Man convicted of murdering three siblings in Spain over debts linked to online romance scam

A Spanish jury on Thursday found a Pakistani man guilty of murdering three 70-year-old siblings over debts allegedly linked to a online romance scam.

In Spain, a jury’s guilty verdict is followed by a judge’s sentence, usually announced days or weeks later.

Prosecutors are seeking a 36-year prison sentence for Dilawar Hussain, who admitted killing two sisters and their disabled brother in Morata de Tajuna, near Madrid, in December 2023.

Hussain has been detained since he surrendered the following month, after police found the siblings’ partially burned bodies inside their home.

The siblings were beaten to death, possibly with an iron bar, authorities said.

The Civil Guard said the motive for the crime appeared to be a debt the siblings owed the suspect, linked to the sisters’ apparent involvement in an online scam, BBC News reported.

Neighbors told Spanish media that two sisters believed they were having long-distance relationships with two suspected US servicemen.

They were made to believe that one of the servicemen had died and the other needed money to cover expenses so they could send them part of a multi-million euro inheritance, leading the sisters to run up significant debts.

Hussain, who was renting a room in the siblings’ house, allegedly loaned the sisters at least $58,000, which they never repaid, prompting him to attack one of the sisters with a hammer in February 2023.

He was sentenced to two years in prison for the attack, but this sentence was suspended because it was his first offense, as required by Spanish law.

Testifying Tuesday at his trial in Madrid for the siblings’ murders, Hussain asked for forgiveness and said he “heard voices.”

“I was not of sound mind,” he said, according to Spanish media.

Enrique Velilla, a local resident who was a friend of the victims, said the women’s insistence on sending money to their supposed boyfriends led them to sell a property they owned in Madrid, BBC News reported.

“We told them it was all a lie, it was a scam,” he said. “But they didn’t want to hear the word ‘scam’.”

Hussain faces a separate trial for allegedly murdering his 39-year-old Bulgarian cellmate in February 2024 while he was in a Madrid prison awaiting trial for the deaths of his siblings.

Romance scammers embezzle billions of dollars from people looking for love, and their tactics have evolved sinisterly in the Internet age. More than 64,000 Americans were victims of romance scams worth more than $1 billion in 2023, double the $500 million four years earlier, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

About half of people who use dating sites say they met someone who tried to scam them, according to Rep. Brittany Pettersen, a Colorado Democrat, who says tech platforms need to better protect their users.

“No matter how much you think you can understand what’s out there, they’re going to fool a lot of people and we really have to deal with that,” said Republican Rep. David Valadao of California. told CBS News in 2024.