A body and human remains were found in Menorca and in the sea near the municipality of Alcudia on Wednesday. The first discovery was made at around 1 p.m., when a diver reported seeing a body in Cala des Talaier, Menorca, according to the Guardia Civil. Guardia Civil officers and a forensic doctor went to the scene and confirmed that the body was in an advanced state of decomposition in a rocky area and began their initial investigations.
Finally, at 5.15 pm, the body was removed and an autopsy will be performed in the next few hours at the Ciutadella morgue. In the other case, a call was also received from a member of the public who had found human remains in the sea at around 7.15 p.m. These remains were transferred to the port of Alcudiamar, where Guardia Civil officers from Pollensa went to investigate.
Once there, the presence of the forensic doctor was requested, who removed the body at around 10.30 p.m. on Wednesday. Last week, the Guardia Civil found human remains on Migjorn beach, on the island of Formentera, according to the Balearic Islands Command’s Peripheral Communication Office. The discovery was made by a Guardia Civil patrol that was conducting reconnaissance tasks on the island’s coast.
The body was in an advanced state of decomposition and everything indicates that it had been in the sea for a long time before being washed up on the beach, according to the Guardia Civil. The officers activated the judicial protocol for the removal of the body and its transfer to the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences for an autopsy.
Due to the lack of identification, the Guardia Civil cannot confirm that this is an immigrant who lost his life while attempting to reach the Balearics in a small boat, as is suspected in the case of the numerous bodies that have appeared on the coast or in the waters of the Balearics over the summer.
The Guardia Civil are continuing their investigation into the discovery in Balearic waters of bodies of migrants whose hands and feet had been bound earlier tyhis summer.
Spanish police have arrested 19 people who are accused of murder and torture aboard a migrant boat, which travelled from Senegal to the Canary Islands last month. At least 50 people remain missing from the incident, with allegations of several having been thrown overboard.All 19 of the suspects have been taken to pretrial detention on charges of facilitating irregular immigration, homicide, assault and torture.
Authorities believe that there were around 300 people on board the boat in total, with many of those missing thought to have been thrown overboard. The small wooden vessel was found drifting in Atlantic waters on August 24 with 248 survivors on board after an 11-day journey, according to the Spanish National Police. At the time, it was located just south of one of the Canary Islands — Gran Canaria.