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Elderly British couple found dead in their Costa Blanca home
The sad discovery was made at a property in the popular San Fulgencio urbanisation of La Marina
An investigation has been launched into the death of an elderly British couple after their lifeless bodies were found in their San Fulgencio home on Thursday February 13. Social services staff discovered the bodies of an 82-year-old man and a 74-year-old woman in the popular expat community of La Marina on Alicante’s southern Costa Blanca.
According to Guardia Civil sources, the couple was living in a situation of “extreme vulnerability” and the local health services were actively monitoring their health and wellbeing. It was during a routine visit at 1pm on Thursday that the grim discovery was made by workers.
Regular supervision was provided by the Social Services of the San Fulgencio Town Council, the municipal social health service of the Red Cross and primary health care. The elderly couple reportedly had no family in the area.
When staff arrived at the house, which is located in the middle of a bustling housing estate, they became concerned when nobody answered the door for the scheduled appointment. They decided to look through the windows, and that’s when they spotted a body lying on the floor.
After notifying the 112 emergency services, a Guardia Civil patrol from Guardamar del Segura and firefighters entered the house at around 3.30pm and confirmed that the two people were dead. Given the level of decomposition of the bodies, the authorities believe the couple died several days ago.
The Territorial Team of the Almoradí Judicial Police has taken charge of the initial investigations and has carried out an exhaustive inspection of the house and the circumstances in which the couple's death occurred.
The bodies have been transferred to the Institute of Legal Medicine of Alicante where a post-mortem will be carried out to determine the cause of death and a formal identification will be made.
Investigators did not observe any signs of violence at the scene, but this is something that the autopsy will have to ultimately determine.
These British residents were part of a municipal programme run by the Red Cross, a service that has been operating for several months now and which aims to combat loneliness and dependency among the large population of elderly residents in the extensive urbanisations of the municipality.
Both of the deceased suffered from chronic illnesses and had mobility problems, a personal situation that worsened significantly after the man had a bad fall in the middle of January.
The urbanisation areas of San Fulgencio - El Oasis and La Marina - are located several kilometres from the town centre and have thousands of homes, most of which are inhabited by retired European residents.
San Fulgencio is one of the municipalities in Spain with the highest proportion of foreign residents – around 66% of the 10,000-strong population.
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Image: Emma's Bureau
