A bank account opened in her name, new and distinct from the one she had when she disappeared. According to CASO ABIERTO, it was created in Gandía two years before the woman’s trace vanished. Though he is declared missing, he seems to hold the reins of many aspects of the case, and there is another person who may be claiming to be him.
Cristina García, a woman who vanished on November 5, 2013, was 33 years old and left behind two daughters. At that time, she enjoyed watching the National Team play more than anyone else. She liked going out, walking in the park, grabbing a bite on a terrace, and spending time with her daughters. She had a strong personality paired with a generous heart. Her disappearance came without a farewell, without a trace, as if she had vanished without warning. Searches continued for a decade with little to show for them. By June 2023, Prensa Ibérica’s CASO ABIERTO portal revealed, through legal documents, that Cristina or someone acting in her name had been receiving financial aid for years.
“When we tried to file the death declaration, they said it couldn’t be done because a bank account in my mother’s name had appeared. Someone opened it in 2015 and received grants until April 2023,” Alba, her daughter, told the outlet. Six months later, the discovery did not alter the reality: Cristina was still missing.
“There are no leads, just a first police call and little else,” her daughter laments. A bank account and a subsidy were seen as crucial clues, and the family hoped ten years would yield answers that never arrived. “That isn’t how it happened.” Once the search intensified, OPEN CASE located the account again. It was created eight years ago. Cristina held a 50% stake. The account remains active, though it shows no balance. The institution that opened the account is Gandía, the city tied to Cristina’s disappearance.
“In Gandía?” Alba, the eldest, asks in disbelief. “My mother, or someone under her name, opened an account while she was missing and reported the disappearance, and no one noticed, in the same place she vanished,” she laments. The same operation used an expired DNI. Cristina García had not renewed her DNI since 2007. Even with her disappearance in 2013, the family could not dismiss the possibility that someone continued to operate in her name. “How is it possible to open a bank account and claim a subsidy when the missing person has an expired DNI that should have triggered an alert?”
Cristina’s family remains shocked. “My mother is with someone else,” Alba exclaims. “We need investigators to determine who that person is, because it could be the key to knowing what happened and where she is.”
10 years ago
November 4, 2013. Cristina visits her mother-in-law’s house. Daughters Alba and Clara spend the afternoon there. After dinner, Cristina agreed to let the children stay the night, and she planned to pick them up from school the next day. “We were waiting for my mom, and she never showed up,” Alba, now an adult, told OPEN CASE. The next day she would learn that her mother was not there.
“My sister was seven and I was nine. It hurts to lose a mother, and there were things we didn’t know at the time.” The family decided to wait a few days before filing a report. “My mother’s condition was fragile; we waited to see if she would reappear. There was a quarrel with my grandmother the night before. I remember my mom asking us to go home with her. Eventually, there came a moment when she could not go any further: ‘Hey, have you talked to Cristina?’ ‘No.’ The alarm bells started ringing for the aunts, and they went to the police.”
Cristina García is described as 33 years old, with dark, slender features. She had written a statement, explaining she was going through a difficult period, having recently left her job at Dulcesol. She had been dealing with sadness and medical treatment following her father’s death. The last sighting showed her in a tense exchange with her mother-in-law. The plan then was simply to fetch her daughters from school. She never reappeared.
Investigators documented the events in detail, collecting testimonies and releasing photos across various channels. Yet only a small number of people cooperated, and the police could not reconstruct a plausible sequence of events. The search eventually stalled, and the family says the police stopped providing updates. Cristina was not found, and the case did not advance. The family continued to search, while the authorities kept the matter in a drawer.
After 10 years: subsidy and new questions
Silence persisted for a decade. The family endured with the support of loved ones, keeping faith alive while trying to move forward. Then, in June 2023, a judicial filing sparked new attention. The family began the process of declaring Cristina dead in order to settle paperwork and safeguard the family home. The proceedings brought to light the bank account linked to Cristina, with activity noted until April of that year. A police inquiry resumed as new data surfaced. Alba described a lack of transparency and data privacy barriers that complicated the search. The Gandía account, still active and shared, suggested the presence of another person alongside Cristina. Identifying that person could be critical for understanding what happened and where Cristina might be. The family continues to hope for answers and remains vigilant that the case remains unresolved ten years on.