“ANA WAS A LOVELY, CARING PERSON...”

By Humphrey Carter EL Terreno is still trying to come to terms with the deaths of British couple Daniel Woolcock and Ana Minissale a week ago. The house where the bodies were found some six days after Daniel apparently killed his girlfriend with a hammer, and then hanged himself, is still locked up with the police refusing to hand over the keys to family members until the investigation is closed. Neighbours are still complaining about the smell. Ana's dog Foster is all that has been removed from the house - he had been shut up inside with the bodies until the police broke in last Friday. She found Foster wandering along the Lluchmajor road a few years ago and took him in. Foster is now in the loving care of a Bulletin employee. Rescuing the dog and caring for him was typical of Ana. British resident Edna Wilkinson has lived in Majorca for 23 years and Ana cared for her for the past 20 years. Talking from her hospital bed in Son Dureta, Ana's death affected her so much she has been in hospital since Saturday evening when she attended the minute's silence in Palma, Edna told the Bulletin yesterday that Ana was “very caring, she was a lovely person.” Ana would visit Edna most days, sometimes with Foster and Edna admits that, in the early days she would “guide Ana in the right direction, I helped her get a number of jobs, just like I did for Daniel,” said Edna. “They had been together for nine years and were like any other loving couple. She thought the world of him, she thought he was wonderful, Daniel was always at the back of her mind. She would very rarely stay longer than she should, she would always be worried about Daniel waiting for her at home. “She never stopped working, she always made sure that there was food on the table and money in the house. “She used to cycle to Santa Ponsa to clean a shop, that's how hard she worked,” said Edna. “She would do anything for anyone, nothing was ever too much trouble.” However, Edna did reveal that the relationship between Daniel and Ana started to strain apart about 18 months ago. “He wasn't working very much and Ana, who was quite a lot older, was having a bit of a mid life crisis, menopause, and was a bit short-tempered at times and things would get on her nerves. “She was seeing a doctor though,” said Edna. “But at the same time, as I said, Daniel was not working very much, he was quite an active DJ on the Paseo (Maritimo) and in La Lonja, he was known as Denzel, but would spend most of the day at home. “I did get him some work gardening but I don't know if he kept up with it. “From what I could gather, Daniel started using drugs about 12 months ago and Ana told me that he was planning on going back to England for a while. During the past few weeks (leading up to her death) I saw a bit less of Ana and wanted to phone to see if everything was all right but Daniel had taken the (mobile) phone and always had it with him,” she said in Son Dureta yesterday. “But Ana had never said anything about Daniel being violent. I was really shocked when I heard the news because Ana is not one to be taken for a ride, she would never let anyone abuse her, she would fight back and give as good as she got,” she said. “It's such a tragedy and such a mystery - her half brother Bob is deeply affected and the poor love is coming to look after me in hospital, to be honest I am more worried about him. He is still really shocked, we all are. I just can't figure out what would have caused all this. “It was Ana's birthday at the start of the month, I've still got her present wrapped up at home, I never got round to giving it to her. “Perhaps I will give it to her mother and sister when they come out next week. “It's all so sad, no one suspected anything.”