HER name is Sheila Queralt. By training, she’s a linguist.

But if you are thinking of committing crime in Barcelona, her home town, or anywhere in Spain – whether it be violence or fraud, be warned – Sheila will be coming after you!
A 27-year-old librarian, Helena Jubily, was murdered in 2001 and it looked like the case would never be solved.

Helena had been receiving threats on her mobile phone.
On 2 September, 2001, her naked, burnt body was found in Sabadell.

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She had been drugged and thrown from a rooftop.
Police suspected a couple – he was called Santiago, and she was Montse – of having something to do with Helena’s killing, but proof was thin on the ground.

They brought Montse in for questioning. To everyone’s amazement, Montse committed suicide in custody.
The police knew that the three individuals (Helena, Montse and Santiago) had belonged to the same hiking group, but that’s all they had.

A judge threw the case out for lack of evidence.
Enter Sheila.
She analysed the threatening texts linguistically.

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She was able to show that someone had used Montse’s phone (someone who used Catalan slang which Montse never ever employed when texting).
Santiago had had access to Montse’s phone.
The case was re-opened, and Santiago was arrested.

Sheila proved in court that his use of slang was identical with the wording of the threats.

That was two weeks ago. Police in Sabadell are now quietly confident that they’ll get justice for Helena at the upcoming trial.
Though she hasn’t yet attained the age of 40, Sheila Queralt is recognised as an international authority in forensic linguistics – the science of catching criminals by using their own words against them.
She owns the only company in Spain devoted to this work.

“It’s fascinating,” she says. “One day I might be nailing a murderer, and the next day proving that a student stole text from a book and inserted it dishonestly in her doctoral dissertation.”
Her expertise is summed up neatly: “Criminals use words when they threaten or bribe. I show how they did it.”
Queralt is just as likely to defend the innocent as to corner the guilty.

“I’m motivated, not by money,” she says, “but by ethics.

“If someone is being accused of something they didn’t do, they can always come to me for help.”
Óscar can thank Sheila for his freedom.
He was wrongly accused of drug-trafficking in Italy, and spent two years in custody. His family contacted the Queralt agency.

Sheila was able to show that the Italian software, though capable of translating Spanish, was not good enough to distinguish between the different regional accents.
“There are nuances of language that machines can’t detect.

Óscar was definitely not the drug dealer who spoke on the phone,” says Sheila.
She does civil cases, too.

By analysing the text of a contract in Badajoz, she won 1.8 million euros for some workers who had been unfairly dismissed.
Sheila has picked up some impressive accolades and has also written various books.

In 2023, she received the Silver Badge of the Spanish Society of Criminology and Forensic Sciences.

One of her books, tellingly, bears the title, “Cornered by Words”.
“A person from Córdoba doesn’t speak or write exactly like someone from Málaga, even though they are both andaluces,” she explains.

“And you don’t use the same words when you’re talking to your grandmother that you’d employ when chatting with your brother.

It’s in these tiny differences that I do what I do.”
When asked to sum it all up, she says, “It’s about ego.

A fraudster who’s trying to scam you will – unconsciously – try to convince you that he (or she) is intelligent, so they will use a lot of unusual adverbs, like ‘subtly’ or ‘cordially’.

When I see words like that, I know I’m onto them!”
Finally, we ask Sheila if she’s making good money out of catching villains.
She pauses before answering with “Let’s just say it’s more profitable than compiling dictionaries!”

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