The Martil Garage Murders

For more than a decade, a disappearance in northern Morocco appeared publicly as a missing-person mystery. In 2023, police in Tétouan announced that a woman and her brother had been arrested over the suspected 2012 murder of her husband after human remains were recovered from the garage of the family home in Martil. The investigation later developed into a double-murder prosecution involving the woman's son as a second victim.

The 2012 disappearance

According to police information reported by Morocco's state news agency MAP and local outlets, the husband disappeared in 2012. His wife had presented the case as an unexplained disappearance.

When the investigation was revived years later, police alleged that the disappearance report had been used to divert attention from a homicide. The early police account said the husband had been killed and buried at the residence.

The 2023 arrests

On May 31, 2023, Tétouan judicial police arrested the wife and her brother. MAP-backed reports described them at that stage as suspects, not convicted offenders. Investigators recovered remains from the garage of the woman's home in Martil and placed both detainees in custody under the supervision of the competent prosecutor.

The preliminary police theory was that the husband had been intentionally killed in 2012 and that evidence had been concealed afterward. The brother was initially investigated for alleged assistance. Those allegations were still subject to judicial determination at the time.

A second homicide emerges

As investigators continued examining the property and the family's history, Moroccan reporting said the case expanded to include the death of the woman's son. Later court coverage consistently describes the final prosecution as involving two victims: the husband and the son.

Some press reports offered additional details about how and where the son's remains were discovered. Those accounts are not fully consistent with one another, so this file does not present an exact method, date or burial location for the son's death unless established by the final judgment reporting.

The brother's procedural status

The woman's brother was initially accused of involvement in concealing or assisting with the husband's killing. By the time of the final judgment against the principal defendant, however, proceedings against him had ended because he had died.

Sources differ on the precise timing of his death. Because there was no final conviction of the brother reported in the sources reviewed, this file does not describe him as a convicted accomplice.

The 2024 judgment

In May 2024, the criminal chamber of the Tétouan Court of Appeal sentenced the principal defendant to life imprisonment for the murders of her husband and son. Le360, citing the Moroccan newspaper Assabah, reported that the court also ordered civil compensation totaling one million dirhams for affected family parties.

Hespress, in an AFP report, likewise described the judgment as a life sentence for murdering both husband and son. The convergence of those independent reports supports treating the double-murder conviction — rather than only the original 2012 disappearance — as the final adjudicated scope of the case.

Names and identification

Some Moroccan media referred to the convicted woman by the first name Radia and popularized labels such as the “Martil killer.” Police/MAP reporting at the arrest stage did not publicly identify her by a full legal name. To avoid confusing a media identifier with a fully verified identity, this case file does not publish an unconfirmed surname.

Timeline

1. 2012
   The husband disappears

   His wife reports an unexplained disappearance. Investigators later conclude that he had been murdered.

2. May 31, 2023
   Two suspects are arrested

   Tétouan judicial police detain the wife and her brother in connection with the suspected homicide and concealment of evidence.

3. June 2023
   The case widens

   Further investigation produces reporting of a second homicide involving the woman's son.

4. 2023–2024
   Prosecution proceeds

   The principal defendant faces a double-murder case. Proceedings against her brother later end following his death.

5. May 2024
   Life sentence

   The Tétouan Court of Appeal sentences the woman to life imprisonment for murdering her husband and son.

Current status

Solved / adjudicated. The principal defendant was sentenced to life imprisonment in May 2024 for two murders. The sources reviewed for this file do not establish a final conviction against her brother.