An American businessman has been arrested for murdering his wife and burying her body over 400 miles away by car during an expensive trip around Europe.
His arrest came off the back of an international manhunt after he gave himself away by giving different versions of his wife’s disappearance to her worried friends and family.
Michael Hoseyni, 55, an Iranian-born American businessman from Denver, Colorado, has been arrested by Spanish police on suspicion of murdering his Russian-born American wife Yana Rose, 40, in Cadiz before burying her in Valencia and fleeing the country.
After allegedly committing the murder, Hoseyni travelled by car to Milan, Italy, before flying to the United Kingdom and then on to the United States in a move that the authorities have said was designed to confuse investigators and put 12,000 kilometres distance between him and them.
The businessman had been touring Europe with his wife since August last year, but her mother Natalia Zernova, age not reported but who lives in the Russian city of Chelyabinsk, reportedly said that she had not heard from her daughter since they spoke on the phone on Christmas Day.
The couple, who visited France, Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Croatia and Spain, were reportedly also last seen together on Christmas Day in the town of Los Barrios, Cadiz Province.
Rose’s disappearance would be reported two weeks later by a friend who suspected that something might have happened to her after not hearing from her.
The police were unable to locate the woman and found it suspicious that her husband had not reported her disappearance.
Investigators believe that Hoseyni murdered his wife in Los Barrios before transporting and disposing of her body in woodland near the town of Alzira in Valencia Province, 754 kilometres (469 miles) away by road.
He was arrested by Spanish police at the Barajas-Adolfo Suarez Airport in the Spanish capital Madrid upon returning to Spain for unknown reasons from the United States, on 28th January.
The police said in a statement obtained by Newsflash that CCTV footage shows the suspect allegedly dragging the body of his wife by her ankles down some stairs at their holiday apartment in Los Barrios before loading her into the boot of a Ford Kuga.
They ascertained that he then made an eight-hour drive to Alzira, where he bought a shovel, a spade, an axe, cut-resistant gloves and a cutter at a DIY shop.
Investigators believe that the suspect, who reportedly did not stop once during the entire trip, buried his wife nearby on 27th December, based on GPS data obtained from the car, which the couple had rented.
The police said that Hoseyni then fled to Italy before flying to London and then returning to Denver via New York in a 12,000-kilometre (7,456-mile) trip, which investigators believe was orchestrated to confuse them.
Police found the heavily decomposed body of Yana Rose, which reportedly also showed signs of having sustained a beating, not far from the DIY shop, on 21st January. A post-mortem indicated that the body had suffered a significant blow to the head.
Hoseyni is said to own a car workshop in Denver, and he reportedly explained to Rose’s mother that her daughter had left the flat in Spain after an argument and that he had gone home to the United States on his own. It is alleged that he gave a different explanation to his wife’s friends by phone, which raised suspicions.
An unnamed source from the Spanish police reportedly said: “He didn’t say anything, he didn’t put up any opposition, and he has not opened his mouth since.”
The suspect is accused of having tortured and murdered his wife before concealing her body. It is currently unclear if he had been formally charged at the time of writing.
