The genetic analysis of the remains located in the Porreres grave during the exhumation carried out in 2021 as part of the Government’s Second Graves Plan has led to the identification of a new victim. This is Llorenç Martorell Suárez, born in Moscari (Selva) but who lived in Palma, where he had a printing press and a furniture shop.

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According to the biological identification report carried out by the laboratory, the identification has been carried out through genetic analysis of a bone sample of the remains that has been compared with a DNA sample of a direct relative, collected during the 2016 campaign where the Association Memory of Mallorca was the promoter, which has resulted in a positive identification.

The remains of Llorenç Martorell were located in February 2021 from the work carried out by the technical team of democratic memory of the Govern, the Aranzadi Science Society, within the second phase of excavations and exhumations of the graves of the municipal cemetery of Porreres, included in the Plan of Graves 2020-2021 approved by the Technical Commission of Graves and Disappeared of the Balearic Islands.

They were found in grave no. 11, intact under the block of niches, which had two levels and in which a total of twelve individuals were located: three in the upper part and nine in the lower part.

The identification is added to that of Jaume Ordines, identified in June of this year, as well as those of Miquel Cabot Dolç, identified last May, and Miquel Pasqual Quetglas, Bartolomé Matas Alemany and Jordi Colom Estarellas, identified in October of last year, all of them also located in grave no. 11; and that of Antoni Company Oliver, located in grave no. 12 and identified in January of this year 2022.

23 identifications in Porreres

In the Porreres cemetery, the Government of the Balearic Islands has promoted different excavation and exhumation campaigns that have led to the recovery of a total of 114 victims of Franco’s repression – 49 recovered in the 2016 campaign, which was promoted by the association Memoria de Mallorca, and 65 during the latest excavations, carried out by Aranzadi between February and March 2021. Of these, 14 victims were identified and returned to their families as a result of the work carried out in 2016. The second intervention carried out in 2021 adds, at this point, six more identifications.

To date, the Balearic Islands have been able to recover the remains of 241 people murdered during the Civil War and Franco’s regime, of which 52 have already been identified, with Llorenç Martorell, and 35 have been returned to their families.

Llorenç Martorell Suárez

He was born in Moscari (Selva) in October 1898. He was the widower of Alberta Ciriquián Ferrer. He lived in Palma, where he owned a printing press and a furniture shop. On 24th October 1936 he was imprisoned in Can Mir. On 9th February 1937 he was “released” and it is assumed that he was murdered and buried in the cemetery of Porreres. He did not belong to any political party, but he ran a printing press in which the Communist Party publication “Nuestra Palabra” (Our Word) was possibly published. Imprisoned in Can Mir, he was shot in the cemetery of Porreres in February 37.

In a letter written by his daughter and published on the web portal of Democratic Memory of the Government of the Balearic Islands, he wrote the following ‘My daughters have always known the truth of what happened to you, I have never hidden anything from them. I hope that one day they will give me the good news that they have found you and thus, in some way, close this huge wound that I have always carried in my heart.

Your daughter,

Coloma Martorell’.

• The family of Llorenç Martorell received the certificate of recognition as a victim of Franco’s regime on 29 October 2021. The daughter and granddaughter of Llorenç Martorell Suárez wrote two letters of memory published in the web portal of democratic memory of the Govern de las Islas Baleares that are attached to the note.