Suspects given up to 24 years in prison for murder, hiding body parts in suitcase

On Monday, the court in Dordrecht sentenced Abdi B. (27) to 24 years in prison and institutionalized psychiatric treatment for the murder of Manuel Alvarez y Pena (29) from Zwijndrecht. The court sentenced two other suspects in the “suitcase murder” to 20 years in prison for complicity in the murder. A fourth suspect got one year in prison for helping to hide the body. A fifth suspect was acquitted due to a lack of evidence.

The victim, a father of three young children, disappeared on 28 July 2021. Five days later, his dismembered body was found in the trunk of a car parked in Dordrecht. Eleven body parts were stuffed into suitcases.

Last month, the Public Prosecution Service (OM) recommended a prison sentence of 24 years and forced psychiatric treatment against the main suspect, Abdi B., and 20 years in prison against the four other suspects who allegedly helped B. murder the victim and dispose of his body. The court called the crime bestial.

“In itself, it is gruesome when a young life is ended. If that happens through violence, gagging, torture, and stabbing, it can be called bestial,” the court said. The court said it was difficult to find the right words to further express the horror of cutting up the body and stuffing the parts into suitcases.

According to the court, B. lured the victim to a rented house on the Zevenkampse Ring in Rotterdam to extort him. There, he was stabbed to death after being tied up and tortured, the court said. The body was cut into pieces in an inflatable swimming pool in the living room. The police also found bloody shoes, gloves, tie wraps, and traces of the suspects’ DNA in the house, which they had rented for a day.

B. transported the body in two large suitcases in a taxi. Surveillance images on the street recorded this, The taxi ride took B. to Dordrecht, where he put the suitcases in the parked car. “The fact that the victim and his body were treated in this way has made a great impression not only on his loved ones but also on society as a whole,” the court said.