Spanish cops hunting for missing British mum plan new sea and land searches after revelations of ‘violent episode’ at home she shared with her boyfriend
Spanish police will hire specialists to help them locate the Scottish mum's body
POLICE searching for a missing British mum are planning new sea and land searches after receiving confirmation of a “violent episode” at the home she shared with her suspect boyfriend.
Spanish murder squad detectives are set to hire specialists to help them hunt for Lisa Brown’s body using ground-penetrating radar and underwater electronic equipment.
The 32-year-old, from Alexandria, Dunbartonshire, is feared dead after disappearing from her expat home in Guadiaro near Gibraltar on November 4 last year.
Boyfriend Simon Corner, 34, has been held in jail on suspicion of killing her since being detained in Denmark on a European Arrest Warrant in April and extradited to Spain.
Civil Guard officers have previously searched woodland and a river near her home - but are now set to step up their efforts with a hi-tech search across a wider area involving external experts.
The development follows confirmation from Madrid-based forensic specialists who have analysed DNA found in blood stains at Lisa’s home that a violent incident involving her and Corner took place at the property.
DNA tests on Lisa’s Ford Focus car, which Corner used, have also come back with what detectives believe to be positive results for their probe against the Liverpool-born former convict.
They are now preparing to analyse data from three mobile phones which the Brit, jailed for three months in Gibraltar in May 2014 for possession of an offensive weapon after a nightclub altercation, was spotted throwing into a harbour in the Danish capital Copenhagen before being arrested.
It was reported earlier this year a witness had watched him launching the phones into the water - and it was thought the information they contained had been destroyed.
But a source close to the criminal inquiry, which is being coordinated by a judge based in the town of San Roque, confirmed the data on them had been recovered.
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The source said: “The phones had been in the water for several hours by the time they were recovered and officers feared they had been rendered worthless.
“But police specialists have been able to recover all the information on both the SIM cards and the handsets.
“Investigators are about to start analysing the material and are hopeful it will prove useful in the search for Lisa and the efforts to make sure those behind her disappearance face justice and punishment if proven guilty.”
Another insider added: “The new searches are imminent. There have been other searches conducted since the ones that took place immediately after Lisa’s disappearance but none as extensive and hi-tech as the ones scheduled for the next few weeks.
“The investigation has taken a major step forward with the DNA confirmation a violent episode involving Simon and Lisa took place inside her home.
“Investigators believe Lisa’s body could have been disposed of at sea but are not ruling out the idea she may have been buried on land and will probe both possibilities when the searches begin.”
Corner, who was born Dean Woods but changed his name after a string of run-ins with British police, is being investigated on suspicion of Lisa’s homicide.
He was remanded in prison in May after appearing in a closed court hearing before the judge continuing to probe him.
He has not been formally charged with any crime, as is normal in Spain where charges are usually laid shortly before trial.
Six other men have been arrested in connection with the ongoing inquiry, including a pal of Simon Corner’s who was jailed for four years and nine months in July after admitting trying to smuggle 17 illegal Albanian immigrants into an English south coast marina on board a boat two months earlier.
Stephen Jackson, 51, of West Withering, West Sussex, is facing eventual extradition to Spain for questioning over Lisa’s disappearance.
Officers are hoping he can be flown to Spain for interrogation before he completes his UK sentence, although they are also considering jetting to England to question him in prison.
Further arrests have not been ruled out by Civil Guard detectives.
Boat owner Corner was lambasted by worried Lisa’s family and friends for leaving Spain days after she vanished.
He sparked suspicion by flying to the Far East following a short police quiz after he was taken away by investigators from Sotogrande Port near Gibraltar as he worked on his 30-foot sailing boat.
He returned to the Costa del Sol in January promising to meet investigators - but left mainland Spain again days later to travel to the Canaries and then Ireland before a European Arrest Warrant was put out for him.
He has claimed he has no idea where his girlfriend is and says he is innocent of any wrongdoing.
Lisa’s ten-year-old son Marco has been looked after by his dad Tony Tomillero at his home in La Linea opposite Gibraltar with the help of Lisa’s relatives since she disappeared.
Speaking after Corner’s arrest, Lisa’s sister Helen who has led a well-supported Facebook campaign called Find Lisa, said: “We’re very happy but we still want desperately to find out what happened to Lisa. That’s been the main purpose of our campaign from the start.”
The Algeciras-based Civil Guard unit investigating the Lisa Brown case have made a series of high-profile arrests in recent months.
In June they arrested the suspected killer of a Chinese shop worker who was stabbed to death when he refused to hand over till takings to an armed robber.
They took just 24 hours to identify and hold the 40-year-old Spaniard.
In July they arrested four people suspected of kidnapping a businessman they assaulted and threatened to kill along with his family unless he handed them the POUNDS 25,000 they were demanding.
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