The old adage ‘no body, no crime’ is a dangerous fallacy, according to the head of the Catalan police force’s elite unit for solving the most challenging of homicides. Sergeant Pere Sànchez, chief of the Mossos d’Esquadra’s Central Unit for Missing Persons (UCPD), is at the forefront of a meticulous investigative practice that has repeatedly proven a murder can be brought to justice even without its most definitive piece of evidence: the victim’s corpse.
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“It’s still said that ‘without a body, there is no crime,’ and it’s a fallacy,” Sànchez stated in an interview with ABC Cataluña. For the first time in Spanish legal history, his unit, part of the force’s Criminal Investigation Division, shattered that myth in 2014 by securing a landmark conviction, finding a person guilty of homicide without a body, biological traces, a defined crime scene, or direct witnesses.
The case was that of Ramón Laso, a man described by Sànchez as a “textbook psychopath,” who was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Laso received his conviction for the 2009 murders of his partner, Julia Lamas, and his brother-in-law, Maurici Font, whose bodies were never found. This was not Laso’s first time taking a life. He had previously been convicted for the murders of his first wife in 1988, which he disguised as a suicide, and his six-year-old son months later in a staged car accident.
The Psychology of a Killer
For investigators, the key to unlocking the case was not found in physical evidence, but in understanding the cold, functional logic of the killer’s mind. “Everyone was clear that he had been the author of the events, but there was no way to prove it,” Sànchez explained. The breakthrough came when they identified a chilling pattern.
“There was an absolute parallel between the events of the 80s, when he killed his wife and 6-year-old son, and those of 2009,” he noted. Laso, he explained, is not an impulsive predator but a functional psychopath who acts on clear motives. “He is someone who has an interest, and if you bother him, he objectifies you and sees you as an object. He killed his son because he wanted a relationship with a woman without paternal responsibility. The child was in the way.”
Laso applied the same ‘reasoning’ to his next victims. “He was with Julia and started another relationship with her sister. He proposed they run away together, but she said she would not leave her husband. Who was in the way? His partner and his brother-in-law,” Sànchez said. This psychological profile became the central pillar of the prosecution’s case.
Building a Case from Shadows
Unlike other infamous Spanish cases, such as the murder of Marta del Castillo which involved a confession, or the José Bretón case that eventually led to the discovery of victims’ remains, the Laso investigation had no such direct proof. Instead, the UCPD built its case on a web of circumstantial evidence.
Spain’s Supreme Court jurisprudence establishes that isolated clues, while insufficient alone, become powerful when analysed as a whole. Adhering to this, the team meticulously pieced together Laso’s movements. The triangulation of his mobile phone and the positioning of his car provided a digital footprint that contradicted his alibi and placed him at key locations. This meticulous concatenation of evidence, presented to a jury, proved his guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
Sànchez detailed that the first step in any such investigation is proving the absence of life. “We need to demonstrate that the missing person is not alive,” he said. This involves confirming the individual has not used bank accounts, accessed their phone, or contacted close family. Only then does the focus shift to homicide.
A Proven Methodology
Since its creation in 2010, the UCPD has investigated 28 homicides disguised as disappearances. Over 70% were cases of gender-based violence, and in every instance, the perpetrator belonged to the victim’s close circle.
Sànchez explained the killer’s logic in disposing of a body. “When someone commits a crime of that level, all their energy is directed at getting as far away as possible from that scene. Now, when someone spends energy not only to stop that instinct but to move the body, increasing the chances of being caught… it’s because they have no other option if they intend to get away with it.”
The Laso case was a watershed moment, but the unit’s success has continued. It has since secured two more ‘no-body’ murder convictions. One was against Mohamed Tahiri for the murder of his ex-partner, Piedad Moya. Another case involved Diego Vargas, murdered by his business partner in Barcelona’s Sant Andreu district. This complex investigation, which Barna.News followed closely, ultimately resulted in a 15-year prison sentence for Luis Bonet, convicted based on similar circumstantial evidence.
For a unit dedicated to finding answers where there appear to be none, the work is a race against time. Sànchez paraphrased the pioneer of forensics, Edmond Locard: “Time that passes, truth that flees.” However, thanks to the UCPD’s meticulous work, this truth is increasingly being found, even without the victim’s presence.
