Guardia Civil Judicial Police are investigating the death of one Juan José VJ; a 53 year old resident of Santa Lucía de Tirajana, originally from Ingenio, who was found dead on Friday afternoon in a waterway channel, in the Los Frailes ravine, in the municipality of Mogan. The body appears to have had various injuries, so agents are trying to determine if these were made by another person or if it was due to an accidental fall.
The discovery was reported at around 8 p.m. on Friday when a citizen notified the main 112 Emergency and Security Coordination Centre (Cecoes) saying they had found the body of a man at the bottom of the ravine, located near the GC-500 coastal highway and between the urbanisations of Tauro and Taurito. Mogán Policia Local and the Guard Civil travelled to the scene in the first instance, and corroborated the information given.
The emergency room also deployed the local Fire Department, from the Puerto Rico Park Consortium, and Mogán Proteccion Civil in anticipation that the transfer of the body would take some time as it was located in an area difficult to access. Investigators appeared at the scene to analyse the surroundings and the corpse, as did the judicial authorities.
The initial investigation lasted for several hours until, at around 3am on Saturday morning, the body was transferred to the Institute of Legal Medicine in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, where an autopsy has been carried out to determine the causes of death. The firefighters, with the support of Proteccion Civil, had to lift the body with a truck crane using an articulated arm to remove the man from the ravine channel.
Agents located the victim’s belongings about 200 meters from the place he was found. Sources consulted point out that the Judicial Police from the Puerto Rico – Mogán Guardia Civil main post participated in the investigation, having received support from their colleagues in the Las Palmas Command, due to the possibility that this was a homicide. The first inspection of the body determined that there were various injuries, although it remains to be understood if they were due to a fall, as the man was found at a bottom of a five meter drop, or if this could have been due to an assault.
While the first responders were working at the scene, the 112 emergency room also reported burning vegetation in the Amadores ravine that had to be extinguished by the Fire Department of San Bartolomé de Tirajana, as the Puerto Rico crews were engaged in this operation.
An ambulance from the SUC Canary Islands Health Service also participated at the scene of the death.