A woman who killed her boyfriend to spend his money has been jailed for 15 years by a Santander court.
Mari Carmen Merino, 66, fatally attacked 67-year-old Jesus Maria G. in Castro Urdiales, Cantabria, in 2019.
They met when she worked as a cafeteria waitress in the town and he had recently retired as manager of the local Banco Santander branch.
She dismembered his body to ‘make him disappear’ and put his head in a cardboard box.
Merino took the box to a friend for safe-keeping saying it was full of sex toys and she was embarrassed to keep it at home.
Her acquaintance showing some curiosity decided one day to look inside the box and discovered the emaciated head.
The rest of his body has never been ever discovered but Merino has been in jail since 2019 awaiting trial.
Evidence was presented that she made 25 withdrawals of €600 each using his bank card during six months in 2019, straight after the killing.
Merino told authorities at the time that he had gone to Galicia with some friends
Since he was only declared as ‘missing’, his bank account remained active along with deposits of his pension.
Mari Carmen Merino had been denounced twice by two men in 2013 and 2017 who lent her money and never got it back.