Crime + investigation
Esther Estepa was photographed with the Spanish social media creator two days before she went missing in August 2023, and her family thinks he was the last person to see the 42-year-old alive.
Getty ImagesOn the surface, José Jurado Montilla appeared harmless.
In photos, the 64-year-old bespectacled Spaniard had a lean frame, with patches of gray hair peeking out of a baseball cap. His skin appeared weathered from age, and his blue Hawaiian shirt made him look like a tourist. But beneath the unassuming facade of a benign, older man lay a sinister secret.
Montilla is a serial killer. And he would continue to strike until police connected him to a growing number of mysterious murders in Spain.
Invisible Monsters: Serial Killers in America
Weaves together the stories of five infamous serial killers.
Montilla committed his first murder in 1985 when he killed Francisco González, 57, of Málaga, Spain. González was found shot to death in his farmhouse.
The serial murderer—also known as “El Titi” and later on as “Dinamita Montilla” on TikTok—struck thrice more in 1987, when he fatally stabbed and shot a pair of unidentified tourists from Germany and the U.K. Their bodies were found near the popular Caminito del Rey trail in Málaga, according to the newspaper 20minutos.
That same year, the scorched remains of his fourth victim, Antonio Panigua, the former driver of a Spanish flamenco singer, were discovered in his home in the same province, per 20minutos.
Montilla has only admitted to González’s murder, and a motive for the series of slayings remains unclear.
Victims are still waiting for the Bay Area killer to be apprehended.
Victims are still waiting for the Bay Area killer to be apprehended.
Montilla was convicted of the four murders and sentenced to 123 years in prison, but Spain's Parot Doctrine—which applied sentence reductions for prison benefits to each sentence individually rather than the maximum term—allowed him to serve only 28 years. He was subsequently released in 2013, the same year the law was overturned.
Montilla is suspected of continuing his rampage in August 2022 when he allegedly fatally shot a 21-year-old college student, identified only as David, on the victim’s family farm in Málaga, according to SUR. David had encountered Montilla the previous day and told his father and friends that he crossed paths with "an older man who looked very shady," per 20minutos.
Authorities believed he was initially motivated to rob David, the outlet reported.
But the case of David's alleged murder remained cold for nearly two years, until investigators utilized advances in DNA technology to identify what they believe is Montilla’s genetic material on David’s backpack. Montilla was arrested in a bar near the Spain-Portugal border in May 2024 after authorities tracked him down through his social media accounts. Montilla—who earned the nickname “the TikTok killer”—often chronicled his travels in Spain on the respective social media platform, publicizing his whereabouts and garnering more than 3,000 followers under the pseudonym “Dinamita Montilla.”
Soon, police began to suspect that Montilla had upped his victim count to six.
When Montilla was arrested for David’s death in May 2024, police seized Montilla’s cell phone and made a horrifying discovery.
On it, they recovered pictures and videos linking Montilla to missing Spanish woman Esther Estepa.
Estepa, 42, vanished nine months earlier in August 2023 after spending five days hiking with Montilla in Gandia, Spain. Police say he was the last person to see the victim alive, and Estepa’s family members purported to police that she was photographed with her and another man two days before she disappeared, according to The Olive Press.
After Estepa was reported missing, Montilla allegedly reached out to her family through several WhatsApp video calls to inquire about the police investigation into her disappearance, loved ones said. He even went as far as posting a public plea on social media begging for Estepa’s safe return, per the outlet.
Then, in February 2024, hikers discovered Estepa’s skull along a highway median, shifting the investigation from a missing person’s case to a homicide.
The videos and photos—including a series of pictures depicting a naked woman on a sleeping bag, which investigators say suggests rape—recovered from Montilla’s cell phone made him the prime suspect in her slaying. None of the images contained closeups of Montilla’s face or body.
Authorities determined Estepa was sexually assaulted before she died from blunt force trauma to the head.
Montilla has denied any wrongdoing in Estepa’s death. He remains in jail as he awaits trial and has not been found guilty in the deaths of David and Estepa. The maximum sentence for murder in Spain is 30 years.
When a woman suffers sudden organ failure, a tip leads authorities to a pattern of unexplained deaths. From Season 2, Episode 12.
Cunanan fatally shot the fashion designer on July 15, 1997.
Serial killers Ted Bundy and Gary Ridgway were exposed to lead as kids.
Victims are still waiting for the Bay Area killer to be apprehended.
Richard Cottingham’s latest one closed a 60-year-old cold case.
Tristan Balagtas is a Las Vegas-based crime writer and reporter. She previously reported for People and TV news stations in Washington and Texas. Tristan graduated from the University of Nevada Las Vegas with a bachelor's degree in journalism.
We strive for accuracy and fairness. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! A&E reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate.
