Hunt for Anna and Olivia Day 27: Mystery still surrounds their disappearance

Tomorrow marks four weeks without any news of the whereabouts of 37-year-old Tomás Gimeno and his two daughters, Anna and Olivia aged one and six years old respectively, no one knows for sure what has happened to the little girls or where they are there, except for the protagonist of this anguished story, who seems to have fooled everyone and escaped with his girls.

Mystery still surrounds their disappearance on the night of April 27^th, and investigators don’t have any new leads to follow, so are focusing on three things:

THE TWO HOURS FROM 7.30 TO 9.30PM:
Although any news that could help unravel this mystery will be welcomed by the authorities, what happened during the two hours that elapsed from 7:30pm on April 27^th when the girls were seen for the last time, and 9:30pm, which is when Tomás appeared for the first time at Santa Cruz Marina, before leaving after midnight, remains one of the main unknowns for the investigators assigned to the case.

AN ESCAPE BY SEA:
Despite the fact that both the sailboat that roamed that night around the area where the speed boat used by Tomás that night was found, empty and adrift, as well as another boat, found abandoned 19 days later in Montserrat in the Caribbean, has been discarded, the truth is that a flight abroad is still an open hypothesis.

The girl’s mother Beatriz suggested this straight away saying that he has contacts in countries like Peru, but there are still no signs of withdrawal of funds or phone calls that indicate any of these theories.

HIDING IN TENERIFE:

This is still one of the main avenues of investigation as it fits with the collection of clothes and toys of the girls, but any data on the withdrawal of funds is still lacking. The possibility of a potential tragedy is not ruled out either, and this week a side-scan sonar and an underwater robot are arriving to do a deep search in the sea on the east side of the Island. The only certainty right now, is that girls are still missing.

IF TOMAS RETURNS GIRLS HE WOULD AVOID PRISON:
A criminal lawyer, consulted by Diario De Avisos, has explained that under Spanish law Tomas Gimeno would avoid prison if he returned the girls safe and sound, even though he would be accused of parental kidnapping.

The correct classification for this situation is that of abduction of minors, a criminal type included in article 225 of the Criminal Code, which has “a prison sentence of two to four years and special disqualification from exercising the right of parental authority for a period of four to ten years”.

This article also provides for several scenarios, such as that if the return of the minors occurs in less than 24 hours, the perpetrator of the abduction of minors is exempt from the penalty, while if he does so within the following 15 days, the penalty would be two years in jail.

None is valid in the case of Anna and Olivia, but it does matter, and much, repentance or returning to the girls safe and sound, especially if, as stated in paragraph five of Article 215, which considers as mitigating "the culprit having proceeded to repair the damage caused to the victim, or lessen its effects, at any time during the procedure and prior to the holding of the oral proceedings", for which, is still a long way off.

Put simply, Tomás would be accused, surely, as the perpetrator of a crime of child abduction, but with the attenuating repentance (and obviously, that the girls are healthy), the lower penalty would be chosen, that of two years jail, which he would effectively serve on remand until his case went to court.