A solicitor representing the family of John George has said that a murder investigation into his death could ‘extend beyond one person’ after the Belfast man’s body was discovered in Spain on Tuesday and a 32-year-old was arrested.
The body of 37-year-old John George was found by Spanish police in Rojales, around 25km north of the original search site in the Cabo Roig area.
A 32-year-old man, reported to be Eastern European by local media, was then arrested on suspicion of murder.
More: Murder investigation underway following ‘extremely tortuous’ search for body of Belfast man
Speaking on BBC Good Morning Ulster, the family’s solcitior, Kevin Winters, said that the investigation is reaching a “very significant stage”.
“My sense of it is that this investigation will extend beyond one person. As we have learned, significantly, there’s a 32-year-old person in custody. I understand that that’s not necessarily conclusive and that this investigation will continue to look at other persons of interest,” he said.
“I think, over the next number of days, we’re going to learn an awful lot more. Certainly, by tomorrow, we may well have the outcome of this latest arrest.
“But I do not think that that’s necessarily the end of it. I think there are other leads which need to be followed up.”
John George, also known as John Hardy, was reported missing after failing to board a return flight to Belfast from Alicante on December 18 – his family had last been in contact with him four days prior.
Searches for the dad-of-two from west Belfast were conducted by his family and friends alongside police over the past number of weeks, culminating in his body being found on Tuesday.
It was reported earlier this week that Interpol had also been assisting with the investigation, while members of K9 Search and Rescue NI also travelled to help in the search.
Police informed John’s father, Billy George, that they had recovered his son’s remains at around 5pm and the family are expected to formally identify the body early on Wednesday.
“That was a very, very difficult call. But it came as a sense of relief as well, to him and his family,” Mr Winters said.
“Having expended so much mental and physical energy over the last number of weeks, they’re now moving onto the next stage.
“In relation to the timing of the return of the family, they can’t do that at this stage because firstly, there’s the very difficult harrowing act today of having to go and identify the remains of their son.”
He added that Spanish police could hold the body for up to two weeks.
“It’s likely that that will take all of that time because we have an autopsy to go through and all sorts of other processes and investigations, so it’s not expected that the body will return home any time soon.”
Mr Winters added that while the family had originally been “frustrated” at the lack of information they had received from local police, they would “now accept that there were processes in place”.
“Spanish police were minimalist in the information they imparted to the family but for technical, policing reasons, I think, in the light of day following what we now know, there was every good reason for that,” he said.
The PSNI have been assisting Spanish police and Mr Winters says they have upscaled their involvement as the case has progressed.
