The heir to a €50 million fortune has confessed to killing his father with a spiked bat he said was inspired by the weapon in Dead Rising 2. Other ties to video gaming, to say nothing of the wealth involved, have helped in riveting Spain's attention to the June 30 slaying of Andreu Bennasar Coll.
Andreu Tur Coll, 18, confessed in court on Friday to the killing, reports El Mundo. He said that two months ago he had fashioned the spiked bat in imitation of the Dead Rising weapon. It had three nails, all of them about four inches long.
"As if it were a macabre coincidence, the violent video game eventually became a reality," reported Diario de Mallorca.
It's not the only connection to gaming. Andreu's accomplice, Francisco Zaragoza Abbas Rodriguez, 20, is someone he met while playing Call of Duty online. Diario reports that the younger Coll said he and Abbas would play up to 12 hours at a time. He was also a big fan of Infamous 2 and Assassin's Creed III, reports Diario, and played online under the handle of "TacticoMen."
Together, the two used the spiked bat, a vase, a hammer and a large speaker to bludgeon Andreu's father. Police say he was hit by the spiked bat 40 times.
Why? Money would seem to be an obvious motive. Coll's father had recently made him the sole heir to his €50 million fortune amassed, ironically enough, from the sale of arcade games and gambling machines. Coll had gone to live with his dad even though he said he got along better with his mother, and claimed that his father psychologically abused him, especially at work, where he was paid a small salary.
The two accomplices, both surfers, are described almost as brothers, and one lawyer for Coll said he was essentially manipulated by the older Abbas. Detailed reports of the gruesome killing say Abbas was the one who swung the spiked bat. Coll finished off his father by slamming a large stereo speaker on his head.
The two apparently had plotted the elder Coll's death for some time, at one point trying to slip a huge dosage of sleeping pills into a cake.
Both were arrested shortly after the funeral. They staged the body to look like a robbery turned deadly, then spent hours cleaning the murder scene, but were found out when trace amounts of blood tied them to the killing.
El violento videojuego que se convirtió en realidad [Diario de Mallorca]
El parricida de Alaró empleó un palo con clavos similar al de un videojuego [El Mundo]
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