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Date Published: 21/10/2024

Woman, 24, crushed to death in bin lorry in Mallorca, Spain

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Investigators are comparing DNA to remains found at waste plant

Woman, 24, crushed to death in bin lorry in Mallorca, Spain

A woman, aged 24, is believed to have been crushed to death after passing out in a rubbish container after a night out in Mallorca, Spain.

Student Agostina Rubini Medina disappeared after a night out in Palma, Mallorca, where She was out partying with friends.

It had been almost three weeks after her disappearance, when investigators found the skeletal remains at a waste disposal plant where her phone was last active in the early hours of October 3.

It is now believed that Miss Medina fell into a bin while trying to pick something up, before losing consciousness.

Binmen arrived 15 minutes after a witness saw her handbag set down nearby. Miss Medina’s phone went dead after the vehicle arrived at the incineration plant.

Police believe she would have died before the vehicle arrived at the plant.

Intensive searches have been ongoing at a landfill site where waste is stored, compacted and incinerated on the island.

Police announced recently that they had found human remains inside one of the tanks and sent them to the Institute of Legal Medicine in Palma for analysis.

The tragedy has sent shockwaves through the community, which is still awaiting confirmation of a match in DNA.

Police say if Miss Medina was transported to the incinerator, it would have been "impossible to survive" the journey inside the lorry.

Rubbish is compacted inside and there is little oxygen. Miss Medina is believed to have already been unconscious when the bin was taken away.

Investigators believe a combination of alcohol and medication she was taking may have affected her judgement before "voluntarily" climbing into a bin on the way home.

A witness said they saw a handbag placed next to the bin around 12.12am – some 15 minutes before binmen arrived to empty it.

The waste was then taken to a landfill site, where Miss Medina's phone was last active at 2.59am, on the morning of October 3.

There, trucks dump rubbish into a large sealed room containing some 12,000 tons of waste.

Skeletal remains were found in a tank, and investigators are still working to match the DNA with that of Miss Medina.

Police are still trying to work out exactly what happened in those fateful hours, pooling together witness statements and CCTV footage.

They believe a blouse found in the handbag by the bin at the bus stop belonged to Miss Medina.

An appeal for information noted Miss Medina was wearing blue jeans, a brown T-shirt and an animal print shirt before her disappearance.They describe her as being 1.6m (5ft 2') with brown eyes, brown hair and a tattoo on her back.

Deputy Police Chief Fernando Reboyras said, "She was a thin woman who had difficulty consuming alcohol. This was made worse by the medication she was taking."

Her parents say there was nothing strange about her behaviour earlier in the day.

Miss Medina, born in Argentina but local to Majorca, is understood to have been friends with Malén Ortiz Rodríguez, who disappeared without a trace in 2013.

Despite wide-searching investigations, police were never able to ascertain how the 15-year-old vanished while on the way to her partner's home in Son Ferrer.

The family of Miss Rodríguez said they are helping Miss Medina's family

For more information and news visit our homepage at Spanish News Today

Image: SOS Desaparecidos

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