The Ángeles Álvariño search vessel remained docked in the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife yesterday after a breakdown in its equipment forced it to suspend its tracking work on the Tenerife seabed looking for clues to Anna Zimmermann’s whereabouts. Today (Monday) it will resume its search that started on Sunday 30th May and has continued around the clock, resulting in the discovery of Olivia’s body in a sports bag on Thursday.
The Guardia Civil confirmed yesterday that the oceanographic vessel, which is being used for the first time in Spain to search for missing persons, was still in the dock in the capital of Tenerife, where it went to on Saturday after detecting a breakdown after 13 days of continuous tracking.
The ship arrived in the Canary Islands from its base in Vigo on May 29th to join the search for Tomás Gimeno the next day, after holding a meeting with the Guardia Civil investigators assigned to the case. At that meeting, the main search area in front of the municipality of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, not far from where Tomás Gimeno set sail that fateful night in his pleasure boat (called El Esquilón), and for whom an international search warrant has now been issued for the double murder of his two daughters aged 1 an 6.
The Angeles Alvariño was scheduled to leave the island last week, then found a scuba tank and a quilt at the bottom of the sea that were identified as belonging to Tomás Gimeno. This led to its search work being extended and last Thursday it located at about 1,000 metres deep and three nautical miles out (just over 5.5 kilometres), two sports bags tied to an anchor, in one of them was the lifeless body of the eldest daughter, Olivia. The other bag was torn and empty, but it is feared that it originally contained the body of the little girl, Anna.
On Saturday, when the ship had to stop its tracking work, the preliminary result of the autopsy performed on Olivia was revealed, which shows that she died of acute pulmonary oedema.
PRIEST BLAMES MOTHERS INFIDELITY FOR HER DAUGHTERS MURDERS:
A well-known agitator has published a message on his Facebook page in which he openly links the murder of Anna and Olivia to their mother’s infidelity and the marital breakdown.
Fernando Báez Santana, known as 'father Báez', parish priest of Lomo Magullo, made these demonstrations both on local radio and on social media, stating that the alleged murderer is another victim, due to the marriage breakdown and "infidelity."
The Cabildo de Gran Canaria is filing an official complaint with the Prosecutor's Office, against him, and his Facebook post has been deleted. The Cabildo will ask the prosecution to investigate and qualify the facts related to their manifestations that justify the latest crime of 'vicarious violence', in this case.
The parish priest insists that the girls would be alive if the mother had not broken the marriage, and that the mother "is reaping what she sowed", saying that linking the mother of the girls to a new relationship is like "stealing children".
His statements have caused anger in Canarian society, as this is a clear example of the denial of vicarious violence and sexist violence that has led to the death of the two young girls.
