Costa News Spain Breaking News | English News in Spain.
A WEALTHY American Businessman was jailed in Spain for eight years for the murder of his Russian spouse near Gibraltar, 2021.
Michael Martin Hoseyni, 55 at the time, admitted to strangling his wife, Yana Rose, 40, to death in a rented apartment in La Línea de la Concepción on Christmas Day.
Then he embarked on an absurd cross-country trip with her dead body in the boot. He then buried his wife in a shallow crypt near Valencia.
The American was also ordered to pay the family a further €75,000 on top of the €150,000 indemnity he had already paid by the Cadiz court.
READ MORE American man who ‘killed his wife on Christmas Day’ in southern Spain before ‘burying her body’ on the other side of the country to stand trial
Yana’s mutilated corpse was discovered by Spanish police, who then launched a massive international manhunt.
Hoseyni, who had fled the country, returned to the country voluntarily on 28 January, just one week after the corpse was found.
The shovel, trowel and axe that Hoseyni bought at a nearby hypermarket were among the evidence against him.
READ MORE Yana Case: American wanted in wife’s brutal murder returns to Spain to hand himself over to police
The camera in the store captured his face while he was paying for his purchases with his credit card.
He dug the grave in a few days while her corpse was hidden beneath some branches near Alzira.
However, the authorities in Spain – as well as the US – were already on to him.
A couple who were on a world-trotting vacation from Colorado, which included the Balkans and Italy, ended up in La Alcaidesa, Spain, for a whole week during Christmas 2021.
Hoseyni (an American citizen with Iranian ancestry) and Yana (of Russian descent), ran a successful business selling cars in Denver.
Hoseyni, however, had a history of mistreating and beating his wife.
READ MORE Two suspects remain at large after arrest for murder of 80-year-old US priest in Malaga flat.
When he said to Yana’s mom, who had called her daughter on Christmas Day and told her that she’d run away after an argument, dark suspicions began to grow.
Yana’s mother sent her a Whatsapp message stating that Yana would be driving to Milan and flying back to Denver in a BMW she had rented.
On January 9, 2022, Hoseyni’s story was told to Yana’s friends. One of them reported Yana missing to the Policia Nacional.
But what really happened to Yana? The prosecution argued that, in their rented holiday apartment, Hoseyni had taken ‘an extremely aggressive and violent attitude, after hitting her several times and with the intention of ending her life, strangled Yana with his own hands.’
READ MORE Interpol appeal: The seven murdered women in Spain who still need to be identified – and whose killers remain on the loose
The document charging the accused stated: “Yana had to be on the floor due to the high force of blows she received, and so was unable either defend herself or call for help.”
The strangulation took place when Yana was on her back, as a result the force of the blows. She therefore had no opportunity to defend or ask for assistance.
As soon as the crime had been reported, the Missing Persons unit of the Central Unit for Organized and Violent Crimes took charge of the investigation and quickly uncovered a series of evidences that pointed directly towards Hoseyni.
The CCTV footage shows the couple entering their apartment in the morning of 25 December, but Yana never appears again.
The police tracked Hoseyni’s BMW using its GPS to determine the route he took from Valencia to Valencia. They also used the credit card records of his stay and purchases to track him.
