Kriti Mehrotra
When Nagore Laffage was killed on July 7, 2008, following an evening celebrating the San Fermín festival in Pamplona, Navarra, it honestly left the entire nation of Spain baffled to its core. That’s because, as explored in Netflix’s ‘You Are Not Alone: Fighting the Wolf Pack,’ this 20-year-old was beaten and strangled to death upon saying no to a proposition by someone she knew. So now, if you simply wish to learn more about this perpetrator, José Diego Yllanes Vizcay — with an emphasis on his actions, background, as well as current standing — here’s what we know.
Who is José Diego Yllanes Vizcay?
It was reportedly back when José was merely a young boy that he first developed a keen interest in the world of medical sciences, only for it to gradually continue expanding as the years passed. He thus went on to pursue the same upon graduating high school and then actually managed to evolve into an early trained psychiatrist in Pamplona by the time he was in his mid to late 20s. In fact, he was doing the MIR at the University Clinic in 2008, which just so happened to be the same institution where Nagore Laffage was serving as an intern while pursuing her nursing degree.
Therefore, when José and Nagore came across one another during the Sanfermines on the evening of July 7, they chatted for a while before he chose to accompany her to her nearby apartment. Though little did anyone know these would be the latter’s last few hours alive as he ended up heinously raping, beating, and strangling her to death after she outrightly refused to have sex with him. According to records, she actually suffered a total of 36-38 blows across her body, most of which were so intense she had bruises all over, along with a broken jaw, injured ribs, plus a fractured skull.
Then came José’s phone call to a close friend at around 1 pm on July 8, wherein he described precisely what’d transpired in the past 12 hours before asking for help in disposing of Nagore’s remains. Thankfully, all this friend did was relay information to officials, leading to the former’s arrest within mere hours — yet by this point, he’d already abandoned her nearly 45 minutes away in Orondritz. It’s also imperative to note the doctor had initially tried to dismember the 20-year-old, but when that didn’t entirely work, he simply collected his belongings, cleaned her space, and left her far away.
José was hence charged with murder, following which he vehemently claimed he felt as well as “saw his perception of reality, his conscience, and his will altered” at the time of the brutal incident. In other words, he asserted he was not in control of any of his actions once his intoxication-driven rage at her “no” took over, so they truly weren’t premeditated in any way, shape, or form either. He maintained this defense at trial too, only for it to result in him being found guilty of manslaughter instead of murder — the jury was divided 6-3 for the latter, but they needed 7 for it to stick.
José Diego Yllanes Vizcay is Now a Free Man
Considering the four mitigating circumstances of alcohol, confession, outburst, and reparation for damages, plus one aggravating circumstance of abuse of superiority in José’s conviction, he was ultimately handed down a sentence of 12½ years behind state bars. However, by the time Nagore’s ninth death anniversary rolled around in Ju ly 2017, he’d managed to be granted the extremely lenient third degree of prison at the Zuera penitentiary in Zaragoza. This essentially means he was allowed to be free and work during the day without a single restriction, with the sole requirement being his return to the assigned facility to sleep every single night.
Though today José is not even mandated to do this since his sentence came to a total conclusion in 2020, meaning he’s now a free man doing his best to stay well away from the limelight. As per the last reports, he’d managed to land a stable job at Dr. Carlos Chiclana’s Consultancy back in 2017 itself because his license was largely unaffected by his conviction, but his profile was taken down from their official website following a lot of public backlash.
Yet the truth of the matter remains José can change his name and currently practice as a mental health specialist/psychiatrist in any sector — he wasn’t allowed to step foot in private healthcare until his term expired in 2020 — so it’s highly likely he has since returned to a relatively normal life with his respected career, friends, and family, with most people not even knowing his past.
Read More: Where Are the 2016 San Fermín Rapists Now?
