive Press revealed last issue that of the 50 least transparent town halls in Spain, the majority were in Andalucia, Valencia and Extremadura. Sanlucar de Barrameda came bottom scoring a disgraceful 2.47% in the transparency ranking, while Rojales had 4% and Coin 6.1%. Well over half of the 500 councils surveyed offered up less than 50% of the information expected to be available to its citizens. Opinion Page 6