The disappearance of young Albanian Artjol Ramaj in Spain in March 2023 is set to be heard by a jury. Prosecutors suspect he was killed by the 52-year-old man he lived with after a dispute over 5 euros. His remains were discovered about a month and a half later in a wooded area near the house.
Ramaj disappeared on the night of March 2, 2023. Since late 2022, he had been living in a house in Riudarenes, Girona, with a man known as “El Seco” (the Thin One). They tended and guarded a cannabis plantation on the property.
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After several days without hearing from him, an acquaintance of Ramaj’s alerted the Catalan police, the Mossos d’Esquadra. He told officers that the relationship between Ramaj and the 52-year-old had become strained and that they had clashed several times.
Police went to the house and arrested the 52-year-old, the owner of the property, on a cannabis cultivation charge. The plantation was dismantled, but no trace of Ramaj was found at the time.
On April 17, 2023, someone walking a dog came across skeletal remains in the woods near the Can Fornaca residential complex, close to the house where Ramaj and the 52-year-old had lived.
The body was incomplete. According to investigators, the remains had been scattered and damaged by wild animals, including wild boars and dogs roaming the area. Because of the condition of the bones, it was not possible to determine all the injuries the victim may have sustained. A knife was also found near the remains.
Investigators suspect the body was deliberately left there for animals to tear apart, making identification and the discovery of evidence more difficult.
According to the investigating judge, “El Seco” is suspected of attacking Ramaj while he was lying in bed, unaware an attack was coming. Their final confrontation is thought to have begun over 5 euros that the 52-year-old claimed Ramaj had taken from him.
Prosecutors describe the attack as extremely violent. They say Ramaj’s fatal injuries included a brain injury.
At the site where the bones were found, police discovered a towel, a duvet cover, a pillow and a carpet with bloodstains. Blood was also found in the victim’s bedroom, where the accused is suspected of having tried to clean up the traces.
Bloodstains were also found in a van suspected of having been used to take the body to the woods. In the house’s washing machine, investigators found bloodstained trousers that they believe belonged to the 52-year-old. Prosecutors consider these among the pieces of evidence linking him to the suspected crime.
After several years of investigation, the court in Santa Coloma de Farners has concluded the preliminary stage and decided that the case will be tried before a jury. Prosecutors are seeking 22 years and five months in prison for the accused, while the two private prosecutions are seeking harsher sentences.
The 52-year-old denies killing Ramaj. His lawyer says the case rests largely on circumstantial evidence and interconnected suspicions, rather than direct evidence that he committed the killing.
According to the defence, the blood in the bedroom does not establish that Ramaj died there, and living with the victim does not prove that the accused is the killer. The lawyer also disputes the conclusion that the stains on the trousers and in the van directly prove the attack and the transport of the body.
She has requested that the case be dismissed. In her argument, the investigation’s conclusions rely on assumptions that reinforce one another but do not prove her client’s involvement beyond a reasonable doubt.
Security cameras at the residential complex are also part of the investigation. The judge has asked Riudarenes Town Council for the recordings to check the accused man’s possible movements in the hours after the crime.
The council initially responded that footage is automatically deleted six months after it is recorded, making it difficult to obtain for the investigation.
The case file also contains a procedural issue involving Jonathan Juiz, the lawyer for the victim’s father. His name appears on the witness list because he was among the first to speak with the accused to seek an explanation for Ramaj’s disappearance. However, Juiz is not expected to testify at the trial. Two expert reports to which he contributed during the investigation have been included in the court file.
In addition to murder, the 52-year-old is accused of desecrating the body. Prosecutors are seeking five months in prison on that charge.
Prosecutors are also seeking compensation of 140,000 euros for Ramaj’s parents and 35,000 euros for his sister. They note that the family was able to bury only the skeletal remains that were found, deepening their grief over his loss.
