Have You Seen Me?
I wrote this last year. The search for Diana Quer continued far into the year, until the judge provisionally closed the case this past April. This week, the man who had killed her was arrested for attempted kidnapping of another woman in nearby Boiro. After his wife rescinded the alibi she had given him when they had interrogated him last year, he confessed, and took the police to the place where he had hidden Diana's body. It was in an abandoned factory, about three kilometers away from here, behind our parish churchyard. Her parents can now mourn her, after their slim hope of finding her alive has been crushed forever.
But there are more victims here than the 18 year old Diana and her family. The family of the murderer is also a victim, especially his daughter. We know them, and we know him. It still seems incredible that this could have happened within our circles, but it has. His family also needs to be supported and helped. It is a tragedy for them as great as for Diana's family. They will live with the stigma for the rest of their lives. And, in these villages, where everyone knows family history, so will their children and grandchildren. What a horrid way to end the year. May everyone treat each other kindly.
For more information, check out the Spanish newspapers, including the English edition of El País.
On Monday morning at about two thirty in the morning, Diana Quer, a tourist visiting from Madrid, was walking back to her summer home along the waterfront in Pobra do Caramiñal, a few kilometers away from us. She had been out with friends at the festival. She never got home.
The August festival of Pobra is called o Carmen dos Pincheiros, and is characterized, like most festivals, with fairground rides, stalls with food, clothing, toys, and knickknacks. The older people circulate close to the musical band, the notes of the songs floating up into the night. The younger people stay closer to the stalls and the rides, with the music of each ride competing with the band, their notes rising up and battling for the night sky. To get home, Diana Quer had to walk along the waterfront, behind which, in an empty lot, the fairground workers had set up their caravans for the days they worked that festival, before setting off for the next festival somewhere else in Galicia, Asturias, and sometimes León.
The last anyone heard of her was a Whatsapp message she sent to a friend in Madrid. She mentioned she was scared because a man was walking behind her, calling out, "Ven aquí, morena!" (Come here, brunette!) No one has heard from her or seen her since then. Questions arise. If she felt threatened, why did she message a friend in Madrid instead of directly calling someone nearby who could respond quickly? Did she voluntarily run away? If so, how? Did one of the fairground workers subdue her and stow her away in his camper before disposing of her body kilometers away? If so, why are there no signs of a struggle? The days that the fairground workers were installed in that lot, other women complained about a man calling out to them, could he have decided to become bold in the cover of night? Could she have used those incidents to run away and keep the police on the wrong track? No one knows, and, with each passing day, her disappearance threatens to become one of those disappearances that recede into the mystery of the years, never to be resolved.
There are a number of disappearances that have never been solved. No body has ever been discovered, no living person found in other provinces or countries. There are more recent cases, then there are those that have become enshrouded in legend and have acquired their own name and identity. The most recent that comes to mind is that of the child, Yeremi Vargas, in the Canary Islands. It is assumed that he was killed shortly after being kidnapped, but his body has never been found.
In March, 2007, Yeremi was playing with friends and cousins in a small town on the island of Gran Canaria. He didn't come home and the children he was playing with didn't know where he had gone. Being asthmatic and needing his medication, an enormous manhunt was organized. Nothing was found. It was assumed he had been somehow spirited away to be later killed. Many theories were formed and followed, from organ mafias to pedophiles. In fact, three Scottish pedophiles who had been on the island at the time of the disappearance, were visited and interviewed in Scotland. Nothing came of that. But, earlier this year, police began to investigate a man currently in jail in Algeciras, on the mainland, for abusing a child in 2012. He apparently had bragged that he knew plenty about Yeremi. The man had lived near Yeremi Vargas during the time of the disappearance, and had been frequently seen watching the children at play. But no physical evidence has been found, and Yeremi, alive or dead, is still missing.
An extremely inexplicable disappearance happened thirty years ago, and will probably never be resolved. It has garnered its own name and identity, El Caso del Niño de Somosierra (The Case of the Child of Somosierra). Andrés Martínez was a truck driver. On June 24, 1986, he and his wife, Carmen, were driving a cistern truck from Murcia to Bilbao. As a reward for good grades, their son, Juan Pedro, was allowed to go along and spend a couple of days in Bilbao with his parents. But, north of Madrid, along the mountain road N-1 (which has since been modernized and made safer as the Autovía del Norte A-1), they had an accident after six in the morning and were killed. When the Guardia Civil called the grandparents in Murcia to tell them that their son and daughter-in-law are dead, the grandmother pleaded to be told that their grandson is unhurt. That is the first news the police received that the child was travelling with his parents. Because there was no child's body, neither in the wreckage, nor anywhere in the surrounding area. There is the possibility that the body dissolved in the sulphuric acid the truck was carrying, but no sign ever appeared of that. What they did find was boy's clothing and cassettes with children's music. Which told the police the boy had been in the cabin with his parents. But nothing else.
From the beginning there is nothing simple about this disappearance. The father, who had returned with debts to truck driving after a failed attempt at farming, had apparently been threatened by a drug cartel that had wanted him to carry and deliver drugs on his trips across the country. In the wreckage, heroin was found. Also, towards the end of the failed trip, the father had made strange stops, as noted on the tachometer, most of them just a second or two in length, except the last one of almost thirty seconds, shortly before the accident. The truck also went from a regular speed of 15 to 20 kilometers per hour, normal for a cistern truck carrying acid on a mountain road with twists and turns of thirty years ago, to barrelling downhill at 110 kilometers, passing other trucks and cars, until crashing on a hairpin curve. This has led the family to maintain that Juan Pedro was kidnapped during the thirty seconds the truck stopped, just before it began travelling at breakneck speeds. No one knows. Of course, there have been numerous sightings of Juan Pedro, just like in all high-profile cases when the public lets its collective imagination run riot. But he has never been seen again, not even his bones.
It has been almost a week since Diana Quer went missing on Pobra's waterfront. With each passing day the chances of finding her become slimmer. The chances of finding her alive are going from small to almost non-existent. Hopefully, some day her parents will have the satisfaction of knowing what happened to their child. A parent's worst nightmare is never knowing what has happened to a missing child. Too many parents will never know.
But there are more victims here than the 18 year old Diana and her family. The family of the murderer is also a victim, especially his daughter. We know them, and we know him. It still seems incredible that this could have happened within our circles, but it has. His family also needs to be supported and helped. It is a tragedy for them as great as for Diana's family. They will live with the stigma for the rest of their lives. And, in these villages, where everyone knows family history, so will their children and grandchildren. What a horrid way to end the year. May everyone treat each other kindly.
For more information, check out the Spanish newspapers, including the English edition of El País.
On Monday morning at about two thirty in the morning, Diana Quer, a tourist visiting from Madrid, was walking back to her summer home along the waterfront in Pobra do Caramiñal, a few kilometers away from us. She had been out with friends at the festival. She never got home.
The August festival of Pobra is called o Carmen dos Pincheiros, and is characterized, like most festivals, with fairground rides, stalls with food, clothing, toys, and knickknacks. The older people circulate close to the musical band, the notes of the songs floating up into the night. The younger people stay closer to the stalls and the rides, with the music of each ride competing with the band, their notes rising up and battling for the night sky. To get home, Diana Quer had to walk along the waterfront, behind which, in an empty lot, the fairground workers had set up their caravans for the days they worked that festival, before setting off for the next festival somewhere else in Galicia, Asturias, and sometimes León.
The last anyone heard of her was a Whatsapp message she sent to a friend in Madrid. She mentioned she was scared because a man was walking behind her, calling out, "Ven aquí, morena!" (Come here, brunette!) No one has heard from her or seen her since then. Questions arise. If she felt threatened, why did she message a friend in Madrid instead of directly calling someone nearby who could respond quickly? Did she voluntarily run away? If so, how? Did one of the fairground workers subdue her and stow her away in his camper before disposing of her body kilometers away? If so, why are there no signs of a struggle? The days that the fairground workers were installed in that lot, other women complained about a man calling out to them, could he have decided to become bold in the cover of night? Could she have used those incidents to run away and keep the police on the wrong track? No one knows, and, with each passing day, her disappearance threatens to become one of those disappearances that recede into the mystery of the years, never to be resolved.
There are a number of disappearances that have never been solved. No body has ever been discovered, no living person found in other provinces or countries. There are more recent cases, then there are those that have become enshrouded in legend and have acquired their own name and identity. The most recent that comes to mind is that of the child, Yeremi Vargas, in the Canary Islands. It is assumed that he was killed shortly after being kidnapped, but his body has never been found.
In March, 2007, Yeremi was playing with friends and cousins in a small town on the island of Gran Canaria. He didn't come home and the children he was playing with didn't know where he had gone. Being asthmatic and needing his medication, an enormous manhunt was organized. Nothing was found. It was assumed he had been somehow spirited away to be later killed. Many theories were formed and followed, from organ mafias to pedophiles. In fact, three Scottish pedophiles who had been on the island at the time of the disappearance, were visited and interviewed in Scotland. Nothing came of that. But, earlier this year, police began to investigate a man currently in jail in Algeciras, on the mainland, for abusing a child in 2012. He apparently had bragged that he knew plenty about Yeremi. The man had lived near Yeremi Vargas during the time of the disappearance, and had been frequently seen watching the children at play. But no physical evidence has been found, and Yeremi, alive or dead, is still missing.
An extremely inexplicable disappearance happened thirty years ago, and will probably never be resolved. It has garnered its own name and identity, El Caso del Niño de Somosierra (The Case of the Child of Somosierra). Andrés Martínez was a truck driver. On June 24, 1986, he and his wife, Carmen, were driving a cistern truck from Murcia to Bilbao. As a reward for good grades, their son, Juan Pedro, was allowed to go along and spend a couple of days in Bilbao with his parents. But, north of Madrid, along the mountain road N-1 (which has since been modernized and made safer as the Autovía del Norte A-1), they had an accident after six in the morning and were killed. When the Guardia Civil called the grandparents in Murcia to tell them that their son and daughter-in-law are dead, the grandmother pleaded to be told that their grandson is unhurt. That is the first news the police received that the child was travelling with his parents. Because there was no child's body, neither in the wreckage, nor anywhere in the surrounding area. There is the possibility that the body dissolved in the sulphuric acid the truck was carrying, but no sign ever appeared of that. What they did find was boy's clothing and cassettes with children's music. Which told the police the boy had been in the cabin with his parents. But nothing else.
From the beginning there is nothing simple about this disappearance. The father, who had returned with debts to truck driving after a failed attempt at farming, had apparently been threatened by a drug cartel that had wanted him to carry and deliver drugs on his trips across the country. In the wreckage, heroin was found. Also, towards the end of the failed trip, the father had made strange stops, as noted on the tachometer, most of them just a second or two in length, except the last one of almost thirty seconds, shortly before the accident. The truck also went from a regular speed of 15 to 20 kilometers per hour, normal for a cistern truck carrying acid on a mountain road with twists and turns of thirty years ago, to barrelling downhill at 110 kilometers, passing other trucks and cars, until crashing on a hairpin curve. This has led the family to maintain that Juan Pedro was kidnapped during the thirty seconds the truck stopped, just before it began travelling at breakneck speeds. No one knows. Of course, there have been numerous sightings of Juan Pedro, just like in all high-profile cases when the public lets its collective imagination run riot. But he has never been seen again, not even his bones.
It has been almost a week since Diana Quer went missing on Pobra's waterfront. With each passing day the chances of finding her become slimmer. The chances of finding her alive are going from small to almost non-existent. Hopefully, some day her parents will have the satisfaction of knowing what happened to their child. A parent's worst nightmare is never knowing what has happened to a missing child. Too many parents will never know.
Comments
Post a Comment