Spaniard accused of stabbing death Russian woman

A Spaniard is suspected of killing a woman whom he begged to marry him in a popular talk show getting down on his knees, but was rejected. 

Photo: Spaniard accused of stabbing death Russian woman

Ricardo Navarro, 30, and his former partner, a Russian woman who has been identified only as Svetlana, took part in a popular daytime talk show last week.

"I love you. You only live once, as you told me, and I want to spend mine with you," Navarro said on a program called Diario de Patricia on the network Antena 3.

"I want you to marry me. You are everything to me. Everything," Navarro said, his voice quivering.

The Russian woman, also 30, was found with her throat cut four days later in the elevator of her apartment building in the eastern city of Alicante, and died on Monday. Police arrested Navarro. He went before a judge Wednesday for a preliminary hearing. He has not been formally charged.

The woman's last name has not been released because it is court policy not to name victims of gender violence, said an official at the Superior Court of Justice of Valencia, which covers neighboring Alicante.

Antena 3 did not return a call seeking comment Wednesday.

The Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia quoted a network official as saying that, at Navarro's request, the televised meeting was arranged as a surprise for his ex-girlfriend so he could try to make up with her.

She might have thought the surprise was going to be a visiting Russian relative, the official was quoted as saying.

The host of the program, Patricia Gaztanaga, began Tuesday's show by expressing sorrow for the victim and her family. The Russian woman leaves behind a small daughter from another relationship.

"None of us who take part in this program could imagine that something like this was going to happen," Gaztanaga said.