TORREMOLINOS/RINGEBU (VG) The young woman who was found dead on an open street in Torremolinos in Spain last week was Anne Mathea Røen Morken (21) from Ringebu in Gudbrandsdalen. Spanish police are investigating the death.
The police release the name in a press release in consultation with the next of kin.
Anne Mathea stayed the night until Thursday 14 September found lifeless in a side street to Benyamina Avenue, which goes down to the beach in the resort town on the Spanish Sunshine Coast.
Spanish police worked for a long time on identifying the woman, before they could confirm on Tuesday that it was a 21-year-old Norwegian woman. Kripos has assisted in the work.
The Norwegian embassy in Madrid provides consular assistance to the next of kin. The Seamen’s Church will also assist them, they say to VG.
The death has triggered grief in the home village Ring boo. The municipality north of Lillehammer has set up a crisis team.
– We feel very much for the family, and our warmest thoughts go out to them. This is a deeply tragic event, and we are all genuinely sad, says municipal director Håvard Gangsås to VG.
Anne Mathea Morken was active in the Ringebu-Fåvang Ski Club in her youth and participated, among other things, in the NM relay in 2018. She studied sports at Gausdal upper secondary school.
She has also worked part-time at Annis Pølsemakeri, the well-known meat producer and delicatessen in Ringebu.
In the 2021–2022 school year, Anne Mathea will have been a student at the Norwegian private school Active Education, which trains personal trainers. The first semester of the annual study takes place in Fuengirola, about twenty minutes north-east of Torremolinos.
– It was very sad to hear about the Norwegian woman who was found dead in Spain last week, and our thoughts go out to the next of kin, writes general manager at Active Education Ola Furseth to VG.
He adds that the school hopes the Spanish police with assistance from Kripos can contribute to clarifying the cause of the death.
Spanish police inform VG that the woman has lived in Spain for just over a year.
Found by passersby
The police are said to have obtained surveillance videos and interviewed witnesses in the residential area where the woman was found, but will not officially confirm whether they suspect that she has been the victim of a criminal act.
Spanish police are now awaiting the autopsy report and do not wish to comment on the cause of death for the time being, they said earlier on Tuesday.
According to Spanish media, Anne Mathea was found in the open street by passers-by, who alerted the police. The newspaper El País writes that health personnel declared her dead on the spot.
She must have been without ID papers. According to El País, an empty bag or bag was found on the asphalt next to her.
A neighbor VG talked to, says that it is a very quiet area, and that they have never experienced anything like it. The scene is approximately 800 meters from the town beach. Torremolinos is located between Málaga and Marbella.
A surveillance camera outside a beauty salon may have captured parts of the event. Spanish police have obtained the recordings.
