A young woman’s life ended while she slept in a vacation home after coming to Spain to set up a new life, police said.
Madrid police said that 35-year-old Dave Verbist of Belgium, pleaded
guilty to murder in connection with the brutal death of 27-year-old Ane
Strande Jensen of Denmark.
Verbist described how he entered the woman’s apartment and strangled her with the cord of her phone charger while she slept.
However, he said he had no idea why he did it. Jensen came to Madrid,
just 11 days before taking a job with Scandinavian Tobacco Group.
She was renting the fully furnished vacation apartment while searching
for a more permanent accommodation. Verbist had the keys to the
apartment because he worked as a manager of the rental properties.
The night before she was murdered, Jensen spoke with her boyfriend
through Skype. The following morning around 6:30 a.m., emergency
services were called to a report of a fire on the premises.
Her charred body was found in the bedroom. The autopsy revealed that she
had not died in the fire, but had been strangled before being burned.
Verbist later confessed to police to killing her with the phone charger
that was in the kitchen. He found a bottle of cooking oil, doused hers
dead body with it and set her alight.