A tragic case of gender-based violence has shocked the municipality of Dolores following the discovery of three bodies inside a residential property. Investigations indicate that a 55-year-old Guardia Civil officer shot his 51-year-old wife and their 24-year-old son in the head while they were sleeping, before using the same firearm to take his own life.
The bodies were discovered at around 10:30 am by another officer inside the official Guardia Civil quarters in Dolores. The wife was found dead in one bedroom, the son in another, and the body of the officer was discovered in a distant corridor with a gunshot wound to the head, alongside a pistol.
The three victims all presented fatal gunshot wounds. Despite the nature of the incident, neighbours reported hearing no gunshots during the night or early morning. There were no prior reports or complaints of domestic violence or abuse registered against the officer.
The local community has been left in shock by the events. The local town council in Dolores held an extraordinary municipal meeting where all thirteen councillors backed a manifesto expressing deep pain and solidarity with the remaining family members. A three-day period of official mourning has been declared in the municipality, and all scheduled festive activities have been suspended.
Hundreds of local residents gathered on Saturday afternoon for a minute of silence outside the town hall to show their condemnation of the crime and to pay their respects to the victims, named locally as Marisol and Alberto. The gathering was attended by the government delegate in the Valencian Community, Pilar Bernabé, the sub-delegate in Alicante, Manuel Pineda, and the Mayor of Dolores, Joaquín Hernández, alongside the head of the gender violence unit, Eva Montesinos, and the chief of the Guardia Civil command, Francisco Poyato.
The 51-year-old victim worked locally as a school bus monitor and was originally from Ibiza, whilst her 24-year-old son worked in a mechanics workshop. The family had been well established in the municipality of Dolores for approximately 30 years. The judicial police of the Guardia Civil have taken charge of the ongoing investigation to definitively clarify the circumstances surrounding the incident.
