The two daughters of María del Carmen Zunzunegui Domingo, better known as Maika, who would now be 56 years old, are looking for her. They haven’t heard from her in 20 years. In 2002 she disappeared when Saioa was 15 years old and Andrea was 6. They lived in Tenerifebut the last clue comes from Gran Canaria: a man assures that he saw her on September 14 asking for money in the capital of Gran Canaria.
Saioa, one of his daughters, traveled this week from Bilbao to Gran Canaria with the sole purpose of trying to locate his mother. “She lived in the neighborhood of San Matías de La Laguna”, she begins to tell by phone already in the Basque Country, where she lives. The last time she saw her was in 2002, when she was just a teenager. She acknowledges that during these two decades she has hardly done anything to find out where her mother was. “I have not denounced before because she, honestly, she did not dare me; she didn’t have the courage of everything I’m doing now,” she says.
A few months ago his heart skipped a beat. A news reported that a body had been found in a street in Tenerife, a body that lacked identification. “I said to myself, ‘What if it was her?’ “From there”, continues Saioa, “I told myself that I had to act and I started searching through social networks”. She went to a Facebook group related to homeless people in Tenerife. And the first, and for now, the only clue arrived. “A gentleman, a singer-songwriterwho was in Gran Canaria, got in touch saying that he had seen her on September 14 because he had gone to ask her for money”, he says.
This made Saioa and her sister focus their search on Gran Canaria. Last Monday, the first traveled to the Island. He searched the Civil Registry, asked the Civil Guard, the National Police. “And nothing”. Even last Monday he reported his disappearance, something he had not done until then. “I was actively searching from Monday to Wednesday, first for social resources, to parishes where they distributed food, I got into prostitution streets, in conflictive areas where drugs are moved and I haven’t gotten any information,” he says. There are also no signs in the health centers, he has not been to the doctor during this time, nor in the banking entities.
The two sisters printed several posters showing old photos and a recreation of what it might be like now. “We have been looking for you for 20 years, mom,” says a phrase on the printed paper that was placed at various points of The Gran Canarian palms. Maika will measure about 1.64 meters, estimates her daughter, she is of slim complexion and has a marked peninsular accent.
Saioa admits that she is late. “Maybe she doesn’t want to go out, but we would like to know about her, if she is alive, so that the next time a body is found again we don’t have the anguish of whether it is her or not,” she emphasizes. For this reason, she requests the citizen’s collaboration to anyone who may have any clues about Maika’s whereabouts, let them know through the phone number 091 of the National Police.
