Accused says he proposed to Sandra Ramirez weeks before murder

A man accused of murdering his partner in a frenzied knife attack told police that a few weeks before the murder he had proposed to the victim while on a trip to Paris.

The 43-year-old Colombian, Fabian Eliuth Garcia, is denying charges of having murdered Sandra Ramierz inside a rented apartment in Sliema in January this year.

Ramirez died on January 13, 2024 after being stabbed and slashed 26 times with a knife that Garcia is believed to have purchased from a supermarket a day before.

Garcia turned himself in to the police soon after the murder. During his arraignment, the court was told that he confessed to killing through a mobile phone translation app - a detail reiterated by Inspector Michael Vella who testified about the investigation as the compilation of evidence against Garcia continued before magistrate Monica Vella on Tuesday.

It also emerged from Vella’s testimony that when Garcia was searched at the police station, soon after his apparent confession, he was found to be carrying the victim’s mobile phone on his person.

Officers had gone to the victim's apartment, finding Ramirez’s body in the bedroom, covered with a sheet. CCTV footage from the area had helped the police establish that only the victim and the defendant had been in the apartment, he said.

The police had also gathered a number of sworn statements during their investigation, which had indicated that in the month before her death Ramirez had been unhappy with her relationship with Garcia, and had started meeting up with a Palestinian man whom she had met on TikTok.

The witnesses had told the police that the victim and defendant would often argue over the fact that Ramirez taught English in Malta, but would never have time to help Garcia learn the language, a skill which would have enabled the man, who had been working as a dishwasher at a cafe at the time, to find a better job.

They had also recounted to the police how, on one occasion, Garcia had come back home from work to find Ramirez in the company of her new boyfriend.

But when Garcia was asked about his relationship with Ramirez, during his police interrogation, he had claimed that they were “the perfect couple,” very happy together and very much in love. During their last holiday together, in Paris a few weeks before she was killed, he had asked Sandra to marry him, he said.

When asked about the knife and other items found in the apartment, Garcia confirmed that he had bought them, adding that he had bought the knife because Ramirez had needed a good kitchen knife.

The compilation of evidence will continue next month.

Lawyers Ramon Bonnet Sladden and Kaylie Bonnet from the Attorney General's office are prosecuting, together with police inspectors Michael Vella and Wayne Camilleri.

Lawyers Josè Herrera, Matthew Xuereb and Yanika Bugeja are assisting the defendant, whilst lawyers Arthur Azzopardi, Jacob Magri and Frank Tabone are representing the victim’s family in the proceedings.