The stone supposedly used by Thomas Handrick to kill Silvia and Jacob, his wife and one of their two children, weighs 8.5 kilos, and in the cave where the bodies were found there was no other like it. This has been determined on the third day of the trial that is being carried out before the Santa Cruz de Tenerife Court against the alleged perpetrator of the double crime in Adeje, three agents from the Civil Guard criminalistics group, who have intervened as experts and who carried out visual inspections in the defendant’s home and in the cave.
The accused of the double sexist murder in a cave in Adeje alleges having had a “transient mental disorder”
Know more
Like that large stone, 24 x 26 x 14 centimeters, which was found next to Jacob’s corpse with traces of blood, hair of different sizes and brain mass, “there was no other as large or as consistent” inside the cave, one of the experts has indicated. The rest are porous and smaller in size.
The two bodies had extremely serious injuries, especially on the face, since in fact they were unrecognizable, so they had to be identified through DNA. A large stone had been placed on Silvia’s head. The experts deduce that it was placed a posteriorionce he had passed away.
These agents concluded that the attack occurred in the vicinity of one of the three entrances to the cave, where they found traces of blood, part of which they tried to hide under a stone, and broken branches; all of them indications of “an episode of fight”.
One of the experts has indicated that in a violent episode different traces of blood are usually found: splashes, drips, by transfer, puddles… and has added that this is “the classic manual case. There were all kinds of them”, both outside and inside the cave and in the access to it.
The agents have indicated that the cave has three entrances but they only found biological remains in one of them, the one closest to the path that the Handricks hiked on April 23, 2019, which is difficult to navigate due to its high slope. .
These and other experts have agreed that the cave cannot be seen from the path, and that it cannot be reached “by chance”, when it is not directly “impossible”, according to the criteria of one of the agents of the Civil Guard that declared this Thursday.
On the first day of the trial, the defendant and his lawyer told the jury that they did not know the cave in advance and that they found it because they saw a pool of water, which they approached, and the oldest of the children, Jacob, found the cave. entry. It is assumed that the father was looking for a place to hide some Easter eggs and Lego planes that never appeared: neither in the cave, nor in the house, nor in the garbage containers that were searched.
A path not suitable for children
As for the path they climbed to reach the cave, several agents have indicated that it has a medium-high difficulty, although some have described it as “dangerous in some sections.”
In any case, it is not appropriate for two children aged 7 and 10, according to several witnesses, nor is it affordable for a person with severe pain who has to take morphine to calm them, according to Handrick.
In fact, a civil guard who made a reconstruction of the route that the Handricks took has told the trial that he went up to the cave, for which he used “several hours”, and that he arrived exhausted, so he did not have the strength to go down. This and another agent concluded that the youngest child, Jonas, descended on foot until reaching the inhabited nucleus of La Quinta through another side track, which has a longer route but is less difficult.
A civil guard who knew the area and who questioned the defendant before he was arrested has said that he told him that they had gone on an excursion around 10:00 and that halfway, around 12:30, he had tripped and fallen.
Security cameras
So he decided to return to his house, which is about 10 kilometers away, in the town of Adeje, to get his medicines, while his family continued the walk, and he specified that he arrived around 2:30 p.m.
The agent in charge of viewing the cameras installed on the route between the house and the beginning of the path by which the family accessed the cave has detailed that one of them recorded the family accessing the Barranco del Infierno path in the morning . Instead, in the afternoon, they searched no one, not even the accused, returning home alone as he said.
An agent who sealed and checked the garbage containers near the defendant’s house has reported that in one of them they found a plastic bag inside which was a change of clothes, some shoes, a fanny pack and a gym towel stained with blood.
The experts who participated in the home search have said that there were no biological remains related to the case or signs that they had been expressly cleaned to erase them.
After a month there was a third entry to the home, in this case at the request of the German consulate to look for some Jonas stuffed animals, and it was discovered that there had been a robbery. They had taken 160,000 euros from a safe, which had been forced, another 1,000 that were in an office, and a television, according to the defendant.
The author or authors of the robbery left no traces and entered the home through the terrace, after forcing this access, the Civil Guard concluded, which has not been able to clarify this episode.
