Tragedy in Spain’s Tenerife as elderly couple ‘may have entered suicide pact because of coronavirus’

AN 82-year-old woman found dead in her home in Tenerife and lying next to her disabled husband, 86, who had serious stab wounds, may have entered into a suicide pact because of the Coronavirus crisis.

This is one of the theories police are working on as they investigate the tragic incident in the tourist resort of Los Cristianos in the south of the holiday island.

The woman’s body was found in their flat, their second home, after worried neighbours raised the alert.

Her husband was lying in his bed nearby in a pool of blood. He was rushed to hospital in a critical condition with serious cuts to his arms.

The elderly couple, both Spanish, were visiting Tenerife from the Basque Country.

Spanish newspapers say the husband had health problems and was being looked after by his wife.

It is believed the woman might have inflicted the stab wounds on her husband first and had intended to do the same to herself.

However, before she could do so, she apparently slipped and fell, hitting her head in the process and then dying, either from the blow or from blood loss.

Police have launched a full investigation and say they are not ruling anything out.

There is speculation that it was a suicide pact gone wrong, prompted by the coronavirus.

In the Canary Islands, there have been 39 deaths, virtually all of them elderly victims.

An autopsy is being carried out on the woman to determine exactly how she died and police are waiting to talk to the surviving husband.