A Cuban national living in northern Spain disappeared last year, and police finally caught two suspects after reviewing images from Google Maps. The images showed a man loading a white sack into a red Rover car on a deserted street in the hamlet of Tajueco.
The case began when the Cuban man’s relative reported him missing after receiving suspicious texts about meeting another woman. Police investigated his phone records and discovered that the messages had not been sent by the missing person. They then focused their attention on his former partner and another man linked to her.
Last month, police arrested the couple, and weeks later, a torso believed to be the missing man’s was found in a nearby cemetery. Google Maps played a crucial role in solving the case, with investigators using images from the mapping application to detect a vehicle that may have been used in the crime.
Neighbours of Tajueco were unaware of the significance of the Google Maps images, as they thought nothing of it at first. The hamlet has a population of 56 residents, who had given little importance to the images, saying “we didn’t think anything of it” and “we didn’t think that in the photo of the boot there would be a body.”
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/18/google-maps-car-snaps-vital-clue-in-spanish-missing-person-case