“I’m stuck, mom.” The call cut abruptly. Adela San Ceferino stared in disbelief as her middle daughter, Adela Bercianos, who had left home months earlier, rang on New Year’s Eve 1995, crying out in distress. This message was the last thing she heard—Adela never saw him again.
He endured the pain, hiding it from everyone. At home was his granddaughter, Lucia. Months earlier, his daughter had left him to care for the girl before boarding a train. “I would have been four now,” Lucia reflects at thirty-two, “I didn’t see him again.”
Since that last sighting, nearly thirty years have passed. He kept searching and waiting. Some voices offered fragile hope that he might still be alive: “A man told us he was in Santander when my grandfather’s funeral took place five years ago.” Other relatives confirmed they saw a woman who resembled Adela and did not know how to approach the coffin, kissed the box, and walked away.
The photograph used in posters about Adela’s disappearance shows Adela at the zoo with her daughter Lucia in the background.
—A train to Malaga—
Lucia recalls little about the day in question. She knows that her mother went to Santander train station, boarding a train bound for Malaga, and told the family to look after the girl. “I’m going on vacation,” he said. An older man, about twenty years his senior, stood nearby—a complicated relationship had begun.
He left the granddaughter with the grandparents in the station’s parking lot. The holidays stretched on, the journey grew longer. “I remember you called, you wanted me, but you didn’t come back.”
He appeared at Christmas, but the visit was quiet—Lucia did not see him, and the secret stayed buried. Adela’s life seemed to change in an instant; her hair dark to short blond, blue contact lenses replacing brown eyes. There were whispers of drug trafficking, of men hunting them, of hiding things away.
Adela remained elusive but present in spirit. “She called my grandmother, wrote letters saying she longed to see me again, and sent gifts,” her daughter explains.
For six months letters and phone calls kept them connected. In every message, Adela apologized and promised they would meet soon. Then, in the New Year of 1995, a cry on the line changed everything: “She was crying and said she was sorry for everything and that she couldn’t come back because she was being held.” That moment marked the end of contact.
Nearly three decades later, Lucia clings to letters and memories she guards with care, along with the last gifts she received. “I recall a package with a large stuffed animal and a letter saying, I love you so much, I hope I’ll be there for you.”
Comprehensive criminal history
Days and months slipped by without news. Adela’s mother reported her disappearance to the Civil Guard. Investigators pulled back the blanket to reveal someone connected to a long criminal record. The man was known to police and was linked to drug trafficking and several robberies, earning him a prison sentence and headlines alike.
Involvement in the disappearance of thousands of tons of milk powder from Santander Harbor led to his arrest for hiding two kilograms of Goma-2 in his home. Reports from that period claim he planted an explosive device at the headquarters of the newspaper Hoja del Lunes in Santander; the paper uncovered the case and published it widely.
On the journey, Civil Guards later learned that Adela and her daughter did not stop in Malaga, but went on to Brazil. The rest remains murky. He returned alone, claiming no knowledge of Adela, saying they broke off the relationship and left him with money, but offering nothing else.
“She lives in Burgos and calls herself Rosa.”
Authorities pressed on. Researchers struggled to tie the man to Adela’s family story. A witness claimed to have attended Adela’s funeral, kissing the box and walking away. Lucia does not remember the scene herself, though her uncles insist they saw the woman, who looked like Adela. It was 2017, twenty-three years after her disappearance, when they again approached the Civil Guard.
Interviews with a rumored witness produced contradictions. The person spinning tales claimed to be a bus driver with no license, among other inconsistencies. The family member who described the witness felt the testimony could not be trusted, and investigators treated the claims with caution. A later claim suggested Adela’s mother named Rosa, who had several children and lived near Burgos, was involved with methadone treatment—a story that raised more questions than answers.
One witness asserted that Adela returned to Santander for her father’s funeral, twenty-three years after she vanished: she supposedly went to the coffin, kissed the box, and left again.
Adela never reconnected. Some sources say his documents were never renewed in the investigation since 1992, and his fingerprints appeared in Interpol’s database. “I have a feeling he’s alive,” Lucia says. A retired researcher suggested, perhaps with caution, that he might still be out there, but better not to pursue it.
Runways in Barcelona and Madrid
“I believe he is alive,” the daughter repeats. Several people have claimed sightings. The trail led first to Barcelona after a television appearance in 2007. A woman contacted the program and showed Adela’s ID, a large old expired card, and a photo of Lucia in her purse. Toni, Adela’s mother’s cousin, spoke with that woman directly and confirmed the photos depicted Adela.
With a baby
From Barcelona to Madrid, Lucia feels the strain. “The man who spoke of the funeral came to see us years ago, at a club in Cadalso de los Vidrios, Madrid. He saw her in a poor state, with a baby.” Adela’s mother withheld information from the Civil Guard at the time. Years passed, and the man persisted: what I told you that day was true.
Another moment of doubt arose when, about eighteen months ago, the father found a photo on the internet that bore a striking resemblance to Adela’s mother, a similar face to her grandmother and uncle. It was an image on an Aliexpress page. He shared it with the Civil Guard, but was told the truth remained unclear.
Meanwhile, Lucía rereads her mother’s letters and waits. “I just want to know that he is alive. Don’t tell me where he is if he doesn’t want to say, I just want to know if he is okay.”