“Don’t worry, those who say they will commit suicide will not do it, your mother can be anywhere with her new identity.” This harsh line surfaced as the investigation began. More would follow. Mariela del Valle Bertola, aged 46, vanished on May 26, 2018, in Almacelles, Lleida. On the last morning, she spoke with her daughter by phone. The mood was grim. Diagnosed with depression for a decade, she was overwhelmed by a debt she did not know how to face: “Nadia, I don’t know how to get out of this situation. I can’t do it anymore.”
Shortly after, she wrote a letter asking for forgiveness. She shared photos with those she loved, smiling in memories from years past, and addressed a message to her daughter: “Please forgive me, I am and always will be proud of you.” She walked out of her home and never came back. Five years have passed. Countless theories have surfaced, but none have produced a definitive answer. She had written, “If you look for me you will find me dead.” It seemed evident that Mariela, exhausted from the struggle, chose to end her life. “My mother was very unwell.”
She left with a phone, documents and medication. A banking move appeared; money was withdrawn before she disappeared. The scene remained perplexing. “Nothing was found during all this time,” her daughter explains with a fractured voice. “Was she really searched?” There was no breakthrough, no trace of what she was, where she was, or what she did. No clue, no sign.
May 26, 2018. Nadia revisits five years on Prensa Ibérica’s event portal CASO ABIERTO. “Saturday… I had an exam at the university.” Nadia, who lives in Brazil, had been overseas since 2015, first intermittently and then permanently. I used to go with my mother once a year, usually at Christmas. In 2018 the plan shifted from May to August because of exams.
“I woke up early and saw a flood of calls from my mom.” Mariela was not well. “Mom, calm down, everything will be resolved.” Grieving and overwhelmed, Mariela could not see any light. “I’ve been waiting for you to come, but I can’t take it anymore.” The conversation lasted an hour. “My mother had many loans and owed 5,000 euros. Today that is a manageable debt, but back then she didn’t have that amount while studying.” Nadia could not finish speaking. “I told him I would go to the exam, then we would talk: we will get the money from everywhere.” When class ended, the endless missed calls filled her phone: “Your mother isn’t here.”
The alarm sounded soon after. “Her partner came home and she wasn’t there, which felt wrong.” He tried to call her cell repeatedly without success. A note was found at home in which Mariela apologized if there was something she couldn’t do well.
“He went out to search for her,” recalls Nadia, waiting for news from Brazil. “Meanwhile I called again and again.” The phone showed signal. “I decided not to call anymore. I didn’t want the battery to die. It would help the police locate her if the phone stayed on.” The search began in earnest the same afternoon, but results were scarce.
“They said no, told them to come back in 48 hours so they could search.” They pressed on. On May 26 at 7:45 p.m., Mariela’s partner disclosed that she was diagnosed with depression and had a 50 percent mental disability. OPEN CASE confirmed: she had left a note saying goodbye. The partner added in the letter that if she was found, she would be found dead. Nothing was conclusive. “It was a voluntary walk by an adult; that was how it was treated.”
Cashier
“Nadia, you are my whole life. I love you, my daughter. Please forgive me, I am and will always be proud of you. All my life I have fought for you. My love, I love you so much.” The broadcasts carried heartfelt emoticons and a link to a sentiment: ‘When I leave.’ She changed her profile picture to one featuring her daughter. Grief shattered Nadia’s words: “Leaving me was his farewell.”
Her mother’s first steps were pieced together. Mariela left the house around two in the afternoon and texted her boyfriend that she was going out. She did not depart with anything obvious—no bag, no packed clothes, just her phone, passport, essential documents, a backpack and some medication. The initial searches detected movement in her bank account: she withdrew 20 euros from a nearby bank. Despite the appearance of the scene, it did not resemble a typical suicide event.
“The truth is, Nadia believes her mother would not have taken her own life. She may have sought a new path, a different life, but she did not wake up one day to end it all.” Nadia bitterly asks: “So if that was the case, why wasn’t anything found? A bag, a backpack, clothes? Why is nothing there?”
five days later
“Your mother could be anywhere, even in China, living well with a new identity.” A perception shared by an agent, a remark that still wounds Nadia. “My mother disappeared on Saturday and the search began on Wednesday because it rained on Tuesday. You were right about that; I could have been anywhere when they started searching, yeah.”
“Was there a real search? I arrived three days later and could not find a trace. They checked the ATM only, not much else. There were two bus stops in Almacelles—one near her, and a Chinese market with cameras. They did not bother reviewing them. If she took a bus to Lleida at that moment, they didn’t check airports or borders, not even departures from Barcelona.” Nadia laments. “Are they looking for her today?”
Depression and electroshock
“Her head was tired,” Nadia explains. The diagnosis came when she was 15. Depression can be brutal when the brain fails to produce enough serotonin for recovery. She recalls years of struggle: “The process was awful; once or twice a year there were admissions. She tried all medications, even electroshock therapy to wake her up, to see if it would work. It didn’t.”
“It could be anywhere,” Nadia repeats, echoing a line from another officer: “If you don’t want them to find him… He left voluntarily.” The sense that it was purely voluntary weighed heavy. “We are talking about a voluntary exit… My mother was not in a good place. Didn’t someone who left a note go and look? They should have searched for a body too. They treated her as if she simply chose to leave.”
Without data, without hypotheses, life stopped for Nadia five years ago. Friends and confidants are missed, but not her. She clings to the hope of a reunion, even if the possibility remains vague. The mind keeps moving. If, by any chance, her mother did something irreversible, Nadia wonders why no trace remains. Could a misplaced bag or backpack hold the key? Could a remembered face or a single clue still exist somewhere?
Mariela was a woman of resilience, fond of conversations, walks, and coffee. Her drawings—mandalas that hid her pain—were the colors she wore when she moved toward the unknown. She often spoke of a life with Nadia the love of her life. The same daughter who fought against the odds to uncover the truth.