Ferrándiz exited his car and approached María, feigning apology and inviting her into his vehicle in order, he claimed, to drive her to the hospital.
Upon his release, Ferrándiz moved to Castellón de la Plana with his mother and worked in a car insurance company.
[2][3] Sonia Rubio Arrufat, a 25-year-old English teacher, was last seen at 5:00 a.m. on the morning of 2 July 1995, leaving a Benicàssim disco that she had attended with friends.
[2] The Spanish Civil Guard code-named the investigation of Rubio's murder Operación Bola de Cristal ("Operation Crystal Ball").
In February 1998, Ferrándiz attempted to repeat his 1989 attack on another female motorist, but the victim fought back and escaped after biting his finger.
They noticed that he regularly visited an area of Castellón called "Los Cipreses," where there was a high concentration of discos and night-clubs, and that whilst there, he acted strangely, as if he was stalking different women in order to identify a potential victim.
A parallel search of his home found the roll of duct tape that he had used to gag Sonia Rubio, tying him to the first crime.
[2] By 21 October, however, he had admitted to killing Rubio, García and three prostitutes whose skeletonized bodies had been found in a riverbank near Vila-real in early 1996: Natalia Archelos Olaria (24), Mercedes Vélez Ayala (18), and Francisca Salas León (24).
[4] Prosecutors requested 163 years in prison with the recommendation that Ferrándiz be never paroled again, and a fine of 200 million pesetas to compensate the families of all five victims.