Dad-of-two John George was murdered and his body hidden beneath overgrown lemon trees on a rural road south of Alicante, with Spain’s Civil Guard seen scouring the scene with metal detectors on Thursday
This is the spot where the remains of holidaymaker John George was murdered in Spain were discovered after he was dumped on a rural roadside.
Police in Costa Blanca are investigating after dad-of-two John was murdered and his body abandoned in the remote spot. Harrowing pictures have now emerged showing the scene as detectives bring in metal detectors – while John’s family pleads for answers John, from Belfast, was reported missing last month, four days after his last known contact with them on December 14. The dad had been in the Alicante area, and Civil Guard officers carried out weeks of searching.
Tragically, the search ended in the discovery of a body on a road outside Rojales near Torrevieja – around a 45 minute drive south from Alicante – on Tuesday, which has since been identified as John. Images from the scene show a trail of dried blood still visible on the tarmac, with his body understood to have been discarded beneath a patch of overgrown lemon trees.
The obscured spot at the edge of an orchard may be why he was not found until weeks later. Police have also marked arrows on the ground by the bloodstains. Officers were seen back at the scene on Thursday using a metal detector over nearby ground. It comes as colleagues continued to question a 32-year-old man, a Czech national, on suspicion of homicide.
The suspect’s name has not been publicly released. Laws in Spain allow the Civil Guard up to 72 hours to keep suspects in custody for questioning. The deadline is due to expire on Friday afternoon, after which they must seek an extension from a judge.
Police have also not made John’s cause of death public after a post-mortem was carried out. Also known as John Hardy, the 37-year-old had flown to Alicante for a brief trip. Concerns were raised when he did not fly home as scheduled on December 18 to spend Christmas with his two sons, aged 13 and six.
Five days later, a GoFundMe page was launched for a search. John’s loved ones have flown to Spain to help in search efforts. Brother Darren travelled to Alicante alongside parents, Billy and Sharon, and sister Courtney and Caitlin, along with up to 50 friends and wider family from Northern Ireland.
After learning of John’s death, his sister Courtney posted a heartbreaking tribute online. She wrote: “I love you forever and always. My body is numb with pain and my heart is broken. You have taken my brother’s life and ruined mine – you have put us through hell. I hope who has done this on my family, John’s face haunts them every night.”
In its only official comments so far, an Alicante-based spokesman for the Civil Guard said yesterday: “Yesterday morning the Civil Guard discovered the body of a man in Rojales. The Territorial Judicial Police team of Pilar de la Horadada has been put in charge of the ongoing investigation.
“All the necessary work is being done at the moment to determine the cause of death and confirm the man’s identity. Pending the full forensic results everything is pointing to it being a missing person whose family reported his disappearance on 21 December 2024.
“Following the discovery of the body, a 32 year old man was arrested yesterday on suspicion of homicide. Further information will be provided as soon as more details become available.”
A local watching police working today at the spot where John’s body was found on Tuesday, who asked not to be named, said: “Clearly someone’s driven here and then driven away after leaving the body. It’s not the sort of place you’d come to on foot.
“The fact whoever’s responsible doesn’t seem to have made any attempt to dig even a shallow grave and has just left the body partially obscured by branches and foliage on the lemon trees points to them being in a hurry. The place the body was left is a privately-owned orchard. The police will have already contacted the landowner for sure to see if he saw anything suspicious.”