Fog shrouds Traspinedo (Valladolid, 1,200 inhabitants). A gray cloak covers the city, paralyzed by the cold a year after the blackest anniversary in a city where nothing ever happened. In the early morning of January 13, 2022, Esther López, a 35-year-old neighbor, disappeared and a case was opened that is still unsolved. His body was found three weeks later in a ditch on a busy highway. Investigators’ suspicions fell early on Óscar S., a family friend with whom López had spent the night before. He assures that he left her alone and knows nothing. The inquest continues to analyze why she froze to death after a night of internal bleeding. The residents of the community are waiting for answers after a year of waiting. Hundreds of people gathered in central Valladolid on Sunday to remember and demand justice. Inés López, Esther’s sister, read a statement thanking the family for the love she had experienced during this time and charging the main suspect, who was investigated but not arrested.
The course of the Duero River and the nearby pine forests were combed to the millimeter a year ago when the woman searched for her. The body was found 23 days later in a ditch at a curve of VP-2303, the road leading into the city. The autopsy revealed that Esther died there in temperatures of six degrees below zero after consuming alcohol and drugs and that she had an internal wound from a blow to the waist. A deadly cocktail that she probably would have survived had a doctor treated her. Investigators’ investigations point to the last person she saw alive: her boyfriend Óscar S. He told the court that they had decided to pull themselves together after a night of partying, but that she wanted to keep going. He refused, she got angry, called him “old-fashioned” and got out of the car to find another boyfriend. According to his statement, the suspect smoked a cigarette, fell asleep and went to work at dawn. But his version, according to the researchers, does not hold up. The man, who is well known to Esther’s family, has not set foot in Traspinedo since.
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The responsible judge has extended the instruction by another six months. Agents from the Guardia Civil’s Central Operative Unit (UCO) have gathered information after analyzing the car and house of the person under investigation, the woman’s body and clothing and the geolocation of phones on the night of her disappearance. The on-board computer of the vehicle they were both traveling in has been wiped and their locations will be crucial in finding out what happened. The telephone antennas indicate that the two hours after he allegedly said goodbye to her were near Oscar S.’s chalet. Agents perceived an “odd nonchalance” when asking about her friend, confirmed that activity on her cell phone that morning conflicted with her routines, and collected testimony from Carlos G., who was in the vehicle before she allegedly asked to continue drinking and that he didn’t think he saw in her the mood for more nightlife.
Marisol Burón, mother of the young woman Marta Calvo, who was murdered in 2019, intervenes in concentration this Sunday, January 15, in Traspinedo (Valladolid).Photogen/Claudia Alba (Europa Press)
At the traffic light in the corner where Esther López’s body was found, someone has laid flowers and a teddy bear. Between the three panels is written: “Without justice there is no rest” and there is a poster with the photo of the deceased. Weeds have grown on the land that was cleared to study every detail of the site. This poster is also attached to the sign that allows access to the city and it is the same that many companies and individuals have placed in their shop windows. Looking back at Traspinedo reflects the trend of these months: tense waiting and few people wanting to talk about the case of two neighbors. The waiters at La Maña restaurant, near where Esther’s friend defends that the victim got out, refuse to comment and apologize because they don’t want more noise. Similar atmosphere at the James Dean Bar in the center of town, one of the last shops the group visited before the event. There’s an awkward silence when the subject is brought up, with straight faces, and it ends with “what we know is from the media”. “If they didn’t go out much before, they go out less now,” says a client about the affected family that EL PAÍS contacted without receiving an answer.
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Mayor Javier Fernández sighs when asked about it: “The anniversary makes these tense moments memorable.” No one understands how a quiet night “that started with a drink and watching football” ended with this “neighbor breakup.” This Sunday, during the concentration, a video with photos from the life of Esther López was broadcast. Only one neighbor who walks the streets of Traspinedo, Pedro Arribas, 24, expresses himself: “In the beginning there was a lot of uncertainty, but now it is fading,” he sums up. If the prime suspect is innocent, “it will be difficult for him to return to the city,” he adds.
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