By David Eade – Costa del Sol News
Arriate is a small peaceful village just 15 minutes drive from Ronda. That sense of calm was shattered last Thursday when a fireman, who was part of the search team for missing María Esther Jiménez, found her battered body in a swimming pool pump house.
Her parents had reported her missing in the early hours of Thursday morning. She had spent Wednesday evening in Arriate at the bus shelter with school friends, one even capturing her smiling on her digital camera.
At 21.30 she went into a bar for a glass of water. Since the investigation into her death started one witness has come forward to say he saw her with a man by a bridge some 100 metres from where her body was found. However as the word used was “tarde” it is not clear what time of the latter part of the day the sighting took place. As a veil of secrecy has been imposed no clarification is forthcoming
Arriate is a close community and within minutes of the family raising the alarm local people and the police were searching the streets and disserted outbuildings to try and find the youngster. The hunt went on till the fireman made the tragic find almost 24 hours after her disappearance.
The owner of the pool house in El Membrillar said the door was usual left unlocked. It has been reported that María Esther had received fatal wounds to the head and police forensic teams removed some heavy objects including a blood covered brick from the site.
The council met after María Esther was found and declared three days of mourning. After the body was released from the post mortem on Saturday a funeral service was held in the chapel of Arriate’s old people’s home. On Sunday María Esther was buried in Paterna de la Ribera in Cádiz – her parent’s home village.
A frightened village
The present cause of alarm in the village is because last week the mayor Bernardino Gaona said he was confident that the culprit or culprits will soon be found. His view was further backed up by the family with the grandfather, Moisés Villegas, stating: “the investigation is going very well and soon the culprit will be in prison.” An arrest was spoken of for Monday or Tuesday.
What seems to have changed is that a crime investigation unit has arrived in Arriate from Madrid and taken over the investigation from the Ronda Guardia Civil. Some of the officers worked on the Rocío Wanninkhof (Mijas) y Ana Elena Lorente (Álora) cases. It was this squad that summoned María Esther parent’s back to the village straight after the funeral to take DNA tests. Numerous such tests have been carried out and these will take a week to complete. The sub-delegate of the government in Málaga, Hilario López Luna, says investigations are proceeding well but will take time. The Guardia Civil will make no comment on whether there was a sexual motive till after the post mortem results are released. In the meantime Arriate has a child killer in its midst.
María Esther has been described as an “innocent” thirteen-year-old; she was happy and not bullied. She did not own a mobile phone and the Guardia Civil are examining her friend’s computer as this was the only access to the internet that she had. One line of enquiry is checking social network websites.
The family home, the bus shelter where the children hang out, the bar where she asked for water and the place where she was killed are all within minutes walk from each other. She was never more than three minutes from her front door.
Arriate is a frightened village and none more so that the children at the infants, junior and senior schools. María Esther attended all three and the pupils will gather in her memory on Thursday, a week after her body was discovered.
SNOW CAUSES ACCIDENTS ON RONDA – SAN PEDRO ROAD
At daybreak on Sunday snow started to fall on the Sierras surrounding Ronda. It arrived accompanied by strong winds and low temperatures. Whilst it did not settle in the town itself it did on the higher parts of the Serranía de Ronda and of course the aptly named Sierra de las Nieves.
The Sierra de las Nieves received the heaviest covering and saw families heading out to enjoy the snow. However the snow also caused major problems on the Ronda to San Pedro de Alcántara road between kms 20 and 25.
Two coaches skidded on the ice and a number of cars were also involved in accidents but thankfully nobody was injured with the crash barriers preventing them tumbling down the abyss.
The Andalucía public works authority spread salt on the Ronda road and warnings were placed to alert drivers to the dangerous conditions. However although snow did fall in other areas of Málaga province it did not settle nor cause any major problems.
IU WANT RONDA – SAN PEDRO TOLL MOTORWAY DROPPED
The IU group on the Málaga authority have voiced their opposition to the planned toll motorway that would link Ronda with San Pedro de Alcántara. The project was an electoral promise by PSOE ahead of the last regional government elections but other than a report being produced which is currently subject to consultation nothing has happened.
The road would be very expensive to create which at this time of economic crisis neither the Andalucía government nor any private investor wants to fund. Hence the foot dragging. However the IU wants the regional government to drop the entire project and to improve the existing road instead.
Apart from the high cost factor the toll motorway is opposed by environmentalists as it would destroy many protected zones and also says the IU open up the area to urban development. None-the-less the current road is one of the province’s major accident black spots so some solution is urgently required.
The proposed road would be 32.8 kilometres long, a dual carriageway with a central safety barrier and would cut driving times from 50 to 22 minutes. Crucially it would cost 350 million euros at current estimates and say environmentalists would damage the Sierra de las Nieves and harm the delicate eco-system of the Sierra Bermeja.
Far better says the IU is to stick with the present road. This is currently single lane for its entire lengthy and one of the reasons for the high accident rate is that vehicles overtake slow moving lorries that cause long tailbacks with inevitable collisions and near misses.
The IU wants the road widened so that parts can be dual carriageway or have overtaking zones. The road also has numerous bends which take a high toll on the lives of motorcyclists and these too should be removed. Given the mountainous terrain it would be a costly exercise but nothing compared with the 350 million euros needed for the new road.
BIG TIME
Ronda National Police have arrested a 35-year-old man who is accused of carrying out 16 burglaries in the town. All were on commercial premises where he forced his entry. Officers recovered a cash till stolen from one of the shops and his tools. He was arrested as he broke into a shop at El Fuerte and has a lengthy list of previous convictions.
ANTEQUERA LINK
The Partido Popular is promising to create a motorway between Ronda and Antequera which it says is fundamental to improving communications if it’s elected to government. Javier Arenas and Mariano Rajoy who would lead PP administrations in Sevilla and Madrid have put in writing their commitment to build the road which they say has been an objective of the PP for many years.
MUSEUM NO
The regional government has written to Ronda town hall to say it will not give its approval for the plans to build a museum at the Roman town of Acinipo. The Andalucía authority says the proposed site is not zoned as urban in the local development plan. Environmentalists opposed the location of the building which they say is too close to the ruins.
MAYOR ACCUSED
The socialist mayor of Alpandeire, Gabriel Jiménez, is under investigation by the Guardia Civil after at least two stolen heavy earth moving machines were found in a warehouse on his land. He insists the property is not used by him but his father-in-law. He says he knows nothing about the machinery but Izquierda Unida are demanding explanations alleging he is implicated in illegal sales.
FOOTPATH RIGHTS
Ecologists and walkers’ associations are starting a campaign in Ronda to walk alone the various ‘caminos púbicos rurales’ in the municipality and Serranía. The purpose is to exercise the right of way as in many cases land owners illegally fence off the public footpaths. They start in Los Merinos with the agreement of the developers where the controversial golf course will be built.
NO POLICE
Thirteen municipalities in the Serranía de Ronda including Benalauría, Benadalid, Atajate and Jubrique with less than 500 residents have no local police officers nor could they justify them on economic grounds. Law enforcement is the responsibility of the Guardia Civil but in the case of traffic offences - if a car is blocking a street - residents have to sort the problem out themselves.
