Spanish woman confesses to Vienna cellar murders

A Spanish woman who disappeared after Austrian police found two bodies in her cellar earlier this week, has been arrested in Italy and has confessed to the two murders, media reports said Friday.

The woman, only named as Goidsargi Estibaliz C., 32, was arrested in the northeastern Italian town of Udine on Friday morning, the Austria Press Agency reported, citing the local police there.

She also admitted killing her former boyfriend and her German ex-husband, saying difficult relationships with the two men had caused her “fits of rage”, APA said, citing Italian police.

Austrian police announced Tuesday they had found dismembered body parts belonging to two unidentified people set in concrete in the cellar of a Vienna building.

The woman, who owned an ice-cream parlour in that building, disappeared shortly thereafter and police put out a European warrant for her arrest, although they initially insisted they only wanted to question her about the bodies.

Italian police said she fled to Italy “because she could speak Italian and did not want to go back to her relatives in Spain”.

She found a place to stay with a young man she met in Udine but he became suspicious of her behaviour and alerted the police.

After her interrogation, the young woman was brought to prison in nearby Trieste, where a judge was to rule on whether she should be extradited.

Austrian police officers could also travel to Italy to question the suspect, APA reported.

Workers installing pipes in the Vienna building’s basement late Monday had discovered a leg and other body parts in cement mixing tubs.

Austrian investigators later established one of the bodies belonged to Manfred H., 48, the ex-boyfriend, who had been missing since November.

The other victim appeared to have been killed at a much earlier date.

Both men had been shot.