Two dead in a 1994 supermarket heist: the search for answers goes on

From a distance, Isabel López looked like an old-fashioned sandwich board human advertisement, but as you approached her, the chains anchoring her to the railings of the court in the capital of the Galician province of Lugo become visible.

Until last week, for two months, from 9.30am on, she staged a vigil in a bid to force the authorities to reopen the investigation into the murder of her sister.

"Seventeen years ago, my sister was murdered alongside a work colleague. The police investigation was a disgrace, and the refusal of the authorities to discuss the matter is an insult. I'm not moving from here until I see a sign that something is going to be done," she López said before abandoning her protest in late June.

In three years, the case will be closed. The families say too little has been done

On April 30, 1994, Isabel's life was changed for ever when she found her sister, Elena López Rodríguez, slumped dead on the floor of the wholesale supermarket where she worked in an industrial estate in the outskirts of Lugo. Close by lay the body of Esteban Carballedo Teijeiro, who also worked in the supermarket.

They had both been shot at close range and died instantly. The force of the shot had lifted Elena from her seat at the cash register. The body of Esteban lay in an aisle.

Three shots had been fired from a nine-millimeter pistol, probably a Star BM or SB, the same model used at that time by the Civil Guard, as well as ETA. Some 3.7 million pesetas (

22,000 euros) had been stolen from the safe, along with checks worth around half a million pesetas.

The thieves seemed to know what they were looking for, but had apparently made a hurried getaway, leaving around 100,000 pesetas in a bag in the bottom of the safe.

The haste with which they acted suggested that they had not intended to fire. So what had happened? Had their victims recognized the thieves? The investigation produced no answers, and the authorities have consistently refused to comment on the case, and why it was handled by the local police rather than the national force, which usually deals with murders.

Isabel López would like to know why the police report contradicts itself, and why the State Attorney's Office was not represented at the police interrogation of the main suspects.

In three years, the statute of limitations means the case will be closed definitively. The families of the victims believe that not enough has been done to find the killers, and suspect that there has been a cover up.

Sources close to the case refute this, but accept that the investigation was "less than thorough; well, let's face it, a disaster."

The initial investigation focused on the ballistics and the statements given by the last clients to see the victims alive. But soon, an informant gave the police two names.

The police tapped the telephone of one of the suspects, but after several months, had come up with no evidence. The two suspects were arrested later for a different crime, and sentenced. But there is no record that they were questioned about the murders.

Six years later, when the case was about to be closed, another informant came up with new names. The informant is part of a witness protection scheme, and nothing is known about him except that he was arrested by the police as part of a drugs bust.

In his statement the anonymous informant says that the killers were two men involved in drug dealing. He says that he was approached by one of them to take part in the heist on the supermarket, but he turned it down.

Neither of the two men the informant mentions had anything to do with the first suspects. A woman was also involved. He says that the robbery was meant to be a simple, straightforward job. But the woman was recognized by Elena, who knew her from a restaurant she frequented. But the police disregarded the informant's story. The families of the victims say that the police have not followed up all the leads put their way.

The case was provisionally closed 10 years ago. Over the years, Elena and Esteban's families have tried to get it reopened: they have collected signatures and set up a website, but to no avail. The police's response is the same every time: there is no new evidence or clues.

But two days into her vigil outside the court, a pensioner approached and said that he had new information that could help the investigation. He says that he saw two men and a woman next to a car that had been cruising the area around the supermarket on the day of the robbery. In 1994, when he could still remember the car's number plate, the witness said nothing to the police because a friend had told him that his story was inconsistent.

It took the courts a year to reopen the case. But no information has been released on the progress of the investigation. The police say that they are having problems in finding photographs of possible suspects to show the witness who has come forward. The officer in charge of the case has been off work for two months.