Dark sports trousers; white t-shirt and sneakers. Paco took a few pieces of fruit, a yogurt, a small backpack and approached his wife: “I’m going to do a longer route today so I won’t be coming back for the food.” He said goodbye with a smile. They never saw him again.
His name is Paco Cano, 78 years old (he changed them on December 24) and an unattainable record as an athlete: Ten medals at European championships (second place in Europe), numerous national events and an athletics record that few can match: 800, 1,500 and 3,000 meters. In all these tests, he won the victory in the Master category (Veterans). On August 13, he went out to walk, train as usual. He didn’t come back.
“We’ve been looking for my father for over four months” laments his daughter Irina. In her home town – Los Barrios (Cádiz) – the beloved retired physical education teacher, her neighbors, family, students, friends keep looking for her, “but we continue as at the beginning,” she complains to her daughter. Nothing causes this.
That Saturday morning, Paco Cano went to the neighborhood bar as usual. “In general, He used to go to buy newspapers in the mornings and walk his way in the afternoons.. He goes in the morning instead of leaving in the afternoon, but in a way, he’s doing his daily routine because they see him.”
Paco goes to get the press, meets a family friend. Then he starts his route, meets a few people, walks normally. “They pinpointed my father’s location all day, until there came a time when he would disappear in the afternoon.“. It’s getting dark, it’s bedtime, and Paco isn’t coming home. “Without any explanation… we don’t see him anymore.”
They reported their absence to the Civil Guard on Sunday morning. His town almost completely heard the news. In the beginning there was no media, no posters; they would come later. One piece of news surprised Paco’s family: “Agents told my mother that her husband was racing in Medina Sidonia (Cádiz),” explains Irina.
With other runners in Medina Sidonia
Paco’s wife, Rosa, sighed with relief, strange that she hadn’t warned him…but she thought best. Paco’s son confirmed that the information was inconsistent: “It is impossible for the father to be in Medina, there is no competition there.”
He searched for races nearby, the only race that day was in Cadiz, another town in Rota. They asked for circuits runners“My father was well known in athletics”. They confirmed Pako wasn’t there.
The data was wrong. “Unconfirmed information,” complains Irina. They learned that Paco had met a family friend while picking up the newspaper that morning, and they had a short chat:
-Friend: “Where are you going Pako?”
-Paco: I will make a route to Medina.
-A: How are you going to do all this stuff? Until there?
-Q: (joking): Do you want to come?
“My father was a joker. Other times he said he was going to walk to Tarifa,” Irina recalls.
two witnesses
The search resumed after the family insisted that the Medina Sidonia clue was not genuine. The entire area that Paco passed through was scanned “in the same place over and over.”
Two new witnesses provided information: A woman claimed to have seen her at 8:30 p.m. on the Saturday she disappeared. “My dad was downtown, near the hiking trails, but he was already in town.” The strokes are focused In the Vega de Ringo Range region, Near a road heavily traveled by athletes and people hiking on the outskirts of the Los Barrios urban area. There was nothing that led to Paco.. Overlooking the river, there was no trace.
Another statement was added to the wife’s testimony: “Another person said that at 9:30 am on Sunday, he thought he saw my father in the same area, in the same spot. We believe he may have been mistaken.” this testimonyor it was too strong for the family, yes, for the research team: “They told us the search was over because of the voluntary disappearance, and my father had decided to leave.”
18 pull-ups
His image began to spread: “Searching for Paco Cano.” Posters were put up in Algeciras, San Roque and all the surrounding towns. Dedicating his whole life to sports, Cano disappeared while he was on his way to train for his favorite thing, walking.
He was Los Barrios’ favorite PE teacher until his retirement. His love for sports led him to great competition. “You don’t have to sit on the couch when things go wrong. You have to go out, work, move…‘ he’d say.
Endless medals hung around his neck. A lover of wellness, “very particular about food; obsessed with things that make you fat and not fat …” explains Irina. “installed at homeBeing a physical education teacher one of the testsHe let us pass because I was his student too”, smiles.We had to climb ropes like firefighters… He had ridden one and recorded it as he lifted them with both hands on his birthday every year. Three meters of rope… He liked to show off.”
Exercise is your engine. It just stopped for a few years, forced it. A tumor was detected, prostate cancer. He got over it. “It was already at full capacity”, says Irina. She remembers the look on teenagers’ faces when they saw her “quietly, doing 17 or 18 pushups…” when she was that age. She was excited, “I was already looking at the next competition.”
“All Open Hypotheses”
Four months later, everything is as it was at the beginning. There is nothing causing this. “The case changed investigators several times; first it was taken by the Algeciras Civil Guard, then it went to Tarifa and now again to Algeciras,” Irina summarizes. “They tell us all we know is that ‘all hypotheses are open’. It does not bring peace to the family,” he said.
According to the family, it is not possible for Paco to disappear of his own accord. At first, something told them that it might have been an accidental disappearance: “Although my father is fit, he is still 78 years old.. He disappears in August, it was so hot,” her daughter says, “but given all the search and where he was last seen, it makes no sense that he didn’t show up.”
Paco was a PE teacher and devoted his whole life to sports. He disappeared on his way to do what he loves most: walking, training.
“Maybe my father’s disappearance was forced. Confrontation, for example… My father is a person who does not keep quiet, likes to argue, argue, maybe someone can. do something…”.
Irina considers more options: “There are those who say he has drug trafficking problems in Campo de Gibraltar, where he disappeared, maybe he saw something he shouldn’t have.”
His family, his people are fighting against three fronts: knowing how, knowing where he is, and knowing why. Also against oblivion. They walk like him. The target is it.