A police probe into the mysterious death of a Hungarian reality TV star has taken a new twist after a shepherd found the influencer’s rucksack on Gran Canaria.
Detectives identified Annabella Lovas, 32, using dental records after her half-naked body was discovered in a ravine on the island.
The bag, containing her passport and personal belongings, was found in the south of Gran Canaria around a 15-minute drive inland from the tourist resort of Maspalomas.
The sheep tender made the discovery on Friday evening as he walked between the Degollada de las Yeguas viewpoint and a nearby illegal landfill closed late last year.
Specialist forensic officers sealed off the area after being alerted so they could remove the holdall for lab tests, and will now try to establish how it ended up there as they attempt to retrace her final movements.
Their efforts paid off following a painstaking investigation into the mystery Gran Canaria death, which has been partly solved with a positive ID, although cops admit they still don’t know exactly how she passed away.
Previous searches of the difficult-to-access area where Annabella’s body was found, using drones and helicopters before she was identified, had failed to uncover any trace of her belongings.
Annabella had made a name for herself on the 2021 Hungarian version of The Bachelor UK, a spin-off of the American dating series which last aired in Britain in 2019 and featured the likes of Gavin Henson and Spencer Matthews.
She later built up a large following on social media.
Annabella had been the subject of a missing persons appeal in November 2024 which was resolved days later when police tracked her down to an apartment in the Gran Canaria resort of Playa del Ingles and she confirmed she was okay.
Detectives didn’t make an immediate connection when a body was discovered in a natural pool in the nearby Berriel Ravine inland from the coast on March 6 last year following storms the previous month.
The dead woman was naked from the waist down.
Forensic experts were unable to determine the exact cause of death or extract conclusive DNA.
The victim had tattoos on her shoulder and back but no fingerprints because her fingertips had been destroyed during the estimated three weeks she had been lying lifeless in the water.
The November 2024 missing persons alert had already been deactivated, but
Annabella’s family had sounded the alarm again shortly before she was found dead and investigators began focusing on the possibility she could be the mystery woman.
The poor state of the DNA forensic experts had been able to extract made it impossible to make a positive match with samples tested against relatives, despite two successive attempts.
A tooth sent to Interpol later solved the puzzle.
Although they don’t know exactly how she died, police who earlier this month went public with their months-long investigation, say they have ruled out a violent death and are not treating it as a crime.
That is not thought to have been altered by the discovery of the rucksack but it is being seen as potentially key to piecing together the final stages of the dead woman’s life.
Annabella had moved to Gran Canaria from her homeland after a cancer battle which left her with psychological after-effects.
She was described as a ‘vulnerable person’ after she was reported missing the first time round before being found.
Reports earlier this month pointed to police reaching the conclusion she had ended up running out of money and sleeping rough, and probably died elsewhere in Gran Canaria before storm flash floods carried her body to the remote spot where it was found.
Police chief Pablo Fernandez Sala described the efforts to put a name and surname to the woman found dead as ‘hard and intense’ at the time.
He told island daily La Provincia: ‘Colleagues tried to reach the natural pool to reconstruct her last steps and carry out a visible inspection on the ground but it was impossible.
‘You would have needed to be a professional climber, not just any hiker, to reach the spot.
‘All we had to go on initially were some strange tattoos she had on her shoulder and back.’
Detailing the dead-end investigators experienced trying to get a positive DNA match, he added: ‘The mould of the tooth was sent though Interpol and provided conclusive data.
‘Once you have a name, it’s easier to find out because most people have a dental record. A set of teeth is like a fingerprint; it has its characteristic points. The dentition is the safe of the human body and what lasts the most at high temperatures.’
