The victim was also missing both hands and had a wide cut from one side of her abdomen to the other, making identification difficult due to the absence of fingerprints and dental records.
The macabre discovery was made by diners at a seafront restaurant on the Marbesa residential development who spotted a body floating in the sea at Las Cañas beach, located between Elviria and Las Chapas. It's believed she may have been dead for between 24 and 36 hours.
Within 24 hours of the discovery of the body, Marbella police arrested a man, who is currently in custody, although sources have indicated there is currently no evidence linking the disappearance of the suspect's former partner and the decapitated corpse.
After footage filmed on the beach went viral on social media, and details of the horrific discovery were made public, a relative of a missing woman contacted police.
He told investigators that he believed the body could be that of his missing sister who was allegedly a victim of gender violence at the hands of her partner - the detainee.
Although the body had no hands or head, he based his suspicion on some of her anatomical features.
Last December, the brother and other family members filed a complaint against a man who had been in a brief relationship with the possible victim, during which time he reportedly physically abused her. A court imposed a restraining order which, according to relatives, the suspect repeatedly violated.
He was arrested for allegedly breaching the protection order and a search has been carried out at his home.
Police initially theorised the victim may have been a drug mule, the name given to people who transport drugs inside their bodies. For this reason, the main hypothesis was that she may have died after a cocaine capsule broke inside her and, before disposing of the body, drug traffickers had extracted the narcotics from her stomach.
However, police sources claim this idea has been losing strength and they are now awaiting the results of a post mortem, which began on Monday at the Institute of Legal Medicine (IML) in Malaga.
The exact date and time of death will prove vital to the investigation. The Guardia Civil is also working with the National Police and DNA tests have been carried out to try to identify the corpse.
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