A FUGITIVE wanted over the killing of an Irishman at a Costa Blanca villa has died before he could be brought to justice.
Spain had just issued a new international arrest warrant against Simon Fahy after declaring him in contempt of court following a failed earlier bid to have him extradited from Ireland over the alleged “love triangle” murder.
The 30-year-old was one of six people, including prime suspect Wayne Walsh, prosecuted and facing trial following a long-running investigation sparked by the January 2019 discovery of Carl Carr’s body in a shallow grave by a motorway.
The 38-year-old Dubliner had been reported missing by his British hairdresser girlfriend around five months earlier.
It emerged overnight Fahy, first made a wanted man by the Spanish authorities four years ago before their initial extradition request was rejected by Ireland, had died last Friday.
A death notice on obituary website rip.ie carried his photo and said he would be “sadly missed” by his heartbroken mum and dad and other relatives and friends.
It announced a funeral would take place privately for Simon, from Loughboy, Kilkenny, for “family and close friends only.”
The circumstances surrounding his death have not been made public, although it is understood it is not being treated as a crime.
Fahy taunted police by posting pictures of him partying on social media when he was first made a fugitive.
A date for the trial Spanish authorities wanted to make him part of has not yet been set, but well-placed sources said today prosecutors had issued indictments against the other suspects and it was likely to be scheduled shortly for “sometime next year.”
All five are on bail, including 35-year-old Walsh who was one of Carl’s flatmates, at a residential estate in the Costa Blanca town of Torrevieja.
Two of the three female suspects include a part-time model and a bar manager Walsh had been romantically linked with.
They have not been charged with killing Carl and are instead facing lesser charges including concealment. Their trial will be in front of a jury.
A well-placed court source said: “The investigating judge decided a trial could take place last month following a lengthy criminal probe.
“Indictments against the accused have been presented and the case has been sent for trial at a higher provincial court.”
Another insider said: “Fahy was investigated in this case and the investigating court asked the Irish authorities to locate him after deciding the case should go to trial and inform him of the decision and his legal obligations.
“The Irish authorities replied saying they couldn’t find him at an address they had for him and the Spanish judge issued an international arrest warrant against him.
“That is still in place and will remain so until the courts here have proof of his death.”
Mr Carr’s body was found buried at the end of January 2019 by the AP-7 motorway between the Costa Blanca towns of Benijofar and Algorfa.
He had last been seen in September 2018 after a night out in nearby Cabo Roig.
Police said they believed he was killed in a fight with a knuckle-duster before his body was driven to woods 20 minutes north of his home and buried alongside bleach used in a clean-up operation to hide the crime.
Carl’s grief-stricken mum Marie said after being told her son’s body had been found: “I believe he was killed because of a romantic triangle, by a man he knew who accused him of dating one of his girlfriends.
“He told me twice in the last conversation we had that he loved me. Those were his last words, ‘I love you Mam.’”
Saying he spoke regularly to his two young children in Ireland by a former long-term partner, she added: “I knew this was never a voluntary disappearance. He talked to his children every day and he talked to me every second day.
“Whoever did this to my son must pay the consequences.”
In March it emerged Wayne Walsh had been re-arrested in Spain as the alleged leader of a drug trafficking organisation.
He had been released on conditional bail in August 2020 while he continued to be probed over Carl Carr’s homicide.
The Civil Guard subsequently held him on suspicion of leading a gang based in the Costa Blanca resort of Torrevieja which was using parcel and courier companies to send drugs to the UK, Ireland and the States.
The judicial investigation into the drug allegations is still ongoing but well-placed sources said Walsh had also been released on conditional bail in that case.
Source: Sunday World
