Missing man’s body found 15 years after disappearing as Storm Alice floods abandoned flat

The remains of a man, last seen by neighbours in 2010, were found on Saturday in his pigeon-infested home in La Fuensanta, Valencia, after recent flooding caused by Storm Alice

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The remains of an elderly man, believed to have died 15 years ago, have been discovered in his Valencia home after Storm Alice flooded^[1] part of his apartment building, local media report. It comes as Spain’s^[2] east coast is on orange alert for heavy rains and flooding^[3].

Antonio F, a retired bricklayer born in 1936, is said to have last been seen in 2010 by neighbours in the six-storey apartment building on Luis Fenollet Street, in the La Fuensanta neighbourhood. Locals assumed he had moved to a retirement home. But firefighters reportedly stumbled upon his remains on Saturday after floodwater leaked into the home of 81-year-old woman living below.

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The sixth-floor apartment was accessed via its balcony using a ladder from a high-rise vehicle. Witnesses told newspaper Las Provincias^[6] that dozens of pigeons flew out as soon as firefighters set foot on the balcony.

Inside, the flat was reportedly filled with droppings, dead pigeons and up to two feet of sand, with water running from leaks on the terrace.

Firefighters found Antonio’s skeletal remains in the bedroom, and the National Police and forensic team later discovered bones in the living room, which pigeons are believed to have carried there. Officials said they had never seen anything like it.

The National Police’s Homicide Unit has taken over the investigation, though detectives do not suspect foul play. The house was reportedly locked from the inside with a sliding bolt. The body has been taken to Valencia’s Institute of Forensic Medicine, with a post-mortem scheduled.

The son of the 81-year-old woman below alerted authorities to the leak in his mother’s home. He told Las Provincias: “First of all I phoned the insurance people but they told me to alert the fire service. The water was coming into my mum’s bedroom as well as through the ceiling of her bathroom and the dining room.

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“It had been years since we saw the man living above. As his windows were broken and it had been raining heavily, I thought initially the water was coming in through them and leaking down.

“We managed to see from a look outside that the problem was on a terrace, where it turned out a glass was blocking the guttering. When the firefighters and police accessed the property, they found the body of someone who had been dead for several years, as well as lots of pigeons.

“The place was in a really bad state. The last time we saw the owner was in 2010. The police told me there wasn’t a lot left of his body and it was basically a skeleton.”

Antonio is said to have separated from his wife and had no relationship with his two sons.

Alarm bells were not raised as payments for the flat’s rent and utility bills reportedly continued. Given he received his pension via bank transfer, there was no shortage of cash in the account to cover the bills. Neighbours explained that letters sent to the mailbox were thrown away or given to the property manager.

The discovery comes after Storm Alice – named by the Spanish weather^[7] agency AEMET – drenched the Valencia region, with rainfall totals of 6.3 inches recorded in Valencia Province in just 24 hours.

Valencia was also hit in October 2024 by a more powerful DANA storm, which tragically killed more than 200 people^[8].