COSTA DEL MURDER
<a href=www.mirror.co.uk>URL By Patrick Mulchrone Mar 27 2003
Tony and Linda were lured into buying a dream villa in Spain.. they were kidnapped, robbed, killed and buried under the floor of the house
THE missing British house-hunters found dead in Spain were murdered by property fraudsters, it was revealed yesterday.
Tony O'Malley, 42, and wife Linda, 55, were shown around a chalet as potential buyers by conmen who didn't own it.
Linda was held hostage as Tony was driven to a bank to empty their account of £18,000 savings.
The couple were kept prisoner for up to 15 days and then killed, probably shot.
They were buried beneath concrete in the cellar of the villa at Alcoy, north of Alicante on the Costa Blanca - the home they hoped would soon be theirs.
The O'Malleys, from Llangollen, Denbighshire, vanished last September on a trip to try to buy a retirement home.
They had dreamed of moving to Spain and relatives said the Costa Blanca was "their favourite place in the world".
Last night Tony's builder brother Bernard, talking after six months of agonising uncertainty over their fate, said: "We are all deeply upset. We had been hoping against hope that they might be alive."
Two men, originally from Venezuela, were being quizzed by police in Benidorm.
It is thought that car dealer Tony and store manager Linda, a mother-of-two, were lured to their deaths by an ad in an English language newspaper.
The suspects, who have lived in Spain since 1974, claimed to own the chalet, when in fact they had rented it for the summer.
It is in a residential part of Alcoy, described as "peaceful and very discreet".
Detectives think the O'Malleys were held hostage for between five and 15 days.
Alejandro Abellan - police chief in Valencia, 80 miles north of Alcoy - said: "The original motive for luring Mr and Mrs O'Malley into the trap was robbery.
"After that, for reasons we are still investigating, they moved on to kidnap and then murder.
"We don't know at the moment whether they are responsible for other equally horrific crimes. But it is entirely possible this is not the first fraud they have committed."
Local police, working with officers in Wales, struck lucky after discovering the couple's rented Fiat Stylo at El Saler, six miles south of Valencia.
The number plate had been changed, but they tailed the driver back to a nearby apartment before arresting him and his accomplice earlier this week.
They found a string of documents linking them to the O'Malleys, including passports, bank cards and two replica pistols.
At a news conference yesterday, police showed a video of one of the handcuffed suspects leading them to the cellar where the bodies were found.
The man and his brother-in-law had rented the chalet with their wives and three children.
Officers used pneumatic drills and spades to dig through concrete to a two by four metre hole where the bodies of the O'Malleys lay. Police chief Abellan said: "If we hadn't been led to the spot, we would never have found them."
Town hall spokesman Juan Cotino Ferrer described it as an horrific crime. "Not only do they kill them, but before they kill them they keep them hostage with extortion in mind," he said.
Police believe the suspects - named only as Jorge R.S, 53, and Jose Antonio U.G, 38 - also used the O'Malleys' cash cards to buy a digital camera, a tape recorder, an infra-red alarm and clothes.
The cards were cancelled on September 19.
The pair are behind bars pending a court appearance and their wives have been released on bail. The women are looking after their three children at a secret location.
Yesterday Det Sgt Steve Lloyd, of North Wales Police, said: "We are pleased the families have got some sort of closure, although it's obviously not the outcome we would have hoped for.
"We have no evidence to suggest the suspects have robbed or indeed murdered other Britons. But that is something the Spanish police will be looking into."
Forensic tests were being conducted on the bodies but it is believed the couple were shot.
Mr O'Malley's brother Bernard, 54, of Widnes, said: "It's been sheer hell waiting to hear what had happened to them. It is horrible to think about how they were killed." He added: "For a long time they had been talking about and planning a move to Spain.
"They were always looking in estate agents' windows when they went out there.
"They had their hearts set on a nice villa, away from the hustle and bustle of tourist resorts. They wanted to get in touch with the real Spain in a rural village where they could settle down and enjoy a long retirement."
Liz Stewardson, Linda's store spokeswoman in Ellesmere Port, said: "Our staff are shocked and amazed. Linda was an excellent and hard-working character."