Google Maps image of large bag in car helps Spanish police solve murder case

Chance images captured by a passing Google Maps camera showing a man leaning over a large bag or bags in a car trunk with what could be a human body gave police an extra clue in a murder investigation in the central Spanish village of Tajueco.

A friend reported the male victim missing in November 2023 after receiving suspicious text messages sent from the victim's phone saying he had met a woman and was leaving the province of Soria, where Tajueco is located, and abandoning his phone, police said in a statement on Wednesday.

The investigation focused on the missing man's girlfriend and her ex-partner, with unspecified important clues found in their cars and homes, police said.

During checks on the movements of one of the cars, police came across a street view image captured by a Google Maps car mapping the area.

It showed a street that was deserted except for a man leaning into the trunk of a red car in which there was a bulky white bag or bags. Several other images in the same series, dated October 2024, showed the trunk shut and nobody in the street.

Last month, police arrested the couple initially on suspicion of kidnapping, and later discovered a human torso, believed to be that of the missing man, in a shallow grave at a local cemetery on Dec. 11.

The investigation is still underway, police said, noting that the Google Maps image was just one of several clues in the case.

In 2022, a Google Maps street view picture helped Italian police catch a top mafia fugitive who had been on the run for nearly 20 years.