Kriti Mehrotra
It was in 1993 when the entire nation of Spain was left shaken to the core as 22-year-old Anabel Segura Foles was kidnapped from near her rather elite neighborhood in broad daylight. The truth is her captors did subsequently demand a massive ransom in exchange for her freedom, as profiled in Netflix’s ‘900 Days Without Anabel,’ but she never actually returned home. That’s because they had killed her long before they had even made the initial call to the Segura family, yet this fact didn’t come to light until they were ultimately apprehended in 1995.
Anabel Segura Was Killed Within Hours of Her Abduction
At the age of 22, Anabel was leading a great life in the affluent residential area of La Moraleja in Alcobendas, Madrid, when everything was snatched away from her in the blink of an eye. She was actually the first-born daughter of a German woman named Sigrid Foles and a successful petrochemical business executive called José Segura Nájera (followed by sister Sandra), but it was her own ambitions as well as personality that made her stand out. After all, this private ICADE University business student was just about to graduate and begin an internship in the corporate world, all the while navigating being a social butterfly plus skier.
According to reports, Anabel was actually on a ski vacation alongside her family over the Easter weekend (April 9-11) before returning home a day early so as to prepare for upcoming exams. Then, at around 2:30 pm on April 12, 1993, she decided to follow her routine by getting dressed in her tracksuit and going on a jog with her walkman, thinking she would study upon returning. But alas, little did she know this would turn everything upside down as she was abducted mere minutes later, right from outside the Scandinavian School, near her Intergolf neighborhood.
A gardener working at the school had thankfully heard Anabel’s screams for help, but because he didn’t have his glasses, he couldn’t get the license plate of the white van she was forced into. Nevertheless, he still immediately contacted the police, telling them a young girl had been taken by two men following a struggle that had led her to lose her jacket, shirt, as well as her walkman. The officials were quick to cover all their bases to kickstart a full-fledged investigation too, unaware she would be brutally strangled to death by her captors merely hours later – at 9:30 pm.
Unaware of the Truth, Detectives and the Segura Family Negotiated with the Assailants for Months
Since there was initially not much information to go off on, the national police looked into every possible individual connected to Anabel as soon as she was positively identified as the victim. They questioned her boyfriend, friends, and ex-boyfriends, along with her family members, who returned immediately upon being informed of the situation, but nothing out of the norm came up. Not only did they find the 22-year-old to be an exemplary student as well as an athletic sportswoman, but they also ruled out the possibility of someone targeting her to get back at her father.
This obviously came after officials had already cleared all known organized crime and terrorist groups, especially as none of them instantly claimed responsibility, which was their pattern. In fact, the first call to the Seguras didn’t come until the evening of April 13, 1993, but the kidnappers didn’t say anything of value until the next evening as they only wished to speak to José. They had to explicitly be informed that the family had asked their friend/lawyer Rafael Escuredo to be the point of contact between them before they finally demanded 150 million pesetas (equal to £2 million now).
José was successful, but he wasn’t so affluent that he could arrange this money within the 48-hour period the kidnappers had given him, so he had to ask for favors as well as mortgage his home. Even then, it took him a few days, which is when they gave Rafael a drop-off location while again warning them not to get the police involved, but they never showed up to pick up the money. This happened a couple more times, during which Anabel’s abduction was somehow leaked to the media, but nothing came of it – the callers never picked up the money, and investigators couldn’t identify them.
Anabel Segura’s Assailants Were Identified Two Years After the Fateful Day
Despite the authorities’ and Rafael’s best efforts, Anabel’s perpetrators either ignored or refused to give any live proof of her safety, making everyone fear the worst for months on end. However, around three months later, they finally agreed to give the family a tape recording, wherein a voice could be heard crying and begging her “mama” and “papa” to ensure her liberation. José’s first reaction to this tape was that this was not his daughter’s voice, yet he asked to hear it again and a day later before asserting it is possible that her loving daughter simply has a sore throat as they don’t really know under what condition she is being kept.
The investigations thus continued, yet the kidnappers suddenly stopped communicating altogether in June in fear of being caught, driving the family to hold press conferences, offer rewards, and go on news shows. But alas, despite a composite sketch (with the help of the gardener) and the ransom call tapes being released in the hopes of garnering public tips, it wasn’t until 1995 that a real lead came to light. While one resident of Toledo called in to say one of the voices on the tapes was that of his plumber Candido “Candi” Ortiz Aon, another led them to a delivery driver named Emilio Muñoz Guadix.
That’s when it came to light that Emilio and Candido were childhood best friends currently residing in Toledo, with the former being a married father of five – this is significant because the word “papa” was very faintly heard in the background of one of the calls. As if that’s not enough, Emilio even drove a white van and had an extensive history of petty crimes like robbery on his rap sheet, indicating his need for more money than he rightfully earned. So, with the help of surveillance as well as a call from his brother to his wife, Felisa Garcia, it was uncovered that she was the one in the audio tape recording, as the friends had killed Anabel on the fateful day itself.
Emilio Muñoz Guadix, Candido “Candi” Ortiz Aon, and Felisa Garcia Were All Convicted
Therefore, Emilio and Candido were arrested on September 28, 1995, with the former breaking almost immediately and stating he was hoping to get caught as the guilt was eating at him. Nevertheless, it still took some time before they finally confessed they had disposed of Anabel’s body by burying it on the grounds of an abandoned factory in Numancia de la Sagra, Toledo. They reportedly even revealed it was Emilio’s idea to kidnap someone from the La Moraleja district as he believed they would have enough money to pay a hefty ransom, so Anabel was chosen at random on that fateful day.
According to court records, it was only after they had forced Anabel into Emilio’s van at knifepoint that they realized they had no place to keep her, so they drove around for hours while arguing. During this period, per their statements, she escaped from the moving vehicle and possibly hurt herself before being captured again, so the duo ultimately decided she had seen and heard too much. That’s when they mutually concluded the best decision for them would be to kill her, but they still went ahead with their ransom plan until they got too scared about getting caught.
Therefore, with the help of their confessions as well as all the evidence against them, Emilio, Candido, and Felisa’s 3-day trial concluded with all of them being found guilty. While the former two were subsequently sentenced to 39 years in prison for murder, Felisa was handed down six months for covering up the crime, only for the Supreme Court to soon raise their sentences to 43 years and 28 months, respectively.
Read More: Stephanie Neiman Murder: Is Clayton Lockett Dead or Alive?
