The dark case Maje, the sexual predator who manipulated one of her lovers to kill her husband

In August 2017, the city of Valencia, Spain, was shocked by a macabre case: that of Maria Jesus Moreno sang, a 26-year-old nurse who manipulated one of her four lovers to kill her husband.

MayAs everyone knew her, she was born on September 6, 1990 into a wealthy and religious family in Novelda, Alicante. She attended a college for nuns and then pursued a career as a nurse. She was smart, kind and flirtatious. The ideal woman for Antonio Navarro, an engineer who fell madly in love with her: they got married in 2016.

Moreno Cantó divided his nursing hours between Manises Hospital and a retirement home in Torrentón. Considered a flawless professional in the workplace, she was always ready to take on more shifts. But I was far from the love of work: he used them as a screen to arrange dates with his lovers. Because behind her innocent image was a person with an insatiable sexual appetite.

In the months leading up to the crime, Maje had not one but four lovers, whom she saw regularly. Neither of them knew about the other’s existence and two didn’t even know she was married. One of them – the central protagonist of this story – is Salvador Rodriguez, a guardian 20 years older than her.

In addition, they appear Tomás, a physiotherapist with whom he has had an affair during almost a year; José, the publicist with whom he spent the night before his partner’s murder; and Sergio, an urban guard from Barcelona who in his statement to the police defined him as “A sexual predator”. He said he met her at a bowling alley and that same night they had sex three times in a row on the landing of some stairs and in a public bathroom.

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Salvador Rodríguez, 47, had met Maje in 2015, a year before his marriage to Navarro, when they both worked at Casa de Salud in Valencia. Then they found themselves, already in love, at the Manises hospital.

With time, Salvador has become a “puppet”, a sort of voluntary slave who had succumbed to Maje’s sexual charms, or else his defense would put him on trial. Her friends, on the other hand, say that, from behind, she admitted that she didn’t like it very much, but used it.

Maje convinced Salvador that the only obstacle between their full happiness was her husband. In fact, there was an economic connotation: Antonio, the murdered engineer, had several life and accident insurance policies that his wife had insisted on managing. The generous sum of money that these policies could receive would accompany the inheritance and the widow’s pension: a millionaire sum.

The crime finally occurred at 7:40 a.m. on Wednesday, August 16, 2017. Antonio Navarro was about to get into his white Peugeot 208 for work when Salvador attacked him with six stab wounds. Four of them were in the heart.

He died on the spot in this garage on Calamocha Street, in the Patraix district. His body was not discovered by a neighbor until around 3:30 p.m.

Everything had been carefully planned. Maje allegedly provided Rodríguez with the key to the garage and information on when her husband would arrive. Rodríguez had already bought the weapon, a knife with a 6 inch blade. All he had to do was wait for the victim hidden among other vehicles, act and escape.

After connecting the dots through eavesdropping, lies and confessions during the investigation, police arrested the two lovers on January 10, 2018 for the murder. In the days following the crime, Maje and Salvador had conversations without knowing that the police had bugged the phones.

Still under Maje’s spell, Salvador finally confessed to the crime and exonerated her. But time, days in prison and his family would be responsible for changing his situation. The love pact lasted 10 months, when the murderer discovered that Maje had relations with another inmate at Picassent prison.

So, in November 2018, Rodríguez asked to testify before the judge and exposed María Jesús’ sinister plan to get rid of her husband, in great detail. Both are still in prison.