Google Street View Image of ‘Body’ Being Loaded Into Trunk is Clue in Murder Case

A Google Street View image of a man unloading what appears to be a body from the trunk of a car is a clue in a Spanish murder investigation.

The photo was captured by Google’s roving Street View car in the tiny municipality of Tajueco in the northern Spanish province of Soria. It allegedly captures the exact moment the body of a victim was being removed.

Two people have been arrested in connection with the crime; they are accused of the murder and disappearance of a man whose remains were discovered in a cemetery last week.

The Google Street View car had not been to Tajueco since November 2009 making it an extraordinary coincidence if the vehicle did happen to capture a murder taking place as it rolled past. In the image, the man has his back to the camera, presumably unaware of its presence.

Despite the unusual clue, police say that the Street View images are not “decisive” in solving the case. Instead, police point to a string of suspicious text messages sent from the victim’s phone to a relative. The messages read that the victim was leaving Spain after meeting a woman and that he would be getting rid of his phone.

El Pais reports that the male victim is a 33-year-old Cuban national who was reported missing in October 2023 after the relative received the suspicious text messages.

On November 12, the police arrested a woman who is said to be the missing man’s partner and a man who is the woman’s ex-partner. Shortly after the arrest, police discovered a severely decomposed torso in a nearby cemetery thought to belong to the victim.

The man and woman remain in custody as police continue with the investigation.

Image credits: Google