Antonio Gali Balaguer: del pastor de La Zaida a la niña de La Cartuja | True Crime

The story of Antonio Gali Balaguer is one of the darkest and most disturbing in Spanish criminal history. We're talking about a serial killer and sexual predator with a history spanning decades, several provinces, and numerous victims: a shepherd, an 11-year-old girl, a prostitute, and several other minors. In this narrated video podcast, we review in detail the crimes of Antonio Gali Balaguer, from his beginnings as a sexual predator to becoming one of the most dangerous serial killers in Spain. We analyze his crimes in Aragon and Galicia, his time in prison, the judicial decisions that allowed him to be released, and the enormous controversy generated by his recent return to a "normal" life in a small village. 🩸 First crime: the shepherd of La Zaida (Zaragoza) In the early 1980s, Antonio Gali Balaguer had a relationship with a married woman in the town of La Zaida, in the province of Zaragoza. In 1982, this woman's husband was found brutally murdered: he had been struck 17 times with an axe. The victim was a shepherd, and Gali's signature was already behind the crime. This would be the first known murder of his criminal career. 🩸 The case that changed everything: 11-year-old María Victoria In August 1984, María Victoria Cubillana Barriga, an 11-year-old girl and friend of Gali's daughter, disappeared in La Cartuja Baja (Zaragoza). Days later, the investigation uncovered the unimaginable: Antonio Gali Balaguer had sexually abused the minor and drowned her in a bathtub. Afterward, he hid the body. This crime would forever scar the girl's family and the entire La Cartuja neighborhood. For these acts, Gali was sentenced to a long prison term. However, between reductions, benefits, and sentence calculations, he ended up spending far fewer years behind bars than society would have imagined for someone with this record. 🩸 Released from prison… and kills again After his release from prison, far from reintegrating into society, Antonio Gali Balaguer returned to crime. According to the court rulings, in 2005 he picked up a prostitute in Ourense for sex and took her to an area near Maside, where he suffocated her and abandoned her body in a ditch. He is also accused of attempted murder against another woman whom he also tried to suffocate. With this third confirmed murder, his profile perfectly fits the classic definition of a serial killer: at least three homicides, committed at different times with periods of "cooling off" between them. Added to this are sexual abuse of minors, assaults, and drug trafficking offenses, completing a chilling criminal record. 🩸 40 years in prison and controversy over his release Antonio Gali Balaguer has spent approximately four decades in prison, with periods of release and recidivism. He served his final sentence at the A Lama prison (Pontevedra) and was finally released in February 2025. From that moment on, another phase of the story began: one of fear and controversy surrounding his reintegration. 🏚️ A village in Ourense, the new setting for the case After his release, Gali settled in a substandard dwelling in the small village of San Pedro (A Bola, Ourense). At first, the neighbors saw him as a sick old man with crutches, but when they learned from the press that they had a serial killer with three murders and several rapes of girls living next door, public alarm erupted. The case made the rounds on television programs and special reports, reopening the debate about the limits of the penal system and the true possibility of reintegration for certain individuals. On this channel, we analyze not only the crimes of Antonio Gali Balaguer, but also the social, legal, and media context surrounding them: the disappearance of María Victoria, the pain of her family, the fear of the neighbors who now share the village with him, and the uncomfortable questions this case raises. 🎧 If you're passionate about true crime in Spanish, real cases, criminal investigations, and debates about justice, sentencing, and rehabilitation, this episode is for you. 🔔 Subscribe to the channel, leave a comment, and tell me: Do you think someone with Antonio Gali Balaguer's history can truly be rehabilitated? Or is the system once again leaving potential future victims unprotected? 👉 Thank you for supporting this true crime project in Spanish. You can now buy our book, Daniel Sancho "The Whole Truth and Nothing But the Truth," at any bookstore in Spain or on Amazon at the following link: https://amzn.to/3WHJWWR Don't forget to visit our new website: https://triunarts.com/    / caf%c3%a9contriun   You can follow me on my social media accounts, Twitter and Instagram, as @triunarts Become a member of this channel if you can, to support it and contribute to its growth:    / @triunarts