A FORMER Royal Navy officer from Huddersfield has vanished in the Spanish city of Barcelona after a business associate was found dead.

William Madley, 46, has not been seen since the body of Scots businessman Derek Cowan, also 46, was found in Mr Cowan’s luxury apartment.

The Huddersfield man scheduled a meeting with Mr Cowan on October 8 to discuss a business idea – on the same day Mr Cowan died.

It is understood Spanish police want to find former submariner Mr Madley.

When asked about Mr Madley, a Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokesman said: “We can confirm that a British national has been reported missing in Barcelona. Consular assistance is being offered to his family.”

The Examiner understands Mr Madley grew up in Deighton and still has family in Huddersfield.

According to a profile on the Friends Reunited website, he went to Bradley C of E Junior School,ŠDeighton High School and Greenhead College, Huddersfield, which he left in 1981.

He was 25 when he left Huddersfield.

From that point onwards he served on a series of Royal Navy submarines.

Between 1983 and 1985 he was based on the HMS Collingwood and from 1985 to 1986 he was on HMS Amazon.

In 1986 he was based on HMS Glamorgan before a posting on HMS Courageous from 1987 to 1989.

His profile says: “I have one child. I'm working – happy where I am. I'm an MD. I live in UK and overseas.”

Popular property agent Mr Cowan, described by friends as a “wheeler dealer”, settled in Spain seven years ago.

He recruited Mr Madley as a partner in his firm – an intermediary service in big property deals – two years ago.

But their relationship soured after a disagreement over money.

After a chance meeting in the city, Mr Cowan had agreed to meet up again with Mr Madley to discuss a business proposition.

But the next day, Mr Cowan’s business partner, Andreas Langweider, became worried when the Scot failed to return his calls.

He arrived at his penthouse at Carrer de Bailen in the fashionable Eixample district to find him dead with blood streaming from his head.

No witnesses have emerged to say if the meeting with Mr Madley went ahead.

The Englishman’s whereabouts were still unknown today.

A police insider said: “Andreas gave a full account of Derek’s movements on the day of his death.

“He claims that Derek met him and said he'd bumped into Bill Madley out of the blue. Bill said he had a great new business idea and he wanted Derek on board.

“Andreas and Derek were a bit surprised about that, but Derek agreed to see him nonetheless.”

Mr Langweider became suspicious when he had heard nothing by 2pm on the day of the meeting and went to Mr Cowan’s apartment.

The police source added: “He told detectives he walked into the living room and saw Derek lying on his back on the floor.

“He described there being lots of blood, more than there would be from just a punch.”

Mr Madley became a partner in their United Companies and Associates enterprise two years ago.

He is believed to have paid more than 2000 euros to become a partner, but after he failed to bring in enough business the other two men decided to sever ties with him.

Mr Madley went on to form FinSA Management Group, an investment advice firm, with another English partner.

Mr Madley’s business partner at FinSA in Barcelona, Justin Box, was reluctant to discuss his location.

He said: “I can’t talk about that. I’ve been told I can’t say anything about it at all.”

On their website, Barcelona's city police, the Mossos d'Esquadra, said Mr Cowan's death had been "violent".

It added that officers were awaiting post-mortem examination results which would determine if he had been murdered. In the meantime, the inquiry has been referred to the police force's homicide squad.

No arrests have so far been made in the case.

Sallie Barrett, of Huddersfield, said she was shocked to hear Mr Madley was missing.

“I was at school at the same time as Billy. He was just a nice quiet lad. I hadn’t heard from him for years but just recently we had exchanged brief messages on the internet.”