British Missing Couple Found Dead in Their Car amid Flooding in Spain as Death Toll Surpasses 200

Mar. 15, 2025

Flooding in the La Torre neighborhood of Valencia, Spain, on Oct. 30, 2024.Photo:Alex Juarez/Anadolu via Getty

Alex Juarez/Anadolu via Getty

A missing British couple have been found dead in their car amid thedevastating flooding throughout Spain.According to theBBC, Don, 78, and Terri Turner, 74, were last seen in Pedralba on Tuesday, Oct. 29, before torrential rain made landfall in Valencia, Spain, and continued through Wednesday.The GuardianandThe Independentalso reported on the couple being found dead.They were found on Saturday, Nov. 2, after telling neighbors they were stepping out to fill their car with gas. Their daughter, Ruth O’Loughlin, hoped her parents could stay safe amid the conditions.“We held out hope that they were still alive and maybe sheltering somewhere,” she told the BBC. “We talked about mum and dad coming over here next year to spend some time with us and we just ended the call and I’m really glad I said ‘I love you’ and she said she loves me too.“Cars piled up after floods in Valencia, Spain, on Nov. 1, 2024.David Ramos/Getty ImagesHer sister, Renee Turner, spoke to their dad on Monday, Oct. 28, and expected to hear back the following day. “Sometimes that’s not unusual, we can go a day or so without messaging every five minutes,” she told the BBC.Don and Terri’s friends had called O’Loughlin to tell her of her parents' deaths. “He said ‘Ruth, get your husband,’ I called my husband in and he just said ‘Martin, hold your wife’, and said that they’d been found and they’d been found in their car,” O’Loughlin recalled her parents' friends saying.“We still don’t know exactly what happened to them. The only thing we’ve got from this is that they were together. It’s not the way you want your parents to go.“The couple moved there from Staffordshire 10 years prior because they “always wanted to live in the sunshine.““They were together. They had great friends there,” O’Loughlin told the BBC. “We got comfort in knowing that they made friends everywhere they went.“Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.Reutersand theBBCreported that a year’s worth of rainfall hit the ground over eight hours, causing Spain’s deadliest flood in three decades. The rainfall hit southern and eastern Spain, from Malaga to Valencia, according to theAssociated Press.Cars piled up after flooding in Spain on Oct. 30, 2024.Stringer/Anadolu via GettySpanish authorities have recovered 217 bodies as of Monday, Nov. 4, reports theAssociated Press. The stormwaters overflowed the Magro and Turia river basins and the Poyo riverbed, the AP reports, leading to the riverbanks overflowing.The water has washed away roads and railways, flooding homes and businesses, leaving people standing on car roofs or searching for higher ground in buildings.“We are facing a very difficult situation,” Spain’s minister of territory policies, Ángel Víctor Torres, said, viaPBS. “The fact that we can’t give a number of the missing persons indicates the magnitude of the tragedy.”

A missing British couple have been found dead in their car amid thedevastating flooding throughout Spain.

According to theBBC, Don, 78, and Terri Turner, 74, were last seen in Pedralba on Tuesday, Oct. 29, before torrential rain made landfall in Valencia, Spain, and continued through Wednesday.The GuardianandThe Independentalso reported on the couple being found dead.

They were found on Saturday, Nov. 2, after telling neighbors they were stepping out to fill their car with gas. Their daughter, Ruth O’Loughlin, hoped her parents could stay safe amid the conditions.

“We held out hope that they were still alive and maybe sheltering somewhere,” she told the BBC. “We talked about mum and dad coming over here next year to spend some time with us and we just ended the call and I’m really glad I said ‘I love you’ and she said she loves me too.”

Cars piled up after floods in Valencia, Spain, on Nov. 1, 2024.David Ramos/Getty Images

David Ramos/Getty Images

Her sister, Renee Turner, spoke to their dad on Monday, Oct. 28, and expected to hear back the following day. “Sometimes that’s not unusual, we can go a day or so without messaging every five minutes,” she told the BBC.

Don and Terri’s friends had called O’Loughlin to tell her of her parents' deaths. “He said ‘Ruth, get your husband,’ I called my husband in and he just said ‘Martin, hold your wife’, and said that they’d been found and they’d been found in their car,” O’Loughlin recalled her parents' friends saying.

“We still don’t know exactly what happened to them. The only thing we’ve got from this is that they were together. It’s not the way you want your parents to go.”

The couple moved there from Staffordshire 10 years prior because they “always wanted to live in the sunshine.”

“They were together. They had great friends there,” O’Loughlin told the BBC. “We got comfort in knowing that they made friends everywhere they went.”

Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Reutersand theBBCreported that a year’s worth of rainfall hit the ground over eight hours, causing Spain’s deadliest flood in three decades. The rainfall hit southern and eastern Spain, from Malaga to Valencia, according to theAssociated Press.

Cars piled up after flooding in Spain on Oct. 30, 2024.Stringer/Anadolu via Getty

Stringer/Anadolu via Getty

Spanish authorities have recovered 217 bodies as of Monday, Nov. 4, reports theAssociated Press. The stormwaters overflowed the Magro and Turia river basins and the Poyo riverbed, the AP reports, leading to the riverbanks overflowing.

The water has washed away roads and railways, flooding homes and businesses, leaving people standing on car roofs or searching for higher ground in buildings.

“We are facing a very difficult situation,” Spain’s minister of territory policies, Ángel Víctor Torres, said, viaPBS. “The fact that we can’t give a number of the missing persons indicates the magnitude of the tragedy.”

source: people.com