Valladolid, Spain, Aug 4, 2008 / 13:34 pm
The Archdiocese of Burgos has spent the last year gathering information to promote the cause of beatification of Marta Obregon, a Spanish girl killed during a sexual assault in 1992.
That year on the night of January 21, the feast of St. Agnes, Marta was returning home from the Arlanza night club. Although her home was less than a quarter of mile from the club, she never arrived. She was kidnapped by Pedro Luis Gallego, who had been accused of various rapes and homicides.
According to the Spanish daily El Mundo, Gallego took her in his car a few miles outside Burgos where he tried to rape her in a field. Marta did everything she could to resist the assault. The so-called “elevator rapist” beat her severely and stabbed her fourteen times in the chest. Her naked body was found near a highway.
Marta Obregón Rodríguez was born on March 1, 1969 in La Coruna in northern Spain. She was the second of four attractive and energetic sisters. Her mother is a supernumerary in the Opus Dei, but Marta decided to join the Neocatechumenal Way after leaving behind a rebellious adolescence. She believed she found the love of her life in her boyfriend Francisco Javier Hernando.