Rodolfo Sancho, facing the tragedy of a son admitted to hell

He turned 30 in June. At the prime of life for a handsome, athletic, healthy, wealthy lad with his whole life ahead of him. But suddenly… Click! A wire goes wrong, a life unknown to many of his family, a relationship motivated by ambition. Then came the horror: the murder of Edwin Arrieta, the Colombian with whom Daniel had an intimate but also professional relationship, a stormy relationship, between jealousy and threats. “Daniel Sancho was unable to accept that his family and friends knew that he was Edwin Arrieta’s lover.” These are the words of one of the Spaniard’s close friends who this week was sentenced to life imprisonment in Thailand for the murder of the Colombian doctor, one of the last who was with him on holiday in Formentera just a few days before he travelled to Southeast Asia to, as he told them, perfect his muay thai.

With the son of Rodolfo Sancho, Our informant shared parties, baths, drinks and a boat in July 2023, “a wonderful week” that he now remembers with horror. The vast majority of Daniel Sancho’s friends, including those who were with him in the Balearic Islands on that last trip, have deleted any trace or vestige of their friendship from their networks. They want to erase Daniel from their lives. Just like a girl who was with him in those days or Laura, his last “formal” girlfriend before he was dumped weeks before the summer of 2023. “She is not going to wait for me nor should she. Let her be happy and get on with her life,” Daniel wrote in one of his last messages.

All of Daniel’s acquaintances want to, and perhaps will be able to, try to erase to a greater or lesser extent the memories that make them feel bad. His family is another matter. His mother, his grandmother Noela, his father. They neither want nor can escape for a second from a nightmare that is real. Silvia Bronchalo, grandmother Noela Aguirre and Rodolfo Sancho have to live with this tragedy inside. The tragedy of the person they love the most living in hell. Overcrowded, suffering from need, sleeping on the floor, taking turns, exposed to illness, humiliation, violence. And most likely he will live like this for many years. Maybe for his whole life.

“I’m really devastated right now, to be honest”: Rodolfo Sancho is so blunt and sincere in his documentary about his tragedy. An interview he gave to try to compensate for the terrible expenses of attending Daniel in Thailand, paying for his travel, his stay, his lawyers and who knows what else. Because in Thai prisons, where corruption is rampant, having money can make the difference between living or dying.

The pain of the Colombian Arrieta Arteaga family is different but no less horrifying. Plastic surgeon Edwin Arrieta was murdered and dismembered, and Daniel scattered pieces of his corpse, which he had previously dismembered, in different places, including a landfill.

The judge at the Samui Provincial Court in southern Thailand began reading out the verdict that has already changed the lives of Daniel and his parents at five to six in the morning, peninsular time. An hour later we learned that the sentence had been reduced from the death penalty to life imprisonment because the defendant had initially pleaded guilty and cooperated with the police in clarifying the facts.

Daniel was placed in pretrial detention in Koh Samui prison A year ago, but this Friday he was transferred to Surat Thani prison, a hell where Daniel Sancho Bronchalo has already spent 48 years, perhaps the worst of his life so far. Because the life of this young man had been a bed of roses until now, as far as we know, with more material than emotional advantages, but always supported by his grandmother, the woman with whom he had lived for years.

He was born on June 11, 1994 in Madrid. His parents were 19 and 18 years old. Rodolfo and Silvia wanted to be actors and fought for it. Sancho Gracia’s son had lived very well thanks to the good money earned by his father, who hooked up with series like The Truckers and above all Curro Jimenez. Rodolfo himself soon demonstrated his talent as an actor and followed in his father’s footsteps, which provided him with a salary that allowed him to live comfortably. Leaving class (1997-1999) was one of his first successes and although it was an ensemble series, Sancho Gracia’s son began to have enough money to raise his son very well without the help that his father gave him at the beginning.

Heritage thanks to starring in series such as Los Camioneros or Curro Jiménez

Two penthouses with a terrace of almost 300 meters are an example of the heritage that Sancho Gracia managed to amass in decades of success Thanks to his talents as a leading man, one of the most recognisable of his generation. It was there that Daniel Sancho began to love good food in general and in particular quality meat well cooked, as the Uruguayans know how to do better than anyone else, a mastery that his grandmother Noela, the wife of “Curro Jiménez”, daughter of the politician of the National Party of Uruguay Gonzalo Aguirre, had. She and her husband imported from Montevideo the tasty family barbecues of the weekends. That changed when Sancho Gracia died due to tobacco. Lung cancer took him at 75 years of age. He was born in Madrid, the year that the Civil War began, and his family went into exile in Uruguay, where he spent his first years. Perhaps the great culinary passion of his grandmother and grandfather led Daniel to choose for his studies (after failed attempts to study Business Administration) the same path as Tamara Falcó: the very expensive Le Cordon Bleu school (6,350 euros) to obtain the Grand Diplôme de Culinaria y Patisserie, which costs 45,000 euros.

When Sancho Gracia died, His son Rodolfo had been separated from Daniel’s mother for five years. They were together for almost fifteen years, although their relationship was intermittent, the actor and Silvia Bronchalo lasted almost three decades. The boy was 12 years old. From his school days, they say that Daniel was “narcissistic and arrogant”. Classmates from that time have spoken about him: “We were surprised and amazed that he was involved in a dismemberment, but we were not surprised that he was involved in a mess,” they confessed in a special broadcast on Cuatro.

The thing is that, for reasons never clarified, Daniel stayed with his father, although that did not change when Rodolfo fell in love with Xenia Toasted, mother of his sister Jimena, and moved to Fuerteventura in 2016, where he owns a house by the sea and practices surfing. Rodolfo began his relationship with the mother of his daughter after meeting during the filming of the movie Free Cuba, in 2005. Daniel was 11 years old. They moved to an apartment in Arturo Soria.

In fact, Daniel lived in Madrid, with his grandmother Noela. Silvia Bronchalo did not prosper as an actress but is an investment analyst in the insurance sector, at MAPFRE. Daniel went out, came in, traveled and above all ate in restaurants with one, two and three Michelin stars more than once a week. His love for good cooking grew but what he liked most was eating it. They say that Rodolfo gave him more than three thousand euros a month for his expenses. In other words, he could live without lifting a finger, because he did not pay for a flat or rent, since he lived with his grandmother. In addition, Laura, who was his girlfriend for five years, is a person from a very rich family, whose family owns one of the most important chains of luxury car dealerships. Rodolfo Sancho’s work, with filming in Asturias, Almería and large periods of time in Fuerteventura, physically distanced Daiel from his father, but Rodolfo has always been there. And if he needed something, he would buy it for him. For example, he wanted a car, he had a fancy for an (orange) Jeep, and he bought it. It was not an expensive car. Daniel’s passions have been expensive cooking (good cooking), traveling, going out and flirting. He was not one for excessive drunkenness, although he was “quite a brawler” in the queues at VIP clubs, and “cocky” sometimes with the Puertas. He was also It is common to see him in the cinema, As the son and grandson of an actor, Daniel devoted a lot of time to boxing, muay thai, surfing, skiing and anything with a racket, such as tennis or paddle tennis.

Rodolfo Sancho has shown fortitude, but it is not easy to manage the situation of a son sentenced to life imprisonment in Thailand. In addition to the tragedy and the emotional cost, the actor of La Señora has had to invest huge amounts of money in assisting and defending his son, which is why he agreed to participate in Max’s docuseries El caso Sancho, produced by Cuarzo, the same company that makes Survivors, the missing That’s Life or The Rock. In April, The first episode premiered in April and on Friday, August 30, one day after the reading of the sentence, the preview of the next chapters was announced. The new testimonies include that of Darlin, Edwin Arrieta’s sister. Rodolfo Sancho will appear again. “I am devastated, right now, to be honest,” says the actor when asked about the difficult moment in which his son tells him about the murder. “He was very upset. ‘This has happened, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…’, crying, crying…”, says the actor. His participation was shocking. It was the first time that the actor spoke about the case in front of a camera. Sancho staunchly defended the innocence of his firstborn and described what happened as a “fight and an accident”: “I feel sorry that there is a dead person, but I have the perspective that there are two victims here,” he said. “There is certainly a dead person, and that is terrible. I want the truth to come out and, from there, we will all have to deal with our feelings and sensations, but of course I am humane towards the family of the deceased,” he declared. He did not contemplate the possibility that his son would be sentenced to life imprisonment: “I have eliminated the concept of life imprisonment from my mind. We are hoping that he will be declared not guilty.” He was wrong.