Erasmus student Romain disappeared in Barcelona: his last call 200 meters away from a sexual predator

He socialized, made friends and had fun, but his dream came to an end after two months. romaine He disappeared on November 13 of the same year. Without further notice, without further notice. Calling the Provença metro station is the last thing you have with it. Almost 16 years later, Romain is gone.

The investigation began a week later. It’s stuck. There were new clues and there are none. No answer. There is nowhere to shoot. In her mother Mireille’s mind, a photo: found in the home of a sexual abuser convicted of drugging, raping and murdering another 20-year-old student who had just arrived in Barcelona in 2012.. “He had thousands of photos in his house, we saw about 90, they were all victims, one of them was my son Romain.”

balmes street

“He disappeared on Tuesday, November 13, 2007,” Mireille said. “I’ve been asking the same questions for fifteen and a half years: Where is he, what happened…”. She learned Spanish so she could speak directly to researchers. Mossos d’Esquadrabut with OPEN CASE, he prefers to explain in French so as not to miss the details.

“I got an e-mail from her the other day, Monday. She told me she had an exam the next day,” the woman snaps. Subject: US History, I would do well. “Also to me, like his friend Renaud, He wanted to move from Barcelona to Sabadell from Sants, where he shared an apartment. I wanted to be closer to university to earn at least half an hour, or even three-quarters of an hour, on the road. On Monday he spent the night in Sabadell, went to the exam, and when it was finished he would go to his old apartment to get his things. A computer screen, some clothes and a badminton racket. did not come

He charged his cell phone and told his former roommates, “I’ll be here in an hour and a half.” As the investigation confirms, the search will take place at the gate of the Provença metro station. “There, on Balmes street in central Barcelona, ​​Romain’s trail disappeared.“.

station in Sants

“It was kind of weird that she didn’t write to me, but I thought she didn’t have internet because she moved.” The warning jumped late, he regretted his mother. The same thing happened to his friends, “Those from Sabadell found him in Sants, those from Sants found him in Sabadell”.

A week later, with all the alarms on, his family landed in Barcelona. They tried to re-establish their steps, all ended up at the station. “The problem is that the cameras are now to talk When we arrived 4 days later, we couldn’t see them. I think they could have helped us find him.”

The first posters were printed with the phone turned off, with no thread to remove: Erasmus disappeared in Barcelona. 1.85m tall. Brown, blue eyes. He wore a black jacket, a hat of the same color, and dark shoes. We ask for your cooperation.

This Mossos d’EsquadraThe French Ministry of the Interior and the French Gendarme joined forces. They encountered the absence of signs, of evidence. “Silence. Nothing, empty… It was incredible, where was Romain?” The voluntary march is visualized, “it was impossible and Romain was happy”, defends and defends Mireille.

He loved living in Barcelona, ​​he loved the city. “He also loved interacting with foreign students because he was curious and interested in learning about history and other cultures.” His friends were questioned. No one knew why, how or with whom.

A graphologist analyzed the handwriting during an exam he took hours before he disappeared: He wasn’t sad, he was nervous. Romain was good. “Besides,” her mother recalls, she had plans: “He had just bought his plane ticket to spend the Christmas holidays with us in Brittany. and above all to celebrate his 20th birthday here with his childhood friends. He had called me to say how glad he was to see us again soon.”

French researchers went to Barcelona. Catalan researchers also flew to Brittany. Everything went dark. There was no rope to pulluntil he died five years later Crispin Scott, A young 20-year-old American student has recently arrived in Barcelona. It looked like an overdose. The product of a crazy night and a deadly mix of drugs and alcohol. The truth was revealed by his autopsy: He was killed. She was the victim of Ecuadorian poet and photographer Óscar Vicente Castro Cedeño, 41, who was sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2014.

Already at her home, Mireille received a call from French private detectives and was in despair. He was hired to join forces in the search for Romain. They told him about Castro’s arrest, the 20-year-old stranger’s death in Barcelona. “Right away, (Jean-François Abgrall and Sandrine Wattecamps) He reconstructed the footsteps of this criminal to see if he could cross paths with Romain”.

“In 2007, My son was working at a restaurant in the Sants district when he disappeared. he was a member of Castellers de Sants… Romain lived in Carrer de Sants”. The predator also “lived 200 meters from where my son made his last phone call”.

At the subway exit

French investigations revealed “The disappearances of other young men in Barcelona. They even buried it and found three bodies. without the authorities identifying them“They asked for their DNA to be compared to Romain’s. It came out negative.

They profiled the criminal from France. “The suspect was speaking French and a A group of artists from Sants, where he gives poetry recitals with guitar accompaniment… Romain’s areas of interestThe Mossos report likewise included that the predator had a dual life: During the day he took care of old ladies and encouraged poetry at literary gatherings.. At night, molested young men she drugged before. HIV patient, never used protection and killed at least one -Crispin.

After being arrested, the man explained ” He approached his victims in student neighborhoods, at the exits of nightclubs or subway stations. My son Romain disappeared at the exit of a metro station.” Castro admitted the following in the lawsuit filed against him: “I came to (Spain) to hunt the young Students in their twenties, foreign nationals, fair-skinned and athletic build”.

2000 photos of nude teens

Crispin Scott was drugged, raped and killed, and before… Photographed during the harassment. His was not an isolated case. This Mossos d’Esquadra found about two thousand photographs in the murderer’s home. some with computer support, some even printed on paper. All followed the same pattern: the victim is clothed, the victim is naked from the waist down, the victim is naked from the waist up. Each drama ended with a sexual assault image.

“We learned that the police found those photos and we wanted to see them,” he said. In April, Romain’s family sat across from the footage. “They presented us with photos of 90 teenagers who were different victims. They were young, partially or completely naked, motionless, asleep, on medication, or dead? How do you know…” Mireille complains, “We were horrified to have Romain in one of the photos!”

The fear has begun. “Time passed… Nobody said anything,” he complains. “So we called the police. They told us that we, as Romain’s parents, made a mistake when reviewing the photos.The message shocked them, they thought they would investigate what happened to Romain. “No. They said it wasn’t him… But yes.and his family no longer know how to recognize our son…“.

“No,” they said, “because a physiognist guessed that the size of the victim’s bones in the photograph did not match Romain’s.” They didn’t know more.

It’s been 11 years since that look, it’s almost 16 since Romain disappeared.. Spain, Australia and New Caledonia. Mireille traveled thousands of miles around the world after hearing “clues” that they assured her son was there: “it was never him”.

The bohemian, cheerful young man who loves languages, Romain (he was in his third year of Chinese) is still not there. “Beyond Romain’s disappearance, We are also fighting to ensure that the other victims of this sexual abuser who eventually ends up in jail are identified and their families do not suffer.. Who are they?”.

His son never came home. The plane ticket you bought has never been used. “They told us the best thing was to grieve.” Mireille refuses: “I will not stop looking, I will never stop.”