In November 2020, a Homicide group from the Madrid National Police began to review all the files and documentation related to one of the unsolved crimes in Vigo: the murder, with a single shot to the head, of Manuel Salgado in his garage on Rosalía de Castro streetin April 2004. Behind this review is part of Salgado’s family, specifically his nephews, who fought so that the case would not prescribe.
Given the possibility and feasibility of carrying out new proceedings, the Magistrate of the Court of Instruction 4 of Vigo, Juan Carlos Carballalagreed to reopen the case after it was provisionally archived in 2006, as no one could then be attributed responsibility for the death of this 56-year-old from Vigo.
The new test carried out –consisting of taking statements from witnesses at the police headquarters as well as analysis of bullets collected at the crime scene and subsequent comparisons–, together with the review of the thousands of pages that make up the summary, allowed the investigators to draw a new hypothesis about the crime. Although the suspicion of a hitman has always been on the table, the police do not rule out that Salgado knew the author of the shot.
Close or family circle
In their conclusions, the agents make it clear that although there is no evidence of authorship with respect to a specific person, they do weigh that the inducer or even the material author of the crime is a person from their environment or from their close circle.
This version would fit based on two premises. On the one hand, the victim herself confessed to her friends, days before her death, that she felt threatened. “My life has an expiration date, like a yogurt,” Manuel Salgado once stated. The second reason that supports this hypothesis is the position in which the body was found.The agents are clear that the murderer was between the victim and the garage ramp. They consider that the deceased could see his murderer and chose to enter the vehicle, possibly as protection, thus avoiding confronting him.
Two pods and a cartridge found at the crime scene.FdV
The bullet casing that ended his life it is the same as the one collected in the same garagefired a week before, although it did not detonate.
As for the position of the body, due to the location of the shot, Salgado should have fallen face down, although he appeared from the side. In this extreme, it is not ruled out that it was the victim himself who moved or the murderer approached him to verify his death. The keys and his mobile phone were taken from the stage.
Two investigated
So far, only two people have been arrested and investigated for the crime:his ex-wife and her then partner. A possible economic motive would be linked to crime. However, due to the lack of solid evidence against both, the Court cleared both of them of all charges in 2006.
New testimonials
To try to shed light on the case, the private prosecution now requested the testimony of several people, a request that will have to be admitted by the judge, and on which the Prosecutor’s Office has not yet ruled. His son, director of a school in the Vigo area, has been summoned by the Police Station, although he accepted his right not to testify.
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