Hunt for Anna and Olivia Day 20: Two sniffer dogs search father’s house for clues

Two dogs of the Guardia Civil Canine Unit that specialize in the search for biological remains, have been brought over from Madrid to Tenerife to search for clues about the missing girls at the home of their father, Tomás Gimeno.

The two dogs, a two-year-old spaniel named Junco and a one-year-old Belgian shepherd named Bill, are working on the land and house which covers almost 2,000 square metres, looking for possible clues about the father's last hours in with the girls, to try and decipher what happened to them.

Junco and Bill have participated in other searches for missing persons in Spain, so they are trained to carry out the searches in places such as the girls' house and farm, according to the Guardia Civil.

Neighbours have claimed that they heard the girls playing in the house on the afternoon they were last seen, before they themselves went out shopping, so the investigation is focused on clarifying what happened during that time.

Recently investigators have shifted their focus on looking for the girls on the island and at sea, off the coast of Tenerife, ruling out for the moment that the father took them out of the country with a boat.

The general director of the Guardia Civil, María Gámez, confirmed today (Monday) that she has contacted the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO) to give her a sonar and underwater robot to ​​incorporate them into the search for Anna and Olivia.

Gámez, who visited the Guardia Civil Command in Santa Cruz de Tenerife today to present the new fleet of vehicles, highlighted the IEO's willingness to co-operate, and referred to a judicial authorization which is necessary to incorporate them into the search, which she hopes they will have ‘shortly’.

She has guaranteed that the Guardia Civil will spare no effort for a single moment in the search for the two girls, saying that "right now it is our priority" and she confirmed that 20 days after their disappearance, all hypotheses are still open, without being able to give any more information because the matter is under summary secrecy.