Overview
Tony Alexander King, a British man also known by the birth surname Bromwich, became one of the most notorious killers in modern Spanish criminal history. Between 1999 and 2003 he was responsible for the strangulation deaths of two young women on Spain's Costa del Sol, in Málaga province. His case drew international attention not only because of the crimes themselves, but because it exposed a grave miscarriage of justice: another woman, Dolores Vázquez, had been convicted of one of the killings before DNA evidence identified King as the true perpetrator.
The case combined elements of a serial sexual predator's history in Britain, two violent deaths in southern Spain, and a wrongful conviction that was overturned only when forensic science definitively linked the crimes. It remains a landmark reference point in Spanish discussions of jury trials, media coverage of crime, and judicial error.
Background of the Perpetrator
Tony Alexander King had a documented history of violence against women in the United Kingdom before relocating to Spain. In the mid-1980s, under the name Bromwich, he was convicted in London in connection with a series of attacks on women and became known in the British press as the 'Holloway Strangler.' He served part of a prison sentence before his release.
King later moved to Spain and settled on the Costa del Sol, a heavily populated coastal region in Málaga province popular with British expatriates and tourists. His earlier criminal record in Britain was not initially connected to the Spanish investigations, and for several years the killings on the Costa del Sol remained unexplained.
The Murders
On 9 October 1999, 19-year-old Rocío Wanninkhof disappeared while walking a short distance between her boyfriend's home and her own near Mijas, in Málaga province. Her body was later found, and the case became one of the most high-profile unsolved killings in the region. At the time, no forensic link to King had been established.
On 14 August 2003, 17-year-old Sonia Carabantes was reported missing in the town of Coín, Málaga. Her body was subsequently discovered, and an autopsy determined she had died by asphyxiation. Forensic investigators recovered DNA evidence at the scene. This evidence would prove decisive, both in identifying King and in reopening the earlier Wanninkhof case.
The Wrongful Conviction of Dolores Vázquez
In the years after Rocío Wanninkhof's death, suspicion fell on Dolores Vázquez, who had been in a relationship with the victim's mother. In 2001 a jury found Vázquez guilty of the killing, despite the absence of physical evidence directly linking her to the crime. The verdict was widely reported and intensely scrutinised.
The conviction was annulled by the High Court of Andalusia (Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Andalucía), which cited insufficient justification for the jury's verdict and ordered a retrial. Before that second trial could proceed, the discovery of DNA evidence in 2003 changed the course of the case entirely, leading to Vázquez's full exoneration. Her case became a prominent Spanish example of a miscarriage of justice.
DNA Breakthrough and Convictions
After the murder of Sonia Carabantes in August 2003, DNA recovered from that crime scene was found to match biological evidence connected to the Wanninkhof investigation, reportedly including a cigarette butt collected years earlier. This forensic match identified Tony Alexander King as the killer in both cases and definitively cleared Dolores Vázquez.
King was tried for both deaths. In 2005 he was convicted in connection with the killing of Sonia Carabantes and sentenced to a lengthy prison term, along with an additional sentence for a separate sexual assault. In 2006 a jury found him guilty of the murder of Rocío Wanninkhof, resulting in a further sentence. The combined terms mean he is expected to remain imprisoned in Spain for decades.
Legacy
The Tony King case left a lasting mark on Spanish public consciousness. It is frequently cited in debates about the reliability of jury trials in Spain, the dangers of trial by media, and the importance of forensic DNA evidence in both securing convictions and preventing wrongful ones. The exoneration of Dolores Vázquez, in particular, is remembered as a cautionary example of how circumstantial reasoning and public pressure can produce a flawed verdict.
The case has been revisited in documentary form, including the Netflix production 'Murder by the Coast' (originally 'El caso Wanninkhof-Carabantes'), which examined both the killings and the wrongful conviction. The story continues to be referenced in discussions of justice and the rights of the accused.
