Man convicted of killing family detained in new murder case

In 1988, Ramón Laso Moreno strangled his first wife after an argument. He then took her body to a railway line in order to fake her suicide. A train decapitated the dead woman.

A year later, Laso collected his six-year-old son from school, and drove him to a mountain road. He stopped the vehicle, got out, and let it fall down the hillside, with his son inside. He then torched the car, successfully faking an accident, and in the process picked up a considerable insurance claim.

Laso was sentenced in 1993 to 56 years in jail for the murders of his wife and child, but was let out just seven years into his term for good behavior.

But that good behavior was apparently not to last outside of prison. On Wednesday, Laso was detained by the police for the alleged murder of his second wife and brother-in-law.

"I feel a sense of relief, but also the certainty that Maurici and Julia will not return," said Mercedes Lama on Wednesday, on hearing the news of Laso's arrest. Maurici Font is her husband, while Julia is her sister, and Laso's partner. Neither of them have been seen since March 27, 2009.

Property search

Laso moved to Tarragona in 1999, but never told Julia nor his brother and sister-in-law Maurici and Mercedes that he had served time for a double murder. He simply said that his first wife and child had died in an accident, and that he had been in jail — without explaining why.

His arrest came after two years of police investigations into the disappearances. Officers spent Wednesday searching Laso's residence, as well as an orchard near the AP-7 motorway, in search of evidence.