In what appears to be another case of gender violence in Valencia, this weekend saw a murder and attempted suicide. It took place in the wealthy neighbourhood of Canovas. Report by Eugene Costello and Daniel Hazelhoff
In what campaigners and commentators are already labelling the latest example of gender violence in Valencia, a man appears to have murdered his partner in the flat she shared with him in Canovas at the weekend. The woman’s partner appears to have jumped from the seventh-floor flat following the incident.
Cristina Blanch, 30, was found dead on Saturday, while her partner, Alberto Luján, 38, was in hospital for injuries sustained during the fall the previous morning.
Luján, a lawyer and university professor, fell from the seventh floor of his finca. This was on Carrer del Comte d’Altea, in the upmarket neighbourhood of Canovas on Friday morning. He had smashed through the roof of a restaurant on the ground floor below. A restaurant employee found Luján at 9:00am. He was bleeding and injured, and was wearing only his pyjama bottoms. He had suffered fractures in his leg because of the fall.
Suspicious changing of accounts
Luján aroused suspicion by changing his version of events a couple of times. His first account claimed that he was attempting to climb down to the restaurant in order to rob it. The injuries came about when he was hanging from a drainpipe.
Later, he retracted this account. He instead claimed that the fall and his injuries were was the result of an attempted suicide.
The chain of events took place last Friday, 3 December. National police – policía nacionál – arrested Luján at Doctor Peset hospital in Patraix. Staff were treating him for injuries sustained in the fall.
Initially, the police theory was that Luján was trying to climb down through the interior patio of the building. He was doing to to avoid passersby witnessing him breaking into the restaurant, according to Levante-emv.
While questioning him at the hospital, the police asked for a DNA sample but he refused his consent. Since he had no prior criminal record, they were unable to charge him for attempted robbery, despite his apparent confession.
Then the following morning, the body of his partner Cristina Blanch was found murdered in his flat. She had multiple stab wounds. Accounts differ as to who found the body. Las Provincias state that Luján’s brother discovered her. El Español and Levante-emv report that her own mother, Cristina M, found her at 9:30am on Saturday 4 December.
Evidence of a fight
When the first responders arrived at the crime scene, they reported signs of a struggle. It appears that Blanch had defended herself against the aggressor, allegedly Luján. They say the aggressor had attacked her with two knives.
Shortly after the discovery, police arrived at hospital Doctor Peset, and arrested Luján for the unlawful killing.
When Blanch failed to show up for a work meeting on Friday, colleagues became concerned. Her personal phone had been disconnected from Thursday 2 December, although her work phone remained on but unanswered. It was then that police tracked the phone to Carrer Comte del Altea.
Blanch was a business consultant and had an impressive record. She held a double degree in law and business administration and management from the Universidad de Valencia. Blanch had also completed a masters degree in Bremen, Germany, another in the EDEM, Valencia, and one in ICEX Madrid. She worked for Distrito 10 Communicación S.L, Interreg Europe, Lidl and Schrieber Foods. Blanch was also on the board of directors for Ad Infinitum Inversiones, a company founded by her parents, reports El Español.
Friends ‘shocked’
Speaking exclusively to Valencia Life, someone who was part of the couple’s social group who insisted upon anonymity, said: “Everyone is completely shocked. We share friends and I know their families.
“It has sent shockwaves through the community.
“They had only been together for a few months and had no children.”
Murders in general are rising in La Comunidad de Valencia, including those against women, with women’s groups having held vigils and protests here in the city.
