Margarita Sánchez Gutiérrez was tried in Barcelona in 1997 and 1998 over a run of illnesses and deaths among relatives, neighbors and acquaintances in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat and Barcelona between 1992 and 1995. Prosecutors charged her with murder and attempted murder. The court that heard the evidence did not convict her of any killing. In January 1998 it found her guilty of three counts of injuries, robbery with violence and forgery, and acquitted her of the murder charges, accepting that she had acted to rob the people around her and not to kill them. She was sentenced to 34 years in prison.
The case therefore sits in an uncertain place. Several people close to her died in those years, and the press has often described her as responsible for four or five of the deaths. The law did not. What the verdict established was a pattern of harm to vulnerable people done for money. Every death linked to her remains an accusation or an attribution, not a finding.
Margarita Sánchez Gutiérrez was born in 1953 in Málaga. Infobae, in a 2024 account, says she grew up in a poor family with parents who drank, and that she left for Barcelona as a teenager. La Voz gives her date of birth as December 26, 1953. In Barcelona she worked as a carer for elderly people, a trade that put her in the homes of people who were alone, ill or without close relatives.
She married in Barcelona, and the couple had two children, a daughter and a son. In 1991, La Voz reports, the family moved into the apartment of her husband's parents in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, partly so that they could look after an ailing father-in-law.
Within a few years a group of people fell ill or died, all of whom she knew as relatives, neighbors or people in her care.
Infobae describes an elderly woman in her care, aged 70, who had no close relatives. She fell ill on August 3, 1992 and died in hospital days later; about one million pesetas had been withdrawn from her account shortly before. betevé, in 2026, also describes a woman from whom she took more than one million pesetas, and treats that as a theft.
Her husband died in October 1992, at 44 according to La Voz. Infobae gives the date as October 26 and says he had been in hospital earlier that year; betevé says that she afterwards used his death for financial gain.
In 1993, according to Infobae, her brother-in-law, 50, died in L'Hospitalet on August 14 after moving in with the family; La Voz adds that his bank account was found empty. A neighbor, 57, whom she had been hired to look after, died soon after she began to care for him, and a second neighbor, 69, with whom she had a relationship and who had lent her 500,000 pesetas, died in September 1993. La Voz agrees on the older neighbor's loss of about 500,000 pesetas but says he survived, so the accounts differ on whether that case was a death.
Her mother-in-law was taken to hospital five times; her suspicions, Infobae says, led to the daughter-in-law being put out of the home. A 67-year-old neighbor spent 23 days in hospital, and money and jewelry were missing. betevé describes a third person who survived.
Infobae reports that police surveillance in early 1996 led to her arrest. La Voz says she was detained in 1996 at the age of 43 after a surviving victim went to the police. The agency Servimedia, writing in May 1997, says she had been in prison since June 21, 1996.
Her daughter, then a minor, was detained too, as an alleged accomplice. La Voz says she confessed in some statements, denied wrongdoing in others and admitted only robbery.
According to Infobae she was first charged with four murders and three attempted murders. betevé adds that she also sold household goods bought on credit with forged documents in her husband's name, defrauding local shops.
On May 15, 1997 Servimedia reported that the prosecutor had filed an indictment at the Audiencia de Barcelona asking for 80 years in total. The counts against Margarita Sánchez Gutiérrez were two murders, three attempted murders, three robberies with violence, three counts of continued fraud, two of continued forgery of a commercial document and one of attempted fraud. The two murders were of neighbors. The attempted murders concerned her husband, her mother-in-law and two family friends. The agency said the crimes took place between 1992 and 1995 and that the stated motive was to take money from the victims.
Her daughter faced a smaller indictment of one murder, one attempted murder and two robberies with violence, for which the prosecutor asked four years and six months for complicity. The daughter was free at that time and had to report weekly to a juvenile assistance delegate.
A Cambio 16 report of November 17, 1997 describes the trial as beginning in Barcelona on a Thursday, the 6th, and counts the charges as one murder and four attempted murders. Whether the figures reflect a change in the indictment or a different way of counting is not on record.
The court gave its decision in January 1998. According to Infobae, it convicted Margarita Sánchez Gutiérrez of three counts of injuries, of robbery with violence and of forgery, and acquitted her of the murders because it considered that her aim was to rob her victims, not to kill them. La Voz gives the same outcome, saying she was convicted of three counts of causing injury, three of robbery with violence and one of forgery. It adds that the court attributed none of the deaths to her and found that her aim was to rob her victims. betevé, summarizing the case in 2026, says she was not convicted of murder because the forensic evidence was insufficient given the technical limits of the time, and that she was convicted of injuries, fraud, improper appropriation and robbery.
The sentence was 34 years. Her daughter, who was a minor, was sentenced as the main accomplice: Infobae says four years, betevé five years for her part in forging checks and bank signatures.
No appeal to the Tribunal Supremo is on record.
Infobae reported in June 2024 that she was released in 2016 after about 25 years in custody and that she lives in the province of Barcelona and declines to discuss the case. A parole or release decision is not on record.
Proven in court: the January 1998 convictions for injuries, robbery with violence and forgery, and the sentence of 34 years.
Acquitted: the murder charges. The court accepted that her purpose was robbery.
Accused only: the deaths. The indictment of May 1997 named two murders; the press accounts list four or five deaths from 1992 and 1993; Cambio 16 counted one murder. The counts and the identity of the victims differ from account to account.
Attributed in the press: that she caused all of these illnesses and deaths. No court made that finding.
1953: born in Málaga.
1991: the family moves into the in-laws' apartment in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat.
August 3, 1992: an elderly woman in her care falls ill; she dies days later (Infobae).
October 1992: her husband dies (Infobae gives October 26).
August and September 1993: deaths of a brother-in-law and neighbors, per Infobae.
Early 1996: arrested after police surveillance (Infobae).
June 21, 1996: in prison (Servimedia).
May 15, 1997: prosecutor seeks 80 years at the Audiencia de Barcelona.
November 1997: trial reported to have begun in Barcelona (Cambio 16).
January 1998: convicted of injuries, robbery with violence and forgery; acquitted of murder; 34 years.
2016: released, per Infobae (2024).