Google Maps led Spanish investigators to solve a year-long murder mystery by capturing the moment a man stowed away a suspected body in a car.

Police in the northern region of Castile and León began their investigation in November 2023 when someone reported the disappearance of a male relative.

Officers arrested a woman who was the missing man's partner and another man who was her ex-partner in Soria province on November 12. the police said in a statement on Wednesday.

Investigators then raided the suspects' homes and inspected their vehicles, but also hit an unexpected trail in their search for additional clues.

These were "location app images" where they "found a vehicle that may have been used during the crime," the statement said.

Spanish media have released photos of a Google Maps Street View screenshot from October 2024 showing a man throwing an object covered in a white shroud into a car trunk in the village of Tahueco. For the first time in 15 years, the car was in the city of Tahueco, BBC reported.

The images helped solve the case but were not "conclusive," police said.

Officials said another series of photos showed the blurred silhouette of someone transporting a large white package in a cart, The BBC reported.

The representative of the central government in Soria, Miguel Latorre, told public broadcaster RTVE that the man "could probably be" considered the culprit.

Police said a badly decomposed human torso believed to belong to the victim was found this month in a cemetery in Soria province. El Pais newspaper reported that he is a 33-year-old Cuban.

A judge placed the suspects in custody and the investigation remains open.

Google's technology has helped investigators crack cases before. In 2022 An Italian mob boss who had been on the run for decades was arrested after he was spotted on Google Maps.

In 2019 The remains of a man missing for 22 years have finally been found thanks to someone zooming in on his former Florida neighborhood with Google Satellite Images and spotted a car submerged in a lake.