Tenerife Triple Murderer Faces Backlash Over Social Media Use From Prison

The recent discovery that José Antonio Gomes Soares has been using social media from prison has reopened a painful chapter for Tenerife. In 2013, Soares shocked the community by murdering his father-in-law, mother-in-law, and four-year-old son in Piedra Hincada. Investigators recently found that he had been posting photos of himself with the child from behind bars—an act prosecutors have condemned as a cruel manipulation of reality that further victimizes the family.

The tragedy began on March 13, 2013, when Soares attacked his ex-partner’s family home. Following a history of threats and psychological abuse toward his ex-partner, Mónica Mendoza, he used a knife to kill the three family members. In 2015, a jury sentenced him to 69 years in prison for the murders, citing aggravating factors including cruelty and the fact that one of the victims was his own son.

The case, heard in the Provincial Court of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, highlighted significant failures in protecting Mendoza, who had moved in with her parents for safety after leaving Soares in 2012. Despite a restraining order and a ban on communication, Soares used digital devices in prison to reach out online, causing further distress to the survivors. After the family’s lawyers filed a complaint in 2022, the court ordered the posts to be removed and all unauthorized devices to be seized from the inmate.

This incident underscores the ongoing challenge of preventing prisoners from accessing the internet. Prosecutors agreed that the posts amounted to harassment of the victims' relatives. While the original 2015 sentence included 430,000 euros in compensation and a five-year restraining order to follow his prison term, this recent misuse of technology has once again caused deep pain for those left behind.