Kenneth Glad
Emergency services responded after members of the public made an alarming discovery near Barcelona. The case later became the subject of widespread media coverage because of its highly unusual circumstances.
A 39-year-old man was found dead inside the hollow leg of a papier-mache stegosaurus in Santa Coloma de Gramenet, near Barcelona, after a father and son noticed a foul smell coming from the structure.
According to the BBC, the pair encountered the statue during a Saturday walk in May 2021. The father spotted a body through an opening in the dinosaur’s leg and contacted the authorities.
The man had already been reported missing by his family. Regional police, the Mossos d’Esquadra, identified the death as accidental and said investigators had found no evidence of violence.
Police examined how he became trapped
Investigators believed the man may have entered the statue while trying to retrieve a mobile phone that had fallen inside. Police said the available evidence suggested he went into the narrow leg headfirst and could not get back out.
A Mossos d’Esquadra spokesperson told The Guardian: “It’s an accidental death; there was no violence.”
Police were unable to establish every detail of what happened before the man became stuck upside down. BBC reported that investigators were awaiting autopsy results to clarify the cause of death and how long he had been inside.
Contemporary reports indicated that police believed he may have remained trapped for roughly two days, although his family had reported him missing only hours before his body was discovered.
Firefighters cut into the statue
Recovering the remains required three fire brigade teams because of the confined space inside the sculpture. Firefighters cut through part of the stegosaurus’s leg to reach the body.
The dinosaur stood outside the Cubic Building in Santa Coloma de Gramenet. According to the Daily Express, it had previously served as a decorative advertisement for a cinema that once operated there.
Santa Coloma de Gramenet’s city council later confirmed that the dinosaur statue was removed from the site following the emergency response.
Sources: Daily Express, BBC, The Guardian
