In 2023, 3,748 cases were registered, 3.5% more than the previous year, and 98% were resolved
Last year, the Mossos d’Esquadra received an average of 10 complaints per day for missing persons, adding up to a total of 3,748 cases, a figure that represents 3.5% more than in 2022. This is how they explained it in a wheel press conference on the occasion of the Day of missing persons without apparent cause, the spokeswoman for Mossos, Montserrat Escudé, accompanied by the head of the investigation unit of Tarragona, Marc Bayon; the head of the Office of Attention to Families of Missing Persons, Laura Villanueva, and the father of the missing Cristina Bergua and founder of Inter-SOS, Juan Bergua.
Disappearances account for 0.611% of the complaints received by Mossos and 98% of the cases investigated last year were resolved, leaving 75 cases open at the end of the year, that is, without locating the missing person. Escudé highlighted that there was a “very noticeable increase” (an increase of 58%) in reports of repeated disappearances, that is, of people who had already disappeared before, and Villanueva specified that 80% of disappearances are resolved during the first three days and another 10% in the first week.
40% of missing persons are people who do not return from leave in institutions
Villanueva added that 40% of missing persons are people who do not return from leave in institutions such as a mental health center, cases in which reporting is mandatory to deal with vulnerable people, but who often end up returning on their own , and clarified that this percentage partly explains why most disappearances are solved in the first few days.
It has also highlighted 4.9% less disappearances of minors between 13 and 17 years old and 6% less among people over 65; also by age, the majority of disappearances (66%) were of adults between 18 and 65, followed by teenagers from 13 to 17 (25%), people over 65 (7%) and minors up to 12 years (2%).
Disappearances lead to family members “a victimization that can be worse than the death of a loved one”
Escudé has remarked that disappearances lead to family members “a victimization that in some cases can be worse than the death of a loved one”, so he has highlighted the importance of accompanying families and guaranteeing a constant improvement in the police processes and in the other areas involved.
Disappearances related to the criminal field are 0.01% of the total
Disappearances related to the criminal field are 0.01% of the total (34 since 2010, of which 15 were femicides with the concealment of a corpse) and last year Mossos, through the specialized unit, investigated four disappearances of this type: in October, a 76-year-old man was arrested in Torrelles de Foix (Barcelona) for allegedly killing and hiding the body of his partner, and as a result of the investigation it was found that he had allegedly sexually assaulted minors 14 years
In March, a 39-year-old man was arrested in Tarragona for allegedly killing another, whose body was found in a well where he had allegedly thrown it with the help of several cover-ups.
Two secret investigations are still open, one for the disappearance of a man in May in the field of drug trafficking, and another related to gender violence, with a woman who disappeared in July in Morera del Montsant (Tarragona).
Bergua
Bergua recalled that his daughter disappeared on March 9, 1997 in Cornellà de Llobregat (Barcelona) and emphasized that despite the fact that she was a minor, the police did not accept the report at first and told them to come back the next day , claims contrary to the current protocol, in which the first hours are considered essential.
“When our daughter disappeared, in Spain what you are seeing here did not exist, there was absolutely nothing. You filed a complaint with the National Police and the Police of Cornellà, Esplugues or Sant Just had no record of it,” he lamented about the difficulties with which he ran into the disappearance of his daughter.
