It had been 210 days since the resident of Sant Vicenç de Castellet José De Arcos Ballesteros, known to his friends as Pepe, had disappeared during an excursion to Lourdes, in France, with the Penya Blaugrana of his municipality. After 7 months without any news, the French police have found the body of the 74-year-old Catalan, according to RAC1.
The gendarmerie has been able to identify the remains thanks to the personal objects and they have already communicated the discovery to the family, who had been searching for him since last July 15. The pensioner’s body was in a wooded area in the French city.
The man disappeared after separating from the group during the visit to the Lourdes sanctuary. He said he was going to the pharmacy, he became disoriented and his colleagues never saw him again. The peculiarity of this story is that he himself contacted his Penya colleagues by phone to try to find his way: “I’m lost, I see a bridge. There is no one, only cyclists.” There were several calls that ended without a solution.
The members of the Barcelona Penya and the family went to the French police to report the disappearance, but the search for Pepe did not begin until five days later because the French authorities thought that he was simply a disoriented man. The victim’s companions asked that the phone with which he was making the calls be geolocated, but they were ignored. The man’s cell phone ran out of battery and he was completely lost track of.
The family organized several raids, but all were unsuccessful. Seven months later they have received the sad news of the location of the remains of José De Arcos Ballesteros.
This news was originally published on the RAC1 website.
