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On May 13, retired Dutch volleyball star Ingrid Visser traveled to Murcia with her husband, Lodewijk Severein. Visser, aged 35 and pregnant, had spent the last two years of a career that saw her play for the Dutch national side 514 times in that Spanish city. Within hours of arriving she and Severein had been murdered. Their dismembered bodies, partially buried in a shallow grave in a lemon orchard, were discovered two weeks later.

Spanish police believe the killings are business related, and have arrested three men. So far, no official motive has been cited, but police point to the likelihood that the couple were killed over a failed business deal between Severein and a former executive at the CAV Murcia women's volleyball team.

Murcia's chief of police, Cyril Durán, has told reporters that there had been "certain business disagreements" between the murdered couple and the three men under arrest.

Ingrid Visser signed for CAV Murcia in 2005. After retiring from international volleyball, she played for a number of clubs outside the Netherlands, including Tenerife Marichal, helping the Canary Islands side to win the Champions League in 2004. CAV Murcia's offer was generous for a player in her thirties. The club had just been set up, and was backed by seemingly unlimited funding from its owner. He had business interests in the construction industry, which was booming in Murcia at that time.

Police say the killings are business related, and have arrested three men

CAV's owner is Evedasto Lifante, a self-made businessman who tried his luck with local soccer side Ciudad de Murcia. He failed to make his stamp on the team, and in search of greater glories, moved into women's volleyball, a sport where there is less competition and where, with financial backing, success can come relatively quickly.

Lifante first tried to buy CV Murcia, the side most associated with the city, but he failed. People involved in the negotiations say that i

Romanian Valentin Ion and Spaniard Juan Cuenca were sentenced to 34 years in jail by a court in Murcia, Spain, for murdering Dutch volleyball star Ingrid Visser and her partner Lodewijk Severein. The murder took place on May 13, 2013, in a holiday house in Molina de Segura near Murcia.

Another Romanian, Constantin Stan, who helped the two get rid of the bodies, was sentenced to five years in jail. The sentences are not final, according to Agerpres.

Romanian Valentin Ion, 62, confessed to the murder of Visser and Severein, in a court hearing at the beginning of October. However, he said it was an accident. He said he hit the two with a crystal ashtray and then a vase after Severein allegedly threatened co-suspect Juan Cuenca with a gun. He also said that the other Romanian, Constantin Stan, was not involved in the murder, according to nltimes.nl.

Juan Cuenca, the former manager and technical director of Club Atletico Voleibol Murcia 2005, in which Visser had played between 2009 and 2011, had another story. He confessed to hiring the two Romanians to get rid of the Dutch couple. He also said he paid them EUR 1,200 in advance of a total EUR 10-15,000 for the job.

After the murders, Ion cut the bodies into pieces with an and Cuenca helped him put the bodies into bags. The remains were buried in the lemon grove of a home about 20 km away. According to Ion, owner of that house Serafin de Alba knew about this.

Cuenca said that the volleyball club he managed owed Visser EUR 240,000. The club went bankrupt in 2011.

Ingrid Visser was one of the top players of the Dutch women's volleyball team, totaling over 500 caps between 1994 and 2012. She competed in five World Championships and nine European Championships, winning the latter in 1995. She also played in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. Her partner, Lodewijk Severein, was the Dutch team manager from 2006 to 2009.

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The judge in Valencia remanded 36-year-old Juan Cuenca and ex-director of volleyball CAV Murcia after questioning in a closed-door investigation into the killing of the Dutch couple, said a court official who asked not to be named.

Spanish media reported that the suspect was the former manager of a volleyball club in which the dead woman, Ingrid Visser, had played.

The bodies were found buried in a lemon grove in Murcia, southeastern Spain. Police said Monday they arrested three people, including two Romanians, in Valencia.

The court in Valencia was expected to question the two other suspects on Wednesday.

Police were waiting for the results of DNA tests to confirm whether the bodies were those of Visser, 35, and her partner Lodewijk Severein, 57.

The couple disappeared on May 13 shortly after checking into a hotel in Murcia.

The city's police chief Cirilo Duran told a press conference on Monday that they had suffered a violent death.

Spanish media, citing sources close to the investigation, reported that the two were found in a shallow grave, cut into pieces, and may have been tortured.

Duran said investigators suspected the couple had "business disagreements" with the suspects that had led to the killing.

Visser was part of the Netherlands's gold medal-winning team at the European Championship in 1995 and played for a volleyball team in Murcia between 2009 and 2011.

A spokesperson for the families, Miriam Van de Velde, has criticized Spanish media for publishing "unnecessary details" of the case, reported El Mundo newspaper on Tuesday.

This was chiefly because "the family had yet to receive official information," said the spokesperson.