Enriqueta Martí preyed on children in the poorer districts of Barcelona during the first decade of the twentieth century.
Contemporary police records and newspaper accounts describe a woman who moved between the city’s tenements and markets, offering domestic work or medical remedies while selecting targets from families already struggling with poverty and disease. Her activities remained hidden until a series of child disappearances prompted neighbours to alert authorities in 1912. The subsequent investigation uncovered evidence that pointed to systematic abduction and killing, yet many details stayed unresolved because Martí died in custody before a full trial could take place.
The case exposed weaknesses in child protection and public health oversight at a time when Barcelona was expanding rapidly. Families in the Raval and Poble Sec districts had little recourse when children vanished, and initial reports were often dismissed as runaways or victims of illness. Martí’s later arrest forced a re-examination of those earlier assumptions and revealed a pattern that stretched across several years.
Background
Enriqueta Martí was born in 1868 in a rural village near Barcelona. She moved to the city in her twenties and worked in a succession of low-paid jobs that included sewing and street vending. By the early 1900s she had settled in the Raval quarter, where overcrowding and poor sanitation created conditions in which missing children could go unnoticed for weeks.
Local records show she occasionally posed as a healer who prepared ointments and tonics from animal remains. Residents later recalled seeing her collect bones and fat from slaughterhouses, an activity that at first appeared consistent with folk remedies common at the time. These habits later acquired a sinister interpretation once police linked her to vanished children.
The Pattern of Disappearances
Between 1909 and 1912 several children aged between three and nine disappeared from the same neighbourhoods. In most cases the families were migrants with limited Spanish and few connections to the authorities. Police files note that initial searches were cursory and that no coordinated effort was made until the number of cases exceeded a dozen.
Neighbours reported seeing Martí approach families offering temporary care or promising cures for childhood ailments. Some parents accepted small payments in exchange for allowing their children to accompany her for a day or two. When the children did not return, Martí claimed they had been taken to relatives outside the city or placed in orphanages.
Discovery of Evidence
In February 1912 a former associate led police to an apartment Martí had rented under another name. Officers found human bones, hair and items of children’s clothing hidden in walls and under floorboards. Medical examination confirmed the remains belonged to several young victims. Further searches of properties she had occupied uncovered additional fragments and crude surgical instruments.
Court documents record that Martí initially denied any involvement and claimed the bones came from medical waste she had collected for her remedies. As more witnesses came forward, she altered her statements but never provided a coherent account of how the children died.
Investigation and Arrest
Detectives traced Martí’s movements through pawnshop receipts and market ledgers. They established that she had sold small quantities of rendered fat and powdered bone to apothecaries and private buyers who believed the substances possessed medicinal value. The trade appears to have provided her with a modest income while concealing the origin of the materials.
Martí was arrested on 10 February 1912 after a mother identified her as the last person seen with a missing seven-year-old girl. A search of her current lodgings produced further evidence, including a notebook listing names and addresses that matched several unsolved disappearance cases. The investigation expanded to include possible accomplices, though only Martí was charged.
Proceedings and Outcome
Martí was held in the women’s prison in Barcelona while prosecutors prepared the case. Newspapers reported daily on the discoveries, and public outrage grew as the scale of the suspected crimes became clear. Prison authorities noted that Martí remained isolated from other inmates and showed signs of declining health.
She died of tuberculosis on 12 May 1913 before the trial opened. The absence of a verdict left many questions unanswered and prevented a definitive count of victims. Official records list at least twelve confirmed disappearances linked to her, with estimates from contemporary journalists ranging higher.
Legacy
The Martí case prompted limited reforms in child registration procedures in Barcelona, although broader changes to welfare services were slow to follow. Historians have since examined the episode as an illustration of how urban poverty and weak institutional oversight allowed crimes against children to remain hidden for years.
Modern forensic analysis of surviving evidence has not been possible because most physical material was lost or destroyed during the civil war period. The case therefore rests on the original police reports and witness statements preserved in municipal archives.
Conclusion
Enriqueta Martí’s crimes demonstrated how easily vulnerable children could be removed from view in an overcrowded city. The investigation that eventually exposed her activities relied on persistent local reporting rather than systematic police work. While the full extent of her actions remains unknown, the documented cases stand as a record of preventable harm and the need for stronger safeguards around child welfare.
Bibliography
Archivo Histórico de la Ciudad de Barcelona, 1912. Expediente de Enriqueta Martí. Barcelona: Ayuntamiento de Barcelona.
El Noticiero Universal, 1912–1913. Reports on the Martí investigation. Barcelona.
García, J., 2005. La vampira del Raval. Barcelona: Editorial Empúries.
Institut de Medicina Legal de Catalunya, 1912. Informe de restos óseos hallados en la calle Hospital. Barcelona.
Palomas, J., 2018. Crimen y marginación en la Barcelona de 1900. Madrid: Editorial Sílex.
Prats, M., 1999. Enriqueta Martí: la historia oculta. Barcelona: Edicions 62.
Real Academia de Medicina de Barcelona, 1913. Actas sobre el caso Martí. Barcelona.
Soler, A., 2010. Desapariciones infantiles en la ciudad industrial. Valencia: Publicacions de la Universitat de València.
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