Twenty-four years after the murder of Helena Jubany, the case is once again at the center of the judicial and media debate: the judge of the Court of First Instance number 2 of Sabadell has ordered this Friday the provisional imprisonment without bail of Santiago Laiglesia Pla, indicated for two decades as one of the key pieces of the enigmatic crime of the young librarian.
The decision comes after a new biological test that places DNA traces matching Laiglesia on the clothes Jubany was wearing the day she was thrown, still alive, into the inner courtyard of a Sabadell building in December 2001.
The arrest represents a radical change in a case marked by errors, files and years of silence, and revives the question that has hung over the case from the beginning: who is Santiago Laiglesia and why was he always under suspicion?
A case full of shadows: why Laiglesia is once again under investigation
Helena Jubany’s crime has been surrounded by procedural flaws, alibis that were never verified and contradictory testimonies that prevented it from reaching trial in the early years. In 2001, the investigations pointed to two people from the victim’s entourage: Montserrat Careta, a close friend of Helena’s who ended up in provisional prison (and who later took her own life in the Wad-Ras prison), and Santiago Laiglesia, Careta’s partner and fellow member of the Unió Excursionista de Sabadell (UES).
The investigating judge at the time closed the case against Laiglesia for lack of evidence, and in 2005 the case was definitively dismissed. However, the family never believed that Careta had acted alone: the shadow of Laiglesia’s participation remained alive, although without technical elements that would allow the investigation to be reopened.
That turn came in 2021, when, at the request of the family and the prosecutor’s office, the case was reactivated just before the statute of limitations expired. Among the new proceedings, computer devices were reviewed, new witnesses were located and inconsistencies were detected in the versions given by both Laiglesia and Careta in 2001.
Who is really Santiago Laiglesia?
Laiglesia, born in Sabadell, is a lawyer and criminologist. In the years in which the events occurred, he lived with Montserrat Careta and actively participated in the Unió Excursionista de Sabadell, where they met Helena Jubany: both shared hobbies, mountain outings and activities of the hiking group.
After being out of the judicial spotlight in 2005, Laiglesia managed to rebuild his public life. For years he maintained associative activities, especially in Sabadell, where he became part of the board of a neighborhood group involved in campaigns against nightlife in the Hermetic Zone.
In 2016, that same entity defended his presumption of innocence while asking to reopen the Jubany case, a position that always generated controversy among neighbors and members of the entity.
Despite living away from the media spotlight, he refused to participate in the Crims documentary and kept a low profile until 2021, when he had to testify again for the reopening of the case.
Contradictions, new witnesses and the crime house
The broadcast of the documentary Crims on the case opened the door to new testimonies. One witness explained that Laiglesia lived regularly in the apartment from which Helena was allegedly thrown, and that his name appeared on the mailbox next to Careta’s, which contradicted part of his original alibi.
Another witness affirmed that neither Careta nor Laiglesia participated in an environmental protest that both had cited as an excuse to justify their movements in the days prior to the murder.
For Jubany’s family and for the Prosecutor’s Office, this new data reinforced a pattern of contradictions that had never been clarified in the first years. Faced with this accumulation of doubts, the case returned to the scene.
The key piece: DNA that changes the course of the case
Although for years the biological tests gave ambiguous results, a new technique employed by the Scientific Police completely changed the scenario. In September 2025, the agents informed the judge that one of the samples taken from the sweater Helena was wearing on the day of the crime showed a genetic profile compatible with Laiglesia.
The analysis concluded that it was 24 times more likely that the genetic trace belonged to him than to any other person tested. Meanwhile, no DNA compatible with the other person under investigation, Xavi Jiménez, was found.
With these conclusions, the Prosecutor’s Office demanded that Laiglesia be summoned again as a defendant. This Friday, when he was finally called to testify, he invoked his right not to respond. The judge then decided to order him to be remanded in custody without bail.
At the courthouse gates, Helena Jubany’s family burst into tears upon hearing the news: her lawyer, Benet Salellas, described the resolution as a “historic turn”, assuring that it meant “breaking an impunity that had lasted 24 years”.
What’s next: possible new proceedings and a trial approaching
With the imprisonment of Laiglesia, the private prosecution is already preparing the next steps. Among the possibilities, they are considering requesting new precautionary measures for the other defendant, Xavi Jiménez, who until now had only had his passport withdrawn.
At the same time, the examining magistrate is assessing whether to order new evidence or whether the case is ready to proceed with the indictments and set a trial date.
For Helena’s family, the goal remains the same as it was 24 years ago: to finally know what happened and who was involved in her death. “We believe that the trial is close,” her lawyer assured.
The crime of Helena Jubany, one of the most enigmatic and painful of the Catalan judicial chronicle, could finally be facing its final resolution.
