Two arrested after Google Maps image provides clue in missing persons case

By Jack Guy, CNN

(CNN) — Police in Spain have arrested two people in connection with a missing persons case after a Google Maps vehicle took a picture of someone apparently loading a large object into the trunk of a car.

A man and a woman have been detained in connection with the disappearance and death of a missing man, police said in a statement on Wednesday.

A relative of the man reported him missing in November last year after receiving suspicious messages from his phone, police said.

Although the pair previously spoke often, the man suddenly told his relative in the messages that he had met a new partner, would be moving to a different part of the country and was getting rid of his phone, according to the statement.

The report sparked an investigation during which police discovered the Google Maps image, which they say could show a vehicle used in connection with a crime.

The image, which still appears on Google Maps, was taken in the streets of Tajueco, a small village in the province of Soria in the Castile and León region in northern Spain, in October.

It shows a person leaning into the trunk of a red car containing a large object wrapped in a light colored cloth.

This was the first time that a Google Maps vehicle had visited Tajueco to update the imagery of the village since November 2009, according to Google Maps data.

On November 12, police arrested the former girlfriend of the missing man, as well as another man who had previously been in a relationship with the woman, alleging their involvement in the man’s death and disappearance.

Police also recovered a badly decomposed torso, which has not yet been formally identified but which police say could belong to the victim, from a cemetery in a nearby village on December 11.

The investigation continues.

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