Alcasser Girls

Miriam Iborra, Antonia Rodríguez, Desirée Hernández Folch
Died La Romana, near Pantano de Tous (Valencia)
Cause of death Shooting after torture
Home town Alcasser, Valencia, Spain

Miriam García Iborra, Antonia "Toñi" Gómez Rodríguez and Desirée Hernández Folch, known as the Alcàsser Girls (Spanish: Las niñas de Alcàsser), were three teenage girls from Alcàsser, Valencia, Spain, who were kidnapped, raped, tortured and murdered after hitchhiking to get to a nightclub in the nearby town of Picassent in November 1992. The case has become notorious in Spain due to the extreme brutality of the crimes, the highly criticized police investigation, and the resulting publicity.

The autopsies revealed the existence of seven hairs with seven distinct DNA profiles that belonged neither to the girls nor to their two alleged murderers, Antonio Anglés and Miguel Ricart. Of the two, Ricart was the only one jailed, whereas the whereabouts of Anglés, still among Interpol's most wanted criminals, remains unknown.

Disappearance

On 13 November 1992,[1] Miriam Iborra, Toñi Rodríguez, and Desirée Folch disappeared while traveling to a secondary school party that was going to be held at Coolor, a popular nightclub located on the outskirts of Picassent, four kilometres from their hometown of Alcàsser. Miriam asked her father, Fernando García, to pick them up and drive them to the club, but he was suffering from influenza and was unable to do so. The girls thus resorted to hitchhiking, as they had done the previous summer.[2] A young couple from Alcàsser took them to a petrol station near Picassent. There, a resident witnessed the girls climb into a sedan – thought to be a white Opel Corsa – carrying a group of men. It was the last time the girls would be seen alive.

Crime scene reconstruction

According to a statement by Miguel Ricart, the only person heretofore charged regarding the event, he and Antonio Anglés picked up the girls at the petrol station. When the men drove past the nightclub and the girls began to scream, Anglés pistol-whipped them with a Star Model BM handgun. They headed to a crumbling abandoned house near a place known as La Romana, in a very isolated and mountainous area close to the Tous dam, where two of the girls were raped. Afterwards, they went to Catadau in search of some food, after which they raped the third girl two hours later. After being tortured for the remainder of the night, the girls were made to walk to a pit the men had previously dug and assaulted further. According to the autopsy, Desirée suffered a traumatic amputation of the right nipple and areola with a sharp object, and was then stabbed twice in the back. The other girls were beaten with sticks and stones, before finally being shot and buried. Miriam's corpse displayed vaginal wounds caused by an object provided with sharp edges, possibly produced postmortem. The killers picked up spent shell casings and cleaned their car.[3][4]

Investigation

From the moment the girls were reported missing, an intensive search was conducted to try to find them. Their bodies were found on January 27, 1993, 75 days after their murders, by two beekeepers in a ditch located near La Romana. Previous heavy rains softened the land, causing the corpses to appear from their improvised grave. It was soon confirmed that they had apparently been tortured and murdered. At the scene, the Spanish Civil Guard found one of Ricart's gloves, a Social Security referral note on behalf of Anglés' brother Enrique, and a shell casing. Spanish television channels quickly rushed to Alcàsser to cover the grief of the girls' families and the overwhelmed town.

Anglés was not at home when the Civil Guard appeared in search of Enrique, leading to a national manhunt. The last sighting of Anglés in Spain was near Minglanilla, Cuenca, after which he went to Lisbon, and stowed away on board the container ship City of Plymouth. He is assumed to have died when he reportedly jumped overboard off the coast of Ireland, either instantly or from subsequent cold and/or drowning. Alternative theories state that Anglés evaded capture and, as a native of Brazil, is travelling under his Brazilian passport.[5]

Aftermath

Ricart was released from prison in 2013 following a ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union that indefinite prison sentences were cruel and unusual punishment. He is purported to be currently residing at a monastery in France.[5]

The controversial trial of the two arrested suspects became a prime time showcase, featuring gruesome pictures of the teenagers' corpses, preceded by standard warnings to viewing audiences.

See also

References

  1. ↑ ¡Antonia, Desirée, Miriam!, El País, 7 December 1992.
  2. ↑ Juan Ignacio Blanco. ¿Qué pasó en Alcácer?. Chapter 1.
  3. ↑ Hallados los cadáveres de las tres niñas desaparecidas de Alcàsser con indicios de haber sido asesinadas, Francesc Bayarri, El País, 28 January 1993.
  4. ↑ Tres detenidos por el asesinato de las niñas de Alcásser, Jesús Duva, Francesc Bayarri, El País, 29 January 1993.
  5. 1 2 "Home". The Unresolved Podcast. Retrieved 2017-09-07.
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