Murdered family of four were killed by professional hitmen

The four members of a family whose remains were found early on Sunday morning in a house in Spain’s Guadalajara province had probably been dead for at least a month, investigators now say.

The dismembered bodies of the two adults in their forties were found in plastic bags after a neighbor complained about a smell coming from the residence on a housing estate.

Documents found in the house suggest the family came from Brazil

The intact bodies of a five-year-old girl and a one-year-old boy were also found at the scene.

Police believe the family was killed as payback in a drug dispute and that the killers were known to the family as there was no sign of doors having been forced.

“Professional killers” carried out the murders, “probably with a butcher’s knife or an ax,” investigators said, citing the type of killing and the “cleanness” with which it was carried out.

“Death was rapid, there are no signs of torture. They didn’t suffer,” sources close to the investigation told EL PAÍS.

Because of a lack of furniture in the house, police believe the family killed was on the run or in hiding. The decomposed state of the bodies suggests they had been dead for at least a month.

Documents found in the house suggest the family came from Brazil, but this is yet to be confirmed by DNA testing.

Neither drugs nor large sums of money were found in the house.

Sources from the investigation said the family had rented the house a month ago. Police have cordoned off the property and are now focusing on vehicles that have entered the private housing development in the last two months.

English version by George Mills.