hungarian influencer body found gran canaria ravine case closed

Mystery of Woman Found Dead in Gran Canaria Ravine Solved

A Forbidden Ravine and a Grisly Discovery

The El Berriel ravine is forbidden territory for most hikers. A rocky desert with walls over a hundred metres high, where silence reigns. Mobile signal flickers in and out and GPS disconnects. This inhospitable place in the south of Gran Canaria lies level with Maspalomas Airfield but on the other side of the motorway. There, in the upper part and in one of the pools formed by rainwater in the riverbed, the National Police located the naked corpse of a woman a year ago. Identifying her and closing the case was “a challenge” for the officers from the Maspalomas Local Police Station leading the investigation.

Who she was, how she reached the spot, and how she died were three questions that lay on the desks of the Judicial Police and Forensic Science Brigades for months. Annabella Lovas is the victim’s name, but due to the case’s complexity, it would take months to discover it. When emergency phones rang at around 4:30pm on 6 March 2025, no one imagined the alert would become such a difficult puzzle to solve. A decomposing, partially naked female corpse in a precipice; the absence of documentation and personal effects of a victim who could not be identified by her fingerprints; autopsies that revealed no cause of death, and inconclusive DNA. The Berriel case became a priority.

The Investigation: A Race Against Time

It was a Thursday when two professional canyoners were rappelling down to reach one of the pools, and a discovery forced them to stop. They found the lifeless body of a woman floating face down, wearing only a t-shirt. The rugged terrain made it impossible to reach her by land. A helicopter from the Emergency and Rescue Group (GES) rescued her, transported her to Maspalomas Airfield, and then to the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, where the inquiries began.

“A very strange case, a challenge for the entire police station because it was so unexpected. You never expect a discovery like that, but also because it was so mysterious,” says Pablo Fernández Sala, chief commissioner of the Maspalomas Local Police Station. The investigation presented itself as a conundrum. “It was impossible to identify her,” recalls Fernández Sala. The forensic experts established an approximate date of death: between 15 and 20 days prior. Determining the exact date was impossible due to the body’s saponified state from being in water for so long. Female and young were the only two facts. “How she got there and why she was naked from the waist down was the mystery,” says the commissioner.

Dead Ends and a Breakthrough

The only potential clue was some strange tattoos on her shoulder and back, as fingerprints were not an option. Officers inspected the area by air using police helicopters and drones but found none of her belongings. They also checked active missing persons reports, again without results. The autopsy ruled out violent death, strangulation, sexual assault, and drowning, but provided no positive cause. With the forensic result, they toured hotels in the south of Gran Canaria and issued an international cooperation alert via Interpol and Sirene, the Schengen cooperation system.

The breakthrough came from pulling the files. On 29 November 2024, the National Police received a Sirene request about a missing Hungarian girl: Annabella Lovas. Officers located her on 12 December in apartments on Avenida 8 de Marzo in Playa del Inglés. She said she was fine and did not wish to contact her family. The case was deleted from the system. Annabella stopped communicating on social media two days later. In February, her family reported her missing again. Everything pointed to her, and through Sirene, police confirmed she had tattoos matching the body.

DNA comparison with the family failed due to the poor quality of the sample. Annabella was finally identified in October through a molar. “The mould was sent via Interpol and gave conclusive data. When you have a name it’s easier to find out because most people have dental records. A set of teeth is like a fingerprint,” detailed the commissioner.

Who Was Annabella Lovas?

Annabella, 32, was from Kecskemét, Hungary. A former TV contestant, she won public sympathy after participating in a love search programme, which allowed her to become an influencer. She had come to Gran Canaria on holiday six months before she was found, after overcoming an illness that had left her with psychological after-effects. The Consulate classified her as a “vulnerable person” when reporting her first disappearance in November. “The scars caused by cancer treatment don’t disappear without a trace, but I have managed to overcome everything and I feel it has made me stronger,” she said on social media after being located in December. After that, her profiles vanished.

The Police Theory and Case Closure

The police theory is that she ran out of money and ended up on the streets. Regarding the cause of death, everything is hypothesis. In February last year, an isolated high-altitude depression (DANA) hit the north, centre, and southeast of Gran Canaria. “We think she may have died in another area, either by accident or suicide, and that the floodwater dragged her to El Berriel,” explains Fernández Sala. That floodwater could also have caused her clothing to come off. The family has been notified of the case details.

The police have now closed a case that involved the Forensic Police, Judicial Police, the Special Operations Security Group (GOES), a drone unit, and helicopters. “A challenge,” said the commissioner. Now resolved.

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