Volleyball Star's Death Tied to Business Dispute: Cops

Former volleyball club director arrested in Ingrid Visser's death
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted May 28, 2013 10:00 AM CDT
Volleyball Star's Death Tied to Business Dispute: Cops
Belgium's Els Vandesteene, right, tries to block a shot by the Netherlands' Ingrid Louise Visser during their Women's European Volleyball Championships playoff match in Lodz, Poland, Sept. 30, 2009.   (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz)

A double murder in the world of volleyball is dominating the news in Spain and the Netherlands, and Spanish police say the whole affair could be business-related. Dutch volleyball star Ingrid Visser and her partner, Lodewijk Severein, went missing shortly after arriving in Murcia, Spain, earlier this month. On Sunday their bodies were found in a lemon grove, buried in a shallow grave. Three suspects were arrested the previous day; among them: Juan Cuenca Lorente, the 36-year-old former director of Murcia's volleyball club, which Visser, a popular Dutch player, played for from 2009 to 2011.

Police say Lorente and the couple had some sort of business disagreement, though no specifics were released. As for what Visser, 35, and Severein, 57, were doing in Spain, the BBC reports that they were supposed to see a doctor there on May 14 but never showed up for the appointment; the Telegraph and Dutch News report that they were to undergo fertility treatment. (More Ingrid Visser stories.)

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