Sleepless nights, why, why and why. These are the questions that between 20,000 and 30,000 families ask each year when a member of their family unit disappears without explanation. It is time to file a complaint, which can be done from the first moment, so that the police investigation can start. The myth that it is necessary to wait 48 hours to raise the alarm is not true.
Family members live in situations of great stress and anguish: waiting 24 hours a day for a call from a police force to offer a clue, but in some cases years go by and the whereabouts of the disappeared person are not found.
In 2021, 22,285 complaints were registered, 27.48% more than the previous year in Spain. In the year 2020, there were 16,528 and 26,567 in the year 2019. By provinces, in the Community of Madrid, the figure rose to 2,205 complaints two years ago; while in Barcelona that same year 2,179 filed. Las Palmas leads the ranking, with 3,446 cases, according to data from the Ministry of the Interior, collected in the 2022 Report on Missing Persons. The demand figures for last year are not yet public, but the aforementioned ministry will publish a new report shortly.
In addition to private organizations that support the search for missing persons, such as the SOS Desaparecidos association, the National Center for the Disappeared (CNDES) is the one that keeps exhaustive control of these cases, which reports directly to the department headed by Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska. . This body works hand in hand with the different police forces to find the fate of people who for different reasons have not returned home.
“Since March 8, we have been desperately looking for VÃctor Tapiador MartÃn, a 25-year-old young man who disappeared in Aranjuez,” says his cousin Jorge Sabugal. He lost track of her at the gates of a supermarket, where he left his car, and never made it to the family home, a chalet. “Where are you?” It was one of the last WhatsApp that his mother Belén gave him the day before the complaint. There was never an answer.
Jorge adds: “The National Police have not closed the case, but they have parked it because there are no clues to the crime.” Jorge has become the spokesperson for the family, “because his parents and two of his brothers are devastated.” And he continues: “My aunt, who is a teacher, is very affected and on leave; and my uncle and one of his sisters, who work at the San Juan de Dios Hospital in Ciempozuelos, where VÃctor also worked as a social integrator, have already reinstated to their jobs, but it’s a desperate situation for the whole family,” he says. Almost two months have passed since the disappearance.
“We want to think that it is a forced march, a forced march, although really all the hypotheses are possible,” Jorge emphasizes between sobs by telephone to La Vanguardia.
Neither the Aranjuez National Police nor the Madrid Police Headquarters want to talk about this specific case, but similar protocols are followed for all disappearances of people.
From the CNDES they point out that “since the knowledge of the disappearance of a person by the police authorities proceeds to the investigation to find out his whereabouts.”
“Each case is unique and depending on the circumstances, one or the other lines of investigation are followed. The use of certain measures or special investigation units is decided based on each specific case and the assessment made by police investigators of the complexity of each issue,” says a spokesperson for the agency. From this entity they defend that “the police actions continue until the effective location of the disappeared person”, although in some cases the person is never found. Whether alive or dead.
Officially, they explain, “there is an action protocol aimed at the police forces that, among other actions, includes the possibility of publishing and disseminating a poster with the most relevant data and the photograph of the disappeared person on the official website of the CNDES”. Depending on the case, underlines an official spokesperson for this organization, “and the specific characteristics of each disappeared person, it is possible to activate national and international alerts.”
Another of the keys is the close collaboration between the police forces with competence in citizen security, that is, the National Police, Civil Guard, Foral Police of Navarra, Ertzaintza and Mossos d’Esquadra.
VÃctor’s family assures that “there is no reason to want to flee or take one’s life, no problems at home, no new friends or suspicious movements.” Therefore, although uncertainty continues, his relatives await the arrival of some information that will lead them to the young man and this new disappearance is resolved.
VÃctor had organized a charity paddle tennis tournament, which was to take place days after his disappearance, to raise funds for the hospital where he worked. It was never celebrated. “He had reserved the slopes, the supplies, the prizes…”, says his cousin. The last images of him were recorded by the cameras of the supermarket where he parked the car. The path he took after is the great unknown. And his family continues to wonder why, why and why.
