Costa del Sol

Wanninkhof mum requests case be reopened

By Euro Weekly News Media • Published: 02 Feb 2011 • 16:23

ALICIA HORNOS, the mother of Rocio Wanninkhof, who was murdered in Mijas in October 1999, has requested that letters sent to her by the convicted killer be investigated. Tony Alexander King, who was sentenced to 19 years in prison for the crime, recently sent her two letters from Herrera de La Mancha Prison in Ciudad Real, in which he claims Dolores Vazquez, Alicia’s former lover, is the girl’s killer.

Vazquez sent 17 months in prison for the crime, after being found guilty in September 2001 and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

However, she was released in February 2002 after appealing to the Andalucian High Court of Justice. A further trial against her was suspended when King was arrested in September 2003 and confessed to his involvement in the deaths of both girls.

The letters add up to 23 pages on which the convict, who is also sentenced to 36 years in prison for the murder of Sonia Carabantes in Coin in August 2003 and seven years for the attempted rape of a young girl in Benalmadena, explains in English, all the details of Rocio’s death. He claims he took part in the crime in exchange for money, but that he only moved the body and wrapped it in plastic.

On October 9, 1999, 19-year-old Rocio, left her home to visit her boyfriend in Mijas. At about 9:30pm, she left his house to go home and get ready to meet him later at the Fuengirola fair. She was never seen alive again.

When she failed to return home, Alicia asked her other daughter, Rosa, to contact Rocio’s boyfriend, Antonio. He said he had not made it to the fair but that Rocio had been seen there by other friends, so she had probably spent the night at one of their houses.

The restless mother went for a walk and found Rocio’s blood-stained clothes. Rocio’s badly-burnt body was found three weeks later.

An autopsy revealed that she had been stabbed once in the chest and eight times in the back, although, on account of the poor condition of the corpse, it could not be determined if she had been sexually assaulted.