British woman, 76, is stabbed to death in Spain: Victim’s Norwegian partner is arrested

A British woman has been stabbed to death on Spain‘s Costa Blanca.

The 76-year-old’s Norwegian partner, 82, has been arrested on suspicion of killing her at a property in Orihuela, a spokesperson for the Civil Guard said today. 

‘We can confirm that today at 7:40am we were alerted to a possible domestic violence incident at a property in Orihuela Costa which resulted in the death of the victim.

‘The wounds she had could correspond to an attack with a bladed weapon.’

The couple are understood to have lived together at the property. It is not clear if they were married.

A view of Orihuela, a city and municipality in the province of Alicante, Spain, where a woman is believed to have been stabbed to death

A person described as a friend is said to have called the Civil Guard.

One unconfirmed report today said the friend had gone to the property at the request of the man arrested so he could help him hand himself in to police.

Sources close to the investigation said they believed the incident that led to the British woman dying occurred in the early hours of this morning.

Detectives said there were no previous reports of any problems between the alleged aggressor and the victim. 

In March, a British woman was found dead inside her home in Orihuela Costa with stab wounds.

Her 69-year-old husband, also thought to be British, was understood to have been arrested as he tried to flee the scene.

Local reports said an unnamed suspect had been included on a database after being accused of domestic violence in 2019, two years after the couple moved to Spain. 

Also in March, it emerged a British man facing a murder charge over the frenzied stabbing of his wife at their Costa del Sol flat had died in hospital and was set to be given a pauper’s funeral.

David Cadwallader, 80, passed away in December last year, less than a month after being remanded in custody following the brutal killing of his wife Lesley who was also from the UK.

News of his death on December 2 last year was only made public four months later.

Reports at the time of the killing said she had phoned the emergency services in a desperate SOS call to say she had been knifed four times before the line went dead.

Her husband, who was thought to have Alzheimer’s, was discovered lying on a bed at their beachfront apartment in Torremolinos and arrested after police forced entry with the help of firefighters.

A judge decided to send him to prison while he continued to investigate him over the November 4 2022 killing, although officials confirmed at the time he had been transferred to a specialist psychiatric wing.

Although the expat had officially been placed under investigation he had yet to be formally charged with any crime at the time of his death.

In December last year a 56-year-old British man was arrested on suspicion of killing his wife of the same nationality at their home near Mazarron in the south-east Spanish province of Murcia.

She was found dead on the ground outside the bungalow they purchased earlier this year.

It was not immediately clear today how far the criminal investigation into that incident has progressed and whether the man arrested remains in custody.