Police search lockers of doctor and nurse after death in Marbella hotel

National Police officers have searched the lockers of a doctor under investigation and a nurse who died in a Marbella hotel, both at the Hospital Costa del Sol, according to SUR newspaper. The doctor is 66 and the nurse was 56.

The search is thought to be aimed at establishing how the pair obtained the drugs involved, which are restricted to hospital use. Investigators suspect the medication may have been taken from the hospital where they worked.

What happened at the hotel

The case dates back to the afternoon of Thursday 1 October. The doctor called the 091 emergency line to report that his companion had died at a Marbella hotel where they had arrived only hours earlier.

When the first patrols arrived, he was waiting at the entrance and showed them to room 113. The woman was lying on the bed with no vital signs. Officers seized used syringes and vials from the bedside tables, as well as other medication found in a handbag and in the doctor’s vehicle.

According to SUR, the man told police spontaneously that he had injected propofol, a powerful anaesthetic, into the nurse through a vein in the neck. He reportedly said she had given him the same drug by injection in his right arm.

Hotel stays under scrutiny

When officers checked his identity on the Interior Ministry’s ses.hospedajes platform, which records hotel guest registrations, they found hundreds of stays in hotels and guesthouses across the province of Malaga. He was reportedly accompanied at times by men and women. Because he lives in the same province, investigators are trying to understand the reason for these frequent stays.

Charges and court decision

Police read the doctor his rights as a suspect in alleged homicide, an offence against public health and continued theft, the latter over the alleged removal of medicines from the hospital. Any formal charges will be set during the judicial investigation.

The duty judge at Marbella’s Court of First Instance, Investigating Section, court number 5, granted him provisional release with precautionary measures. He may not leave Spain and his passport has been withdrawn. She ruled out any flight risk or danger of evidence being destroyed, noting that he had raised the alarm himself and that officers had collected all samples at the scene.

Police believe the facts point to alleged homicide with “dolo eventual”, a Spanish legal concept in which a person knowingly accepts the likely fatal consequences of an act. Their reasoning is that, given his medical knowledge, he must have understood the lethal risks of giving such an anaesthetic outside a hospital and without life-support equipment.

The investigation remains open and no one has been convicted.

Source: www.diariosur.es