“He took my mother’s car, the Citroën 15, and left the house.” Mayte Picazo, broken by pain, worn out by the search and clenching his teeth to fight and move forward, looks behind him and says. days before her sister Anabel, going back to January 2021 – Ana Isabel Picazo- disappeared. Athlete, excellent swimmer, English teacher, teacher. Although he left home at the age of 39, he turned 41. He left without saying goodbye. He did this in full curfew. He didn’t say goodbye. closed the door and They never saw him again.
January 2021. The figures for coronavirus infections are inefficient. Spain points to normalcy, but it is not coming. A curfew has been declared in Tarazona de la Mancha (Albacete): The regional government said days ago that “it has been decided across the region at 10 pm”. It also strictly restricted movement between municipalities except for labor, education, and essential service activities.
Mayte, “left home on January 28 (in Tarazona de la Mancha, Albacete). That day is the last”My sister broke the curfew. He set off at nine at night and reached Albacete. He only stayed a few hours in a hotel he didn’t pay for. When they went to clean the room, the alarms went off.”
“I’ve been imprisoned for days”
The house where Mayte, Anabel and their mother live has two floors. “My father passed away a few years ago, he took his own life.. Neither my sister nor I were living in the town anymore, we came back…then the pandemic came.” two independent houses. Anabel did this alone on the second floor. “He’s been locked up for days, isolated.”
“Normally,” her sister explains, “even though the two floors are now independent, she would go downstairs to eat.” She remembers spending her days doing this, “not a concern, she was able to buy things and be perfectly at home.”
After several meals without Anabel, she said, “I went upstairs, went to her room, and I told her to call my mom, she got worried.“. Anabel closed the door. “She said she was cleaning.” Mayte saw nothing. “She believed in esotericism…” They spoke for the last time. She never saw him again.
“Everything was different when the girl who was cleaning the hotel walked into the room: there was salt, rosemary, moving things,” says Anabel’s sister.
Mayte and her mother receive a phone call downstairs. Anabel was no more. “The Albacete hotel,” she remembers. “My sister had left the house in my mother’s car. She once walked out of the back door to the hotel without paying. She told the receptionist that she would pay the money later because a man would come to pick her up.” “Everything was different when the girl cleaning the hotel entered the room: There was salt, rosemary, moving things. I was sorry.”
There was nothing of hers, just her jacket. “My sister went to the street without a jacket. It was winter, just after the storm Filomena, You had to wear a coat for no reason,” Mayte recalls. until a man takes it and he told us the phone was at the hotel.” The phone was not with him.
Off, unable to call
The pandemic has made everything difficult. “We couldn’t leave town. We couldn’t search ourselves,” she recalls bitterly. “We didn’t understand anything, we waited a few days in case he called us.” Forty-eight hours later, There was no call. They filed a complaint without notice. lost.
“The epidemic, my father’s death, his return to the town he no longer lives in… My sister was affected by the situation. Something happened to her”
Investigations stalled from the beginning: voluntary escape? A few weeks later, after endless hypotheses, his car appeared: “Unlocked with keys inside. there was a bag of food spent 50 euros on food he bought at a gas station. Water, fork… He just ate a chocolate donut and a box of ready-made salad,” says her sister. He took a good look at it, “Your bag has been found with house keysfrom the warehouse, from the orchard… your documentsyour credit card, your money… He’s not wearing anything.”
The ticket in the bag showed a gas station. The organization’s camera immortalized the purchase. The pump attendant said that Anabel came on foot and alone.
neither train nor bus
No news, no trace, eyes focused on the car. “It appeared near train and bus stations,” Mayte says.inspectors said he never got on“. The area was inspected, the wells were looked at, the environment was beaten. Unanswered.
The Civil Guard searched his home. They would be back months later. “The first review was superficial, the second they checked his computer and took his phone.” The mobile access model presented a challenge to agents. “They didn’t give it with him…”.
A year later, she said, “I asked them to give it back to me.For a week, Mayte tried to gesture blindly: “I managed to open it,” she says. “We don’t know if there’s anything that could help find my sister, I handed it over to the judicial police.” until date.
Albacete was wallpapered with Anabel’s face. “The pandemic, my father’s death, his return to the town he no longer lives in… My sister was affected. Something happened to her,” she complains.
colombian sect
The hotel scene at home spawned hypotheses. “Unfortunately… youWe have two options: my sister may be dead. Another is he’s in a cult“.
The agents’ suspicion did not surprise his sister. “Anabel was very special, different…” A few years ago, “I don’t know, I don’t remember how many, got involved in some kind of split someone’s sect Colombian, but it was legal in Spain. He even went to Colombia then, one-way ticket, no refund, refund. He didn’t want to tell us anything. A friend was one He told us that he left but joined a cult.“.
Influenced by his father’s death, he locked himself back in lockdown before disappearing. “Back to the city… that sensitivity, that different feeling. it got worse over time, i imagine sectarian groups take advantage of them“.
Their networks and connections were investigated. Nothing found, just one last post dedicated to his family. “She loved to write,” Mayte recalls. He didn’t say goodbye, he respected them, but never gave a sign again. He did research in Valencia, where he lived for a while, and in Barcelona. where were your connections. We learned that it started withThe blackest, ugliest branch of magic and spirituality. He started meeting shamans… with these types of people who give you paid courses in spiritual movements.” “And if he’s alive, he can’t be separated in a group. Maybe I will never come back‘, Mayte complains.
“My mother is devastated,” he complains. “First my father, now my sister… we are just ourselves.” They walk together. They made a promise: don’t give up, take care, keep going.
They work in the fields, with the chickens, in the orchard from sunrise to sunset. One is 70 years old and still on the tractor; Sociologist and social worker Mayte learns to plow with him. They need their days to have more hours, “it doesn’t come with 24”. Legal difficulties are added to the pain of absence. Anabel’s absence makes it impossible to access her father’s inheritance; Get ahead or even sell property.
Anabel, lover of her profession, teaching. Playful and sensitive, “with a big heart” she shrunk until she stopped seeing him. His mother and sister are waiting for him. They just want it to show up, someone to tell them what, when, how. Come back, the nightmare will be over.