The hope that Beatrice Zimmermann had been holding since April 27 died this afternoon when Spanish police confirmed that the child’s body, found at sea off Tenerife, did indeed belong to Olivia, her oldest daughter, who was only six years old. On that day, her father, Thomas Gimeno, kidnapped her along with her younger sister Anna, who was barely a year old. Since then, the children were not known, despite intense searches, and the mother was optimistic, assuring him that he “adores his daughters” and would never harm her.
This was not the case. The worst news came this afternoon. The ocean-going vessel “Ángeles Alvariño” found two canvas anchored sacks of the Gimeno boat. One contained Olivia’s body; the second was empty, but the search for Anna’s body continues.
The find was made at the location where the children’s father’s oxygen tank and a blanket, which also belonged to him, were found last Monday. These were the first signs of the disappearance of the children after a month and a half. When these objects appeared at depths of more than a thousand meters, the search area became much more concentrated (previously it extended ten nautical miles). After combing every square meter of the ocean, it took them three days to find the canvas bags: they were in the place where Gimeno’s mobile phone signal was last detected on April 27.
After confirming the identity of the body, the mother and family members were informed. Hope is over.
Pedro Sánchez, president of the Spanish government, was one of the first to support them, tweeting with regret. “I cannot imagine the pain of the mother of little Olivia and Anna, who went missing in Tenerife, from the terrible news we just learned. My hugs, my affection and the love of the whole family, which today is in solidarity with Beatrice and her loved ones, ”he wrote.
I cannot imagine the pain of the mother of little Anna and Olivia, who went missing in Tenerife, in the face of the terrible news we just learned.
My hugs, my love and the love of my entire family, which today expresses solidarity with Beatrice and her loved ones.
Tomas Gimeno left with his two daughters on April 27 and shortly thereafter sent a message to Beatrice, his ex-partner and mother of children: “I am going to a distant place and you will never see girls in your life again. “. He added that now he will be the one to “take care of them.” On the day he was responsible for staying with Anna and Olivia, he decided to flee with them to the open sea.
Alerted by the mother, the Spanish police began searching almost immediately. On the same day, Thomas Gimeno boarded his boat in Tenerife harbor, but none of the video surveillance images show the children. The cameras show him carrying six suitcases and bags from the car: he makes three trips from car to boat, loaded shortly before ten in the evening. And when he returns after ten past eleven, the accusation is no longer visible. A patrol who orders him to stop because he has already passed the pandemic curfew (the patrol is searching the boat for drugs, but at the time he is still unaware of the two girls’ disappearance warning).
Since then, the search has intensified, but there are no signs of accomplices or images showing him with his daughters. Until his boat was found abandoned. Several days later, after several investigations, blood stains were found on the boat, which the authorities later considered that it belonged only to Thomas. It is then revealed that he sat down again for the second time on the same night on April 27th.
Beatrice and Thomas have been separated since last year, and her ex-partner threatened her several times, considering her impulsive and temperamental. The last argument was the night when she took her daughters, saying that she would not see them again. Thomas would disagree with the fact that Beatrice rearranged her life and even attacked her current partner, a 60-year-old Belgian, because she did not want the children to be “raised by an old man.” Without even filing a complaint, Olivia and Anna’s mother informed the police about the case that triggered the gender-based violence protocol.
Gimeno has fought for the past eight years. In 2013, he was involved in a traffic accident and refused to take a balloon test (agents suspect that he was under the influence of alcohol or drugs), but was acquitted in 2017. Between 2015 and 2017, he took part in wars with family members (two of them). his uncle), who accused him of attempted aggression and threats (in one case he was arrested, but a complaint was filed, in another he was acquitted).
