Ana Buza

Ana Buza died in the early hours of 7 September 2019, at the age of 19. Her body was found on the A-4 motorway near the town of Carmona, in the province of Seville, behind a roadside safety barrier. She had been in a car with her boyfriend after the couple had a serious argument that night, according to accounts later given to investigators.

The official investigation was closed within roughly a day and a half, with the case recorded as a suicide on the theory that Ana Buza had jumped from the moving vehicle. Her family rejected this conclusion from the beginning. Her father, Antonio Buza, became the driving force behind a years long campaign to have the case reopened, pointing to what the family described as several conflicting accounts given by the boyfriend about what had happened that night.

The case became a cause taken up by feminist organisations in Spain, who argued it should be investigated as a possible instance of gender based violence rather than treated as an accident. After sustained pressure and legal appeals, a court found that it could not rule out that Ana Buza had been struck by the car her boyfriend was driving, and the case was formally reopened years after it had first been closed. He was charged with reckless homicide, a lesser charge than the murder charge the family had sought.

On 18 September 2026, more than six years after her death, the Provincial Court of Seville began a jury trial into the case. Prosecutors are seeking a three year sentence for reckless homicide, while the family, acting as private prosecutors, are seeking a twenty year sentence for murder, arguing that Ana Buza was deliberately run over as the culmination of abuse in the relationship. Unlike in previous stages of the case, the family said it would not call for public demonstrations around this trial, preferring to let the proceedings unfold in court. No verdict has yet been reached, as the trial only opened on this date.

Ana Buza was from Carmona, a historic town in Seville province. She studied Philosophy at the University of Seville and lived in a shared student flat in the city while remaining close to her parents. Classmates and relatives described her as a high-achieving, cheerful young woman. By June 2019 she had finished her first year with outstanding results, including distinctions that later became important when investigators briefly suggested she had been distressed about grades.

From about September 2018 she was in a relationship with a boyfriend several years older. After her death her parents and supporting witnesses argued that the relationship had been controlling and isolating. A psychologist who had contact with the couple described jealous and manipulative behaviour, and a classmate later said she had called the 016 helpline out of concern. Courts have treated these accounts as part of the contested background rather than as settled findings of prior gender-violence crimes.

On the night of 6 September 2019 the couple were in Lora del Rio. After an argument Ana asked to be taken back to Seville. In the early hours of 7 September they travelled on the A-4. Near kilometre 511 at Carmona, according to later prosecution papers, the car was travelling well above the posted limit when Ana left the vehicle and suffered injuries that killed her. Her body was found behind a roadside barrier. Emergency services received multiple calls, and Guardia Civil officers later informed her parents that she had died in strange circumstances.

Within about a day and a half the local investigation was closed as a suicide on the theory that Ana had opened the door and thrown herself from the moving car. Her father later said that step was taken without waiting for full autopsy, toxicology and traffic reports, and without interviewing key callers or reviewing nearby cameras. The speed of that closure, and the suggestion that a father-daughter argument about marks had driven her to jump, propelled the family's campaign to reopen the case.

Antonio Buza became the public face of a years-long effort to force a deeper investigation. The family hired engineers and forensic specialists who concluded that opening a door and exiting voluntarily at around 117 km/h was physically implausible, and that Ana's injuries better matched being struck by a vehicle after she was already outside it. Feminist collectives in Carmona and beyond organised vigils under the banner Justicia para Ana. The Seville Provincial Court ordered the case reopened in late 2019.

After reopening, the boyfriend was eventually treated as a suspect and the case moved into specialised gender-violence investigative channels. Competing expert reports disagreed on whether the death was caused by a deliberate or accidental collision. By 2026 the matter had reached the Provincial Court of Seville for trial by jury. Prosecutors sought a three-year sentence for reckless homicide. The family, as private prosecutors, sought twenty years for murder, arguing she had been deliberately run over as the culmination of abuse.

On 18 September 2026 the jury trial opened in Seville, roughly seven years after Ana's death. Coverage in outlets including Europa Press, El Independiente and Demócrata framed the hearing as a contest between the suicide or accidental-exit narrative and the family's intentional hit-and-run narrative. Antonio Buza asked supporters for calm and said the family sought justice, not vengeance, and did not want the courthouse turned into a circus.

Ana Buza did not become famous through entertainment or politics. She is remembered because a private tragedy became a public test of how Spanish institutions handle the sudden death of a young woman when gender violence is alleged. Her name remains attached to ongoing debate about early suicide findings, forensic disagreement, and the persistence of families who refuse to accept a closed file.