A skeleton wearing a black and grey wetsuit, flippers and a carrying a
backpack has been found floating in the Ibiza canal near Alicante,
Spain. Carrying a Moroccan passport and a whole load of cash, police
are trying to establish the person's identity.
The skeletal body was found by the crew of the yacht
"Yaiza", 40 miles from Calpe, in a stretch of sea which separates the
mainland city of Alicante from the island of Ibiza in the Balearic
Islands.
Spanish national daily El País
reported on Tuesday that the skeleton was wearing a wetsuit, flippers
and waterproof clothing, and was also carrying a backpack containing a
Moroccan passport and cash.
The body
was collected by a Guardia Civil vessel and has been taken for forensic
autopsy at the Alicante Institute of Legal Medicine.
Investigators
are now attempting to trace the identity of the person using the items
found with the body.
Amongst the clues was a backpack bearing the logo "Keep Moving." On
opening the backpack, police found a mobile phone, clothing perfectly
preserved in waterproof packaging, a wad of cash worth €540 ($700) and a
Moroccan passport.
While the skeleton was wearing scuba clothing, no oxygen bottles were found.
According to police, the currents and sea creatures in the area were
responsible for stripping the body of flesh and reports stated that "not
an ounce" remained.
While the passport was issued to a Moroccan man named Abdelaziz
Elfayafi, born January 8, 1989 in Imzouren, it has not yet been
officially confirmed that the body is indeed Elfayafi.
However, police are theorizing that the victim may have been an
immigrant attempting to cross the Strait of Gibraltar from Morocco to
Spain. The body could have been swept by the currents to the location
in which it was discovered.
The city of Imzouren is small, with around 100,000 residents and located
in the Rif region of northern Morocco, near Al Hoceima. According to
police, thousands have emigrated from that area in recent years hoping
for a better life abroad.
If the body does indeed belong to Elfayi, it seems that he has a profile on LinkedIn,
the networking site, which shows him as holding an Accountancy and
Information Management degree.
Police found his curriculum vitae posted
on several Internet sites, indicating that Elfayi speaks Arabic,
French, English and Dutch, and reportedly his online information was
last updated around a month ago.
According to the Guardia Civil, there is no record of Elfayi in the
Spanish databases and they will continue their inquiries with the help
of authorities in Morocco.
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