An estate agent who allegedly slaughtered an elderly British woman in her Costa Blanca home two years ago claims to have suffered a ‘psychotic episode’ at the time of her killing.
British widow Monica Warren, 80, allegedly was shot and killed at her home in Elche, Costa Blanca, in May 2022 by a 48-year-old estate agent, who has not been publicly named.
The killer was said to have enlisted the help of her then-16-year-old son to move Monica’s body, which was found underneath her bed.
A plumber the retiree had called to her home to carry out an urgent repair raised the alarm after coming across a pool of blood. He told the emergency services he was concerned because he had seen two people wearing hoodies leaving the OAP’s home and driving off in a black Peugeot who told him the British expat was ill and urged him to return the following day.
On the first day of the murder trial yesterday, the defendant reportedly said she ‘lost her head’ and shot Mrs Warren after seeing a ‘white silhouette’ when she knocked on her door during torrential rain and was let in.
British widow Monica Warren, 80, allegedly was shot and killed at her home in Elche, Costa Blanca, (pictured) in May 2022 by a 48-year-old estate agent
The killing took place in a housing complex by Elche, near Alicante on the Costa Blanca
She also claimed she had been driven mad in the months running up to the shooting by a ‘grey-haired’ person who was following her everywhere.
The defendant alleged her teenage son, who has also not been named, was in her car outside when she shot Mrs Warren and she acted alone initially although she subsequently asked him to help her move her victim’s body while in a ‘state of shock.’
Prosecutors, seeking at least 28 years for the alleged killer, questioned the her story, claiming that the murder was pre-planned. Mrs Warren had previously reported the theft of a .22 Beretta pistol, believed to be the murder weapon recovered near the house, that she was licensed to use as a firearms enthusiast.
A summary of the allegations she was facing, released ahead of the first day of the scheduled week-long hearing read: ‘State prosecutors maintain she committed the crime together with her son, then a minor.
‘Both, allegedly, caused her death without leaving her any possibility of defending herself after shooting her three times and plunging a knife into the left side of her chest.
‘The prosecution indictment states that hours later, in the early hours of the following morning, the female defendant poured petrol over her own car that she had used to drive to the dead woman’s house and set fire to it in a street in Alicante to dispose of evidence.
‘The flames spread and affected other parked cars.
‘State prosecutors are provisionally seeking a prison sentence for the accused woman of 25 years for a crime of murder and another three for a crime of damage by fire.’
Her trial was run separately from her son’s, which was meant to start in June before he tragically died in a car crash a day before it opened, after losing control of his convertible Mercedes on the AP-7 motorway near Campoamor just south of the resort of Torrevieja.
The accused murdered says she had a ‘psychotic episode’ at the time of the killing
Police said after the murder they homed in on the suspects after the mother’s car caught fire in Alicante, shortly after Mrs Warren’s bullet-riddled body was found at her home
The youngster, who has not been named and was on bail following an initial remand in a youth detention centre, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Youth court prosecutors are understood to have been seeking an eight-year custodial sentence for the teenager if he was found guilty of Mrs Warren’s murder.
He died of cancer several years before the murder and she lived alone.
Mrs Warren, who was born in Germany but became a naturalised British citizen through marriage, moved to Spain with UK-born husband John more than 20 years before she was killed.
Mrs Warren’s friend Alan Benson, 70, who lived near her villa on a residential estate a short drive from Elche, revealed after her death that she had worked as a model in London.
He added at the time: ‘She was tall but she was incredibly thin. You could knock her over with a feather – I just don’t understand why they did it.’
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
