Swallowed by the earth: the strangest cases of missing persons

The disappearance of the young Madrid Diana Diana is marked by an absence of relevant clues that may point to her whereabouts or even her last movements on the night she did not return. While the agents investigating this case that have shocked Spanish society make new beats in search of Diana's trail, we remember the stories of the strangest disappearances that had an amazing impact on the Peninsula, and that remain unanswered.

Sonia Iglesias (August 2010, Pontevedra)

Six years have passed since his disappearance, and there is still no clue. Your trail is lost in the morning, in broad daylight, in one of the most commercial streets of Pontevedra. The 38-year-old woman worked in a shop and never showed up, leaving her 9-year-old son behind. The courts eventually filed the case for lack of evidence. His ex-husband emerged as the main suspect in the disappearance, but there were never indications that he was responsible. For months, Sonia was searched in forests, mountains and around rivers and lakes, but never appeared. The case shocked Galician society and today, posters with their photography are still visible on the streets of Pontevedra.

Yeremi Vargas (March 2007, Neighborhood, Gran Canaria)

The child under 7 also disappeared in broad daylight, while playing in a field near his house with other children. For nine years, a Civil Guard team investigates what happened, and the confirmation of a clue about a white Renault seen in the area has recently led to a suspect in the disappearance: a local neighbor who moved to another municipality and currently serving sentence for child abuse. 'Juan el Rubio', as he is popularly known, was a key witness in the case, assuring the police that he had a lot of data to contribute, but the agents did not end up finding clues that incriminate the 56-year-old man.

David Guerrero (April 1987, Malaga)

Another case without explanation was that of the child prodigy of painting, David Guerrero. He disappeared without a trace when he was 13 years old and went to the center of Malaga, to the La Maison gallery, where he participated in an exhibition on Holy Week. He had painted an oil with the face of Jesus Christ, which was quoted to 60,000 of the old pesetas. No driver remembers seeing that child in the lines that led that day, not in the vicinity of the gallery, or when leaving his house. He swallowed the earth. In thirty years, the investigation took important turns when a couple claimed to have seen David Guerrero in Lisbon, where it was thought that he could be exploited. The clue ended in a dead track.

A letter with his name was also found in a hotel, and the man who was staying in that room physically corresponded with one of the last portraits painted by the minor. However, when the researchers moved to Switzerland, where he lived, in search of him, he had died.

Juan Pedro Martínez Gómez (June 1986)

A year before the painter child disappeared, Interpol had already baptized the case of the child Juan Pedro Martínez as “the strangest disappearance of Europe”. The minor was then 10 years old, and made a trip in a tanker truck with his parents, who transported sulfuric acid to Bilbao. At the height of Somosierra, the truck, which had stopped on numerous occasions so that it intrigued the investigators, had an accident that ended the lives of their parents. But the boy's body never appeared.

The hypothesis that the acid completely consumed Juan Pedro's lifeless body was discarded by the time elapsed since the accident until the arrival of the emergency services. The investigation led to a plot of mafia pressures on the child's parents, and it was suspected that the child was kidnapped at the last stop of the truck, before suffering the accident. There have been no more clues about his whereabouts.

Madeleine McCann (May 2007, Praia da Luz, Portugal)

The 'star' case of the disappearances of minors. Probably the most media and international disappearance due to the exposure of the parents of the child, who disappeared while sleeping in the apartment where the McCann family was staying with their two brothers. The case was filed a year later, and went through different phases, leading to open an international conflict over the rivalry between the Portuguese and British police. The inspector who led the investigation was relieved to support the hypothesis that Maddie's parents were responsible for the death of their daughter, that they themselves covered up and 'made up' as a disappearance. The girl's body never appeared, and no clues to clarify what her movements were.

The parents entered a worldwide and millionaire campaign to find their daughter. The latest police theories suggest that the girl could be stolen by a gang of thieves during a robbery that ended badly.