The second season of Disappeared arrives this Tuesday, replacing Escandalo. Relato de una obsesión, to Telecinco for its free broadcast ten months after its premiere on the Amazon Prime Video platform. The disappeared unit returns to face new cases and to resolve some still open plots from the first installment. Juan Echanove (Madrid, 1961) once again plays Chief Inspector Santiago Abad, the protagonist of the series along with Inspector Sonia Ledesma, played by Michelle Calvó.
Is not knowing the whereabouts of a loved one worse than being certain that you have lost them?
Joaquín Amills, the president of the Sosdisaparecidos Association, and his wife Patricia Cabrera, the association’s psychologist, who have been advisors to the series with the National Police Corps, told me that when someone appears, the surrounding victims sometimes feel envy. because, even if it is the confirmation of a crime, murder or sudden death, at least they have the opportunity to rest, to grieve and, somehow, end this story. I think that when a situation like this occurs, it must be so horrible to live with it and I have no words to express it, although I can interpret what its manifestations are: panic, fear, anguish… My feeling is that the anguish of disappearance sometimes it is far worse than the recognition of death.
What have you learned about disappearance cases?
That approximately 8,000 people disappear in Spain every year for whatever reason. It can be voluntary or involuntary disappearance, kidnapping, a serious health problem that makes someone not recognize the place or the moment in which they live… And of those 8,000, there are 1,000, that is, three a day, which are difficult solution and that will be prolonged in time.
You have to act fast.
Yes. The first moments are truly key and fundamental. As time stretches, the chances diminish. And collaboration and citizen participation is also very important since the alert went off. Many cases have been solved thanks to this. And I give the example of a type of disappearance that has always caught my attention, that of a disoriented elderly person who leaves his house in the afternoon and it is known that they have headed for a forest. It’s winter, it’s cold and he’s wearing pajamas and slippers. Once the family denounces it, and as the sun goes down (later the search can no longer be maintained) you know that you have a key time. Look what a simple thing but what anguish for the family.
The cases that appear in the series are based on real events. Does that circumstance tremble even more?
I usually think about the reality of the figures in Spain and since I started filming the series, I have a follow-up of SosDesaparecidos on my mobile phone. I get an alert every time there is a case. I look at the portrait of the person and, since I like to look at the faces of the people I meet when I go down the street, I think that this information that I have received may one day allow me to identify someone who looks familiar to me. and that is linked to a case.
What cases that are addressed in the series have impacted you the most?
All cases have their history. In this second season there is a plot with a family linked to drug trafficking called Los Reyes, a truly complex story because it is a disappearance of minors that is complicated by homicides. And later there is a case of a tremendous plot that arises at a summer camp and involves an ultra-right group.
And what advances us of the chief inspector Santiago Abad for this season?
After the end of the first season, the possibility of losing his son due to the neglect he has had of his family for prioritizing his police career, has made Santiago a much more human person and capable of empathizing, especially with your team, and with the people who approach the group of disappeared people for help.
And how is your relationship with inspector Sonia Ledesma evolving?
Much to her regret, Santiago has behaved with her like a father, but from now on there is a much closer and more professional relationship, which also brings many problems for her, as she does not know how to distinguish where the red line is that divides being the father. boss and be a policeman more. I think it is a very beautiful plot that has been carried out wonderfully.
