The Court of Violence against Women number 2 of Santa Cruz de Tenerife has issued this Tuesday a provisional dismissal order in the case of the girls Anna and Olivia, kidnapped and murdered by their father, Tomás Gimeno, in Tenerife in April 2021 after having threatened her ex-partner that she would never see the girls again. A threat that experts point out as the alarm of vicarious violence, the most extreme way of harming mothers through their minors.
The Ángeles Alvariño leaves Tenerife without finding the bodies of Anna and Tomás Gimeno: this has been the month of tireless tracking
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According to the order, the Court considers that all the pertinent procedures have been carried out and a reconstruction of what happened that day, April 27, when the girls disappeared, has been carried out, so the case is dismissed “until the person under investigation is found.” ”, Tomás Gimeno, who the police report concluded had disappeared at sea. In the car it is clear that Gimeno “is with all certainty” the material author of the violent death of his two daughters and the participation of third parties is ruled out.
The magistrate explains in the order of dismissal that “the victims did not have the capacity to defend themselves nor did they suspect that the aggression came from their father.” That is why the participation of third parties is ruled out. “The death was violent, of homicidal legal medical etiology, being compatible with mechanical asphyxiation due to suffocation.” In the car it is recalled that the Civil Guard considers that “there is no aspect of what happened that has not been investigated.”
According to research this is chronology from what has occured:
Wednesday, April 28. The media echo the disappearance and the Civil Guard begins to deploy a search device after intercepting the ship adrift by the salvamar Tenerife and Punta Salinas, transferring it to the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife for investigation. During that transfer, a child restraint seat was found floating in the water, which turned out to belong to Anna, the youngest of the girls.
Thursday, April 29. It is disclosed that the mother of the girls reported to the Civil Guard that her ex-partner called her to tell her that she was not going to see them anymore, nor him. Likewise, the woman had already complained to the Benemérita in December that Tomás Gimeno had verbally threatened her, but she did not want to file a complaint.
That day, the search extended its radius of action from the tip of Anaga, in the northeast of the island, to Güímar. The aerial and maritime means deployed in this device combed the area through which they suspected that the vessel may have transited. Air and maritime services of the Civil Guard participated in this search device, as well as Maritime Rescue personnel and a helicopter of the 1-1-2 of the Government of the Canary Islands. In parallel to these tasks, a team from the Judicial Police of the Civil Guard checked the boat in the fishing dock of the port of Santa Cruz.
He also carried out the first search of the house and a farm in Igueste de Candelaria where Gimeno lived and where the girls had spent the afternoon with him.
It also leaked to the media that the images captured by the security cameras of the Puerto Deportivo Marina Tenerife revealed that Gimeno set sail for the last time after midnight. According to what the cameras could capture, the man arrived with his car at 9:30 p.m., parked in front of jetty A and unloaded a series of bags from it; however, the guard who worked the night shift, who saw him from the front, never located the girls, nor did the cameras reveal whether they were with him.
Likewise, the Court of First Instance and Instruction Number 3 of Güímar, in Tenerife, initiated preliminary proceedings in relation to the disappearance for the alleged commission of a crime of kidnapping. The investigation was declared secret, as reported by sources from the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands.
Friday, April 30. First thing in the morning it is revealed that the chair found floating in the sea was owned by the family. Likewise, the Civil Guard maintains an extensive search device active and announces that the body specialized in the most complicated cases will join, which has already intervened in others with wide media coverage such as that of Diana Quer, Gabriel Cruz or Asunta Basterra: agents of the Central Operational Unit (UCO).
Also that Friday it is published that the investigators find traces of blood on the ship. The Civil Guard then extends the search for the missing minors along with their father to the southeast of the island.
Saturday, May 1. The UCO joins the search for the disappeared while the Court of First Instance and Instruction number 3 of Güímar issues an international search warrant for the father and his two daughters, ages 1 and 6.
Tuesday, May 4. The blood found on the boat on Friday the 30th belongs to the father. The delegate of the Government of the Canary Islands, Anselmo Pestana, offers a press conference to clarify some information released the previous days and confirms that the search for the girls is moving south, following the currents: “All units are committed to this case” , he pointed.
Wednesday, May 5. The investigators of the case of the girls Anna and Olivia continue with the tracking of bank movements made by Gimeno before vanishing and, so far, those that have been detected are compatible with his business activities.
Saturday, May 8. It is discovered that Tomás Gimeno would not have supported the idea of seeing his daughters with his ex-partner’s new boyfriend. The Civil Guard investigates all clues and information provided by citizens and also the movement of several boats in the days after the disappearance.
may 13th. The Civil Guard incorporates into its investigation the report made by the detective agency that the girls’ father hired at the end of July 2020 to spy on Beatriz, the girls’ mother.
may 17th. The Civil Guard plans to incorporate a sonar and a marine robot from the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO) to join the search device.
May 18. A new search is carried out at the house of the girls’ father, the fifth already, this time with dogs to detect biological material from the little ones. The record ends with no conclusive evidence.
may 19. The Civil Guard takes Tomás Gimeno’s boat out of the water, which appeared adrift in front of the Puertito de Güímar to analyze it with dogs. The record ends with no conclusive evidence.
25 of May. The delegate of the Government of the Canary Islands, Anselmo Pestana, announces that the ship with sonar “will arrive this week” and that he is convinced that “it will begin to be used” as soon as it is on the island.
Likewise, the mother of the girls publishes a new letter on the International Day of Missing Children: “Four weeks ago time stopped for me,” he said.
May 29 and 30. The ship with sonar and submarine robot Ángeles Alvariño arrives in Tenerife and begins to track the coast off Santa Cruz de Tenerife. With this technology, the Civil Guard intends to search the underwater bottom in an area delimited by the geopositioning of Tomás Gimeno’s mobile, obtained through a duplicate of his card hours after his trail was lost.
may 31. Starts on seabed tracking looking for girls.
Beginning of June. The search with the boat does not yield clues about the whereabouts of the girls, but, after several days, the boat moves to the south of the island, following the coast in the direction of the place where Tomás’ boat appeared adrift. Gimeno.
June 7th. Finding of an oxygen bottle and a duvet cover at a depth of about 1,000 meters.
June 10th. The Civil Guard locates the body of Olivia, the older of the two sisters, in a sports bag tied to an anchor.
After this finding, the worst of the hypotheses is confirmed. Days later the summary secret is lifted: the judge’s order indicates that Tomás Gimeno killed Olivia, and presumably also Anna, on the afternoon of April 27, wrapping them in blankets and putting them in garbage bags that he in turn they were placed in sports bags, which were later found by the ship at a depth of 1,000 metres. The car takes Gimeno as a more feasible hypothesis, after he threw the girls’ bodies and returned to port to set sail again after he jumped into the water to end his own life. The telephone repeaters picked up his telephone signal that night while moving towards the south of the island, until finally the signal was lost.
In that coming and going to port he called friends, family and his girlfriend (to whom that afternoon he had given an envelope with money and a letter that was not to be opened until 11:00 p.m.) to say goodbye. She also called his ex-partner, to whom in a last communication she said that she would not see the girls again, nor would he see him. The judge determined in her order that Gimeno’s way of acting and her movements that day were aimed at causing inhuman damage to Beatriz by leaving her with the uncertainty of what had happened to the girls. The Angeles Alvariño, in the tireless search for him, frustrated that part of the plan.
