On the same block as Calle de Guadalajara in Parla, a municipality 20 kilometers south of Madrid, there are two bars separated by a single portal. One, the La Espuela frying facility, is the scene of a mysterious event. The other, the Donde Kiko cafeteria, the place where the residents of the neighborhood have gathered to comment on it. “What happened next door?” Asks a young man as he enters the cafeteria. “Haven’t you heard? They have killed Rubén ”, answers David Andrés, the worker at Donde Kiko. It was he who called the emergency services on Tuesday afternoon to raise the alarm that something strange had happened. “The door and the window weren’t completely closed. I approached and from the threshold I saw a body on the ground ”, says Andrés.

Inside the premises, the National Police agents found the bodies of two Spanish men: the owner of the business, Rubén Molero Rodríguez, 62, and a regular customer of the bar, known to the neighbors as El Maño, 50. One of the bodies was behind the bar and the other in front of the counter, several meters away, lying in the center of the room. Investigators also found traces of blood and broken glass on the ground.

Despite the fact that the first police hypotheses pointed to an explosion inside the bar, the National Police for the moment rules out that the cause of death of the two people was an explosion in the kitchen, and is investigating the event as a violent death . One of the bodies had several stab wounds, while the other had head injuries, sources close to the investigation have told EFE. They had been dead for several hours so the event could occur during the night of Monday.

Confusion in the neighborhood

In the 24 hours that have passed since the bodies were found, at the Where Kiko bar, the most absurd stories and hypotheses about the event are heard. There are those who speak of a reckoning, those who speak of a fight that ends in tragedy. Of regulars who were very fond of Molero and others who had had problems with him. “Each neighbor has a different version. Since I opened this morning I have heard talk of explosions, shrapnel marks, robberies … ”, says Andrés, who has spent Wednesday morning telling customers who ask him what it was like to discover the crime.

Two red candles have appeared between the bars of the bar window this Wednesday, a tribute from José Luis Fernández, a neighbor of the neighborhood, to his friend Molero. “I don’t know what Rubén and El Maño have done, or where they have gone, to end up like this. But where they have played they have seen the devil ”, he affirms. He knew Molero very well, while he knows almost nothing about the man known as El Maño. “From time to time I would see them arguing at the bar, but like people do when they are drunk, just like that. From there to what happened… ”, reflects Fernández.

Lidia Giménez, 37, lives in the same building as La Espuela and works at the Donde Kiko cafeteria. Like the other neighbors, he doubts that there was an explosion: “We would have found out from the noise.” He has known Molero his whole life, and although he never frequented La Espuela, he guarantees that it has never been the scene of conflict. “His was a bar with regular customers, it has been open for more than 20 years. Whenever you passed by, you could hear Rubén play the guitar and sing flamenco ”, he recalls.

On the stools on the terrace of the Donde Kiko, Francisco López (65) and Francisco Lara (69) have a few thirds as they talk about the event. “Last night I was going home and the police stopped me on the corner. I had to turn around because it was all fenced in, “says Lara, who crossed paths with the agents of the Scientific Police and the Judicial Police of the Parla Police Station who stayed until dawn on Wednesday gathering evidence of the event.

The two friends confirm that they did not hear an explosion. “The sign says fry, but Rubén didn’t have the gas connected. In reality, I didn’t even have suppliers, I would come to the bar every day with a shopping cart full of beers, ”Lara details. He used to frequent La Espuela until one day, almost at closing time, Molero would not let him in. “Then I saw that he was letting someone else in and I was offended,” he says with a smile.

Antonio Domínguez, 80, learned from the news that something had happened at the bar of his friend, whom he had known for 40 years. He was a regular at La Espuela and this Wednesday he passed through the street of Guadalajara hoping to meet Molero’s son, Alfonso, to offer his condolences. “It is impossible that Rubén has gotten into trouble. In all the time I have spent here, I have never seen anything strange, “he says.

The police are awaiting the result of the autopsy to determine the cause of death. For now, Homicide investigators are trying to find out if the crime was carried out by one or third parties or what happened between the two individuals inside the premises.

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