MADRID (AP) — A jury Wednesday found a Spanish man guilty of killing an Arizona woman while she was walking a world-renowned pilgrimage route in Spain in 2015. 
 
 Miguel Angel Munoz, 41, was convicted of killing Denise Pikka Thiem, 41, from Phoenix, who went missing in April 2015 in a rural area of northwestern Spain's Leon province while on the pilgrimage trail to Santiago de Compostela. 
 
 Munoz was arrested five months later and led investigators to Thiem's partly buried body. 
 
 He originally confessed to the killing but later retracted and claimed he only found the body. 
 
 The nine-member jury also found Munoz guilty of stealing more than $1,100 dollars from Thiem. 
 
 A judge will decide the sentence. 
 
 Prosecutors have asked for him to be given up to 27 years in jail for homicide and five years for theft with violence. 
 
 The trial took place last month in Leon city. 
 
 The jury found Thiem was diverted from the pilgrimage trail by a marker Munoz put up to confuse pilgrims and lead them near his house. 
 
 According to the coroner's report, she died as a result of serious brain injuries caused by repeated beatings. 

 MADRID (Reuters) - A Spanish man was found guilty on Wednesday of murdering U.S. woman Denise Pikka Thiem as she was walking the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route in north-west Spain in 2015. 
 
 Miguel Angel Munoz, 41, ambushed and killed Thiem, giving her no chance to warn others or defend herself, a summary of the decision made by the jury in the province of Leon showed. 
 
 Prosecutors have called for Munoz to be sentenced to up to 27 years in prison. He was also found guilty of stealing Thiem’s belongings. 
 
 Thiem, from Phoenix, Arizona, was 40 years old when she disappeared. She was last seen near Astorga in Leon in early April 2015, and stopped communicating with friends and posting pictures on social networks on April 4. 
 
 The following September, police found her body and arrested Munoz. 
 
 The nine-member jury rejected Munoz’s defense that he had been suffering from a serious psychiatric illness when he killed her. 

 A jury on Wednesday found a Spanish man guilty of murdering an American tourist who was on the Camino de Santiago, an ancient pilgrimage route, in 2015. 
 
 The man, Miguel Ángel Muñoz Blas, 41, killed the tourist, Denise Thiem, while she was crossing northwestern Spain to make her way to the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela, the jury found. The prosecution is seeking 25 years in prison for the murder; a judge is to deliver the sentence within days. 
 
 Ms. Thiem disappeared on April 5, 2015 — Easter Sunday — about a month after she had arrived in Spain to walk the pilgrimage route. She was 41 and had quit her job in Phoenix the previous year to travel the world. 
 
 Image Denise Thiem, in a photograph provided by her family. 
 
 Five months after her disappearance, police officers arrested Mr. Muñoz Blas in the town of Grandas de Salime. Ms. Thiem’s partly buried and decomposed body was later found at his property, about 120 miles away. 

 Denise Thiem had traveled the world before heading to Spain to hiked the famed Camino de Santiago pilgrimage. Then, on Easter Sunday, she disappeared. 
 
 Denise Thiem traveled to all seven continents, her brother Cedric Thiem said. He said she traveled frequently for personal reasons or for work. (Photo: Thiem Family) Story Highlights Her relatives and friends spent months pleading for more information 
 
 Their search may have come to a tragic end: News agencies reported the arrest of one man Friday 
 
 A body was found on the man's property, though it was not yet identified 
 
 UPDATE SATURDAY MORNING: Denise Thiem's family has released a statement. See their full message at the end of this story. 
 
 -- 
 
 Originally published 7:35 p.m. Friday, September 11, 2015: 
 
 After months of silence in the search for a missing Litchfield Park woman, a flurry of police activity in Spain ended with the arrest of a man suspected in her disappearance and the unsettling discovery of a body on the man’s property. 
 
 Denise Thiem, 41, went missing in April while hiking the Camino de Santiago, a popular trek that leads to a cathedral in Spain’s northwestern corner. Her disappearance launched a massive search effort — and increasing agony for Thiem's family and friends. For five months, the case seemed to stagnate, producing more questions than answers. 
 
 That changed Friday, with the first arrest made. 
 
 Citing an unnamed Spanish security official, the Associated Press reported the arrest happened Friday as about 300 officers searched the northern region of Asturias. Spanish TV showed footage Friday of officers at a small apartment building taking away the suspect, a bearded man. Multiple Spanish news agencies, citing anonymous officials, identified him only as 39-year-old Miguel Ángel M. B. 
 
 Several outlets reported the arrested man had told police he knew the location of Thiem’s body. El Pais, a major national newspaper in Spain, reported late Friday that police had found a badly decomposed body on the arrested man's property, but that officials had not identified it. Police also were testing biological matter discovered on a saw found at the same property, according to El Pais. 
 
 The Spanish National Police did not respond to an inquiry from The Republic and azcentral on Friday. 
 
 Thiem, who grew up in Arizona and attended Xavier College Preparatory, had traveled widely in the past. She lived with her parents and brother in Litchfield Park and had worked at PetSmart's corporate headquarters in north Phoenix before leaving her job for a round-the-world trip that would culminate in a hike on the Camino. 
 
 Tens of thousands of people walk various routes to Santiago de Compostela annually. Some do it as a spiritual quest; to complete the Camino is to end at the cathedral believed to house the remains of the apostle St. James. Others go for a physical challenge or a holiday. The hike was made more popular after release of "The Way," a 2010 film starring Martin Sheen that follows his character's soul-searching walk to Santiago after the death of his son. 
 
 Thiem had started her journey in Pamplona in March, planning to reach Santiago in about a month and a half. Instead, in the first week of April, she vanished from the trail. Thiem was last seen on April 5 — Easter Sunday — in the town of Astorga. Her disappearance prompted safety concerns about the series of pilgrimage routes, though Spanish tourism officials have continued to say the Camino is safe for foreign travelers. 
 
 Thiem's relatives and others who helped with the search had plead unsuccessfully for help from the government and a meeting with the U.S. ambassador to Spain. 
 
 The U.S. Embassy in Madrid declined comment about the arrest, the AP reported, citing privacy laws that prevent the disclosure of information about the case. A U.S. State Department representative told The Republic on Friday that they did not have any additional comments on the Thiem case and would defer to the local authorities regarding any developments. 
 
 Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, who also was familiar with the case, said in an e-mail statement that her office shared the Thiem family's frustration about the "lack of information and cooperation from various government entities." 
 
 Last month, Sen. John McCain wrote a letter to Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy requesting that the Spanish government allow the FBI to join the search efforts, but the request was never fulfilled. Friday evening, in a statement, McCain said, "We hope these latest developments begin to provide the answers that the Thiem family deserves." 
 
 A STATEMENT FROM THE FAMILY 
 
 "The family of Denise P. Thiem wishes to acknowledge the professionalism, skill and dedication of the Spanish National Police that led to the actions taken yesterday. They also wish to thank the Spanish people for their many prayers and heartfelt expressions of hope and concern during this long, painful ordeal of not knowing what happened to Denise. Finally, the family hopes that the body which the police recovered on September 11, 2015 can be identified quickly, and, if it is their beloved Denise, returned to the United States without delay so they and her friends can honor her life and conduct a proper and reverent burial." 
 
 Reporters Rafael Carranza and Bob Ortega contributed to this article. 
 
 AMERICAN GONE MISSING IN SPAIN 
 
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– On Easter Sunday 2015, an Arizona woman disappeared as she walked a famed pilgrimage route in Spain; two years later, her killer has been found guilty. Miguel Angel Munoz was on Wednesday convicted in the murder of Denise Pikka Thiem. The 41-year-old had quit her job working in PetSmart's corporate headquarters in Phoenix to traverse the St. James Way, also known as the Camino de Santiago; she set off on what was to be a 90-day solo voyage from Pamplona in March, the Arizona Republic reported at the time. Prosecutors alleged Munoz had put up a marker designed to confuse pilgrims and reroute them toward his small farm in Asturias near the trail, which the AP reports leads to a cathedral believed to house the remains of St. James the Apostle. The New York Times reports that while Munoz was also found guilty of robbing Thiem of $1,100, he provided no information as to motive. Munoz's defense tried to make the case he was suffering from severe psychiatric issues at the time, reports Reuters. He had been arrested five months after Thiem vanished on April 5, and her body was found partly buried on his property. Reuters cites a summary of the jury's decision that finds Munoz "ambushed" Thiem, giving her no opportunity to defend herself. Per the coroner's report, cause of death was serious brain injuries caused by repeated beatings. A judge will issue a sentence in the coming days; prosecutors want 27 years for the murder. (Read about another tragic hiking tale, this time out of North Carolina.)