Olot's pharmacist, 492 days kidnapped

On November 20, 1992, Maria Àngels Feliu Bassols, a pharmacist from Olot, was kidnapped.

This woman, a mother of three, spent 16 months underground, buried alive in a hole the size of a closet.

Spiders, ants, rats, snakes, and moisture were their companions in captivity.

While he was wasting away struggling to survive, on the surface police and judicial errors continued to accumulate, to which was added the voracious behavior of most of the media.

She was alone in that hole and, without knowing it, outside a mountain was beginning to form against her.

It was not a conspiracy, it was a case of collective negligence.

At the end of 1993 Maria Àngels was declared officially dead and two men unjustly spent six months in jail.

But on March 27, 1994, when she had been living poorly underground for 492 days, she was released.

That nightmare, incredible but real, was coming to an end.

However - whims of fate - another nightmare began to appear, as malevolent and bizarre as the one that preceded it or perhaps even worse.

The human condition is an endless box of surprises.

For better and for worse.

Several media gave voice to characters who assured that the kidnapping had not existed, that she had organized everything herself to collect the ransom, and they circulated lies about her life, her family and her sexuality until the justice forced them to shut up.

At the end of 1993 Maria Àngels was declared officially dead and two men unjustly spent six months in jail.

The real perpetrators were not arrested until seven years after the kidnapping, in March 1999. The Girona Court sentenced five people to long prison terms, which have already been served.

Twenty-eight years have passed, and the full story of that kidnapping has not yet been told.

In these pages I will try to do it.

Before starting this project, I spoke with Maria Àngels Feliu thanks to the journalist Josep Miquel Bolló, a mutual friend.

As he told me, his wish was that I do nothing and that everyone forget the story, but he understood at the same time that I wanted to write the whole story.

“I cannot forbid you.

Do what you want, "he said," make it clear that I don't think it's okay to remove the past and that I don't want to participate.

The only thing I ask of you is that you don't hurt me any more ”.

I try that here too.

I have been able to consult the summary and the sentence, I have dealt with many people, I have listened conscientiously all the hours of the trial, which have been my main source of information, and I have not invented anything.

Everything you are going to read has come from the mouth of its protagonists.

The only narrative license that I have allowed myself has been to dramatize some dialogues, but what is said in them appears, in one way or another, in official documents and statements.

Kidnapping

1

At that time, Olot was not famous.

And no one would have imagined that that night in 1992 was going to change everything, and in what way.

It happened on a Friday in late fall.

There was no longer talk of the Barcelona Olympic Games, which had dazzled the world.

In Olot there were a dozen pharmacies.

The one located at number 10 on the Santa Pau road was owned by two sisters: Carme and Maria Àngels Feliu Bassols.

Maria Àngels was the youngest of five siblings, she was 34 years old, married to Paco Pérez and had three children: Fran, five years old;

Maria Àngels, three and a half, and David, two.

They lived at number 2 Pere Lloses street, in a block of flats known as the Serblay building or the RACC building, because the offices of the Reial Automòbil Club de Catalunya were located on the ground floor.

Many days, when the three children were leaving school, before returning home they would spend time at the pharmacy doing homework or drawing.

It is a Friday, November 20, 1992. Maria Àngels' youngest son is not feeling very well today and he spends the afternoon at the pharmacy with his mother.

When night falls, she takes him home herself because her other two children have already finished their extracurricular activities and Paco, her husband, has left the printing press and will be able to take care of them.

So Maria Àngels leaves the little one and returns to the pharmacy to end the shift.

It's only a few minutes to nine.

She finishes preparing a formula for a client and her sister Carme closes the cash register when a friend enters.

"Don't work so hard that you're not going to know what to do with so much money," says the friend while the doorbell still rings.

Come on, let's have a drink.

"Yeah come on, I'm done," says Carme.

Maria Àngels, how are you doing?

“I'm ready too, but I can't.

Paco and the children are waiting for me, we have to ...

Carme interrupts her:

“Baby, it won't hurt to spend some time to yourself.

―Of course, Maria Àngels.

Come on, just a drink ... ”insists the friend.

They go to the La Garrotxa cafeteria, in Plaça Clarà, five minutes from the pharmacy, right in front of where Carme, who is the older sister, lives with the patriarchs of the Feliu Bassols.

At first, Maria Àngels doesn't know whether to dare, she doubts, but at the end she lets go and asks for a rum drink with Coca-Cola.

"What the hell, a day is a day," he thinks, while looking askance at the door, as if he fears that at any moment his father, Tomàs Feliu de Cendra, one of the leaders of the region, would break in.

A partner of his father's former director of the Industrial Bank of the Pyrenees was also kidnapped.

Managed to escape

But Mr. Feliu is not going to the bar today because he has a guest to attend, Ramon Roca, a former director of the Banco Industrial de los Pirineos.

In fact, he is a former partner, because Tomàs Feliu was also one of the founders of that bank, which ended up going under.

Mr. Roca, who has his business in Tàrrega (the well-known Ros Roca factory) and lives in Agramunt, suffered a kidnapping some time ago at the hands of three hooded men.

They led him to a mine in Mequinensa, next to the Ebro, but he managed to escape, still not quite sure how.

It is just what Ramon Roca is telling Tomàs Feliu while they have dinner in a restaurant and while the two daughters of the Feliu family finish their drinks at the La Garrotxa bar.

"Go, another round!"

Says the friend.

-Do not.

Not to mention ―Maria Àngels cuts it off―.

I have enough with one.

They wait for me at home.

Goodbye!

Maria Àngels sometimes gets outbursts.

In a flash, he's out of the bar and headed for his car, a silver Renault 25 that's parked right there.

Perhaps he would arrive earlier on foot, but today he is driving.

When she sets off, she does not notice that three men are following her from another vehicle.

While she hurries the cubata, Maria Àngels does not suspect that it is the third time that they try to kidnap her

Not even remotely does Maria Àngels suspect that two Olot Municipal Police officers, Toni Guirado and Pepe Zambrano, and a friend of hers from Camprodon, El Pato, have been watching her for a while.

In fact, they have stalked her for months.

And even worse: this is the third time they have tried to kidnap her.

The previous two, for strange reasons, lacked courage at the last moment.

On the first occasion there was a misunderstanding about where they should meet before starting to act;

in the second one, one was late and the other two got nervous.

This time they cannot fail.

two

Today, Friday November 20, the municipal Pepe Zambrano is off duty and his partner Toni Guirado has taken the day off.

Guirado is up to his neck in debt and Zambrano is a drug addict who always needs money.

The third, the Duck, has joined at the last minute to see what he can catch.

All three urgently need pasta.

At around half past nine at night, Maria Àngels arrives at number 2 Pere Lloses street with her silver Renault 25.

It is a narrow, one-way street, with cars parked on both sides.

The Serblay building is on the left.

It is a tall block, with six floors, of exposed brickwork and with white balconies.

The capital of La Garrotxa already has thirty thousand inhabitants and the apartment blocks are part of the urban landscape, but the appearance of a city cannot hide the fact that the region is far from everything;

the main roads are not good enough and a certain historical isolation is maintained that gives its inhabitants a somewhat closed character.

When Maria Àngels wants to get into the parking lot, she has to wait first for a neighbor's BMW to come out.

Then, she has to open a little to the right to avoid the garbage containers that are right next to the entrance and, incidentally, better face the car.

The door is too narrow and you are worried about scratching it;

It is a large vehicle and is afraid to hit some corner.

She enters because the garage door (she calls it "garage") is still open.

The mechanism is very slow, it takes a lot to open and close.

"Someday someone will sneak in and rob all the cars," he thinks as he prepares to park in his square.

It's a small space and you always have a hard time maneuvering.

He is in a hurry because he has entertained himself with the cubata, but he knows that if he goes too fast it will be even worse.

It is done.

He turns off the lights, stops the engine, takes out the keys, gets out of the car, closes the front door, opens the back door, and takes the red bag from the seat;

It is full of photos of the children.

She has picked them up at her parents' house at noon because she wants to order them over the weekend.

The parking lot is very dimly lit, something she always complains about.

He is already on his way to the elevator, to press the button, when suddenly he hears a man's voice, dry and strong:

-High or tall!

Car keys!

He hasn't turned around yet and he's already on top of him.

She is stunned, she does not know what is happening or what to do.

Also see that there is another individual on the other side.

“Could it be that they are hooded?

What is he carrying a sawed-off shotgun? "

And while, unconsciously, he makes the gesture of reaching out to the place where he has the keys, he again hears the man, who shouts again:

-Car keys!

The hooded man yanks the keys out of her hand and grabs her elbow.

He quickly opens the car and tells her to get in the back, through the same door through which she took the red bag a moment ago.

The hooded man yanks the keys out of her hand and grabs her elbow.

Quickly open the car and tell him to get in the back

-Get in the car!

Meanwhile, the other hooded man gets into the car through the other door, grabs her by the head so that she ducks down, and makes her kneel between the seats.

She's warm, wearing an angora turtleneck and a jacket that has a hood with a fox-like brim that she bought just a week ago.

The municipal policeman turned into a kidnapper who is sitting next to him removes his hand from his head to point it at the same point with the clipped one.

She notices the hardness of the weapon.

"If you move, I'll shoot you."

They head for the exit ramp, but the car park door opens at a speed that the two municipalities find extremely slow.

Then they see that the garbage truck is blocking their exit.

He's emptying the bins right next to the door.

At that moment, a neighbor, Mrs. Linares, who came precisely from throwing out the garbage, takes advantage of the fact that the door is opening and goes into the parking lot;

so you don't have to go to the main entrance.

Go down the steps next to the ramp.

He sees that Maria Àngels' Renault 25 is waiting to leave.

He recognizes it because it is the only one of that model in the entire car park and because he has a good relationship with the Pérez Feliu family.

"Well, they must go out to dinner, now you will say hello," thinks the neighbor, who makes a move to approach the car, but at the last moment it seems that the windows are tinted black, very dark, and, whatever , decides not to.

You haven't noticed who's driving.

Maria Àngels, crouched inside, notices that the car accelerates and then hears a voice that exclaims, anguished:

"Kid, you're going in the opposite direction!"

And another that responds:

"I fucking know!"

And she, whispering, says to herself: “My God, to rob me it was not necessary to leave the garage.

This is that maybe they want to rape me ”.

And she, whispering, says to herself: “My God, to rob me it was not necessary to leave the garage.

This is maybe they want to rape me.

Oh Lord!

And my children waiting for me!

My God, help me, don't let them hurt me ”.

The neighbor, like a fool, saw that the car shot to the right, counter-direction.

On the other side they could not pass because the truck blocked the entire street.

He doesn't understand anything, but he looks at the top of the ramp, where the Renault has just fled, and it seems to him that the two men from the garbage truck want to say something to him.

Exits the garage.

"Do you know whose car it came from?"

"Yes, sure, I was going to say hello, but I couldn't."

It's Maria Àngels' car.

"Well, wouldn't you mind telling them they just stole it?"

Because I've seen a hooded man with glasses.

The neighbor, scared and with a racing heart, goes up to the Pérez Feliu apartment and calls insistently.

Paco opens, carrying his youngest son in his arms.

“Hey, your car just got stolen.

The man in the garbage truck just told me.

-It just can not be.

If Maria Àngels has not arrived ...

“Yes, it can be.

I saw it was your license plate.

Have you tinted the windows lately?

-No no no.

You must have been confused.

“It's the only Renault 25 in the entire garage.

-It just can not be.

Let's see, let's go down, and calm down, you're very nervous.

Paco reaches the street.

He already finds a group of people gathered at the door.

They are all scared, and the garbage men are telling them that they almost ran over them.

Maria Àngels Feliu's husband, who sees that the mess is serious, calls his sister-in-law Carme to come and take care of the children.

Faced with initial disbelief, the garbage men manage to convince him that it is true that their car has been stolen, and now he is afraid that something has happened to his wife.

Nervous, before his sister-in-law arrives, he takes the children up to the floor of another brother-in-law of his, Xevi.

Maria Àngels' two brothers, Xevi and Tomàs, live in the same block, door to door, two floors above theirs.

But since Carme and Maria Àngels run the pharmacy together, the first thing that crossed his mind to Paco was to call Carme.

In addition, he knows that Xevi's house is having dinner with friends and he doesn't want to disturb them, and Tomàs has a 17-day-old baby.

However, he is so worried that, before Carme arrives, he goes upstairs and tells them that something has happened with Maria Àngels' car and asks them to stay with the children, that he will go down to the street again to see what he discovers .

But Xevi accompanies him, and Dolors, his wife, stays with the kids and tells the other brother, Tomàs, and his wife, Paloma.

Those who do not go down to the street are grouped in the apartment of Xevi Feliu.

Downstairs, in front of number 2 Pere Lloses street, eight or ten people have already gathered: neighbors, relatives and the two garbage men, José Antonio and Sebi, who do not stop repeating what they saw a while ago.

"I'm just bringing in an assistant today and I had to get out of the cabin to go to the back to help out," Sebi explains.

When we had already hooked up the container and was returning to the cabin, I saw a car that wanted to leave and with signs I gave it to understand: "Don't worry, now we're leaving, we don't want to disturb", and I got into the cabin.

Then I heard wheels screeching and I said, "What the hell is this one doing?"

I go back downstairs and go back, where my assistant was, and he tells me that the car has left in a bad way and that, instead of going up, it has gone down the street, towards Reis Catòlics avenue.

"The inside of the car was dark, but something was glowing and it looked like it was a covered face and glasses," says the assistant.

They were Guirado's glasses, who, at that very moment, is driving at full speed, heading to the outskirts, the Renault 25 with which they have kidnapped the Feliu's youngest daughter.

Maria Àngels does not know how to react and tries to collaborate and facilitate things.

Suddenly she remembers that in her purse she carries the weekly collection from the pharmacy.

When he notices that the shotgun is no longer pressing on his head, he dares to speak, but without looking at the kidnapper next to him.

"There is money in the bag," she says.

But a kidnapper cuts her off: "We're not sausages!"

At home my children are waiting for me, today on TV they show the Antoni Bassas program, it is about families and we wanted to see it with the children ... "And, raising her voice a little more, she tells them": There is money in the bag. ..

The kidnapper in the back seat with her, Pepe Zambrano, cuts her off:

"We're not sausages!"

She begins to pray silently: “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name ... Please don't let them hurt me.

They will throw me down a ravine and my children will be left without a mother.

Don't let it, Lord.

Please don't allow it. "

At that moment, a little more serene, she realizes that she is no longer wearing her glasses and that a trickle of blood runs down the side of her nose.

When she was forced to bend over, her glasses stuck in her nose and fell off.

What worries him is not the blood.

He knows that it is a small thing, a scratch.

"Without glasses I won't see anything!"

He dares not say it or move.

When she was forced to bend over, her glasses stuck in her nose and fell off.

"Without glasses I won't see anything!"

With Guirado at the wheel and Zambrano in the back seat pointing at Maria Àngels' head, the vehicle is speeding along a road on the outskirts of Olot in the direction of La Fageda.

Leaving the urban center has been easy, but with the nerves they do not realize that going against the direction and almost running over the garbage cans has been such a cumbersome maneuver that in a few minutes the whole city knows that something serious has happened with that Renault 25 Now they go so fast that the underside of the car touches the ground every time they hit a pothole.

They go to the Triai, an area in which there is a huge, white cross, in homage to twelve executed, supposedly fascists, from the year 36. It is a large place, with few houses.

They, who as municipal policemen usually patrol there, know that very few people live and that no agent will pass that night.

On Fridays it's time to patrol other areas of the city.

The news of the robbery, because at that time of the night there is only talk of robbery, reaches the table where Maria Àngels' parents dine with the Roca couple.

The Feliu have just heard the story of their guest, the fear that that tall and strong man went through in his Mercedes when they kidnapped him and how he managed to unleash himself when they had him inside a Mequinensa mine.

Upon learning that their youngest daughter might have been in the car during the robbery, they end dinner, say goodbye to the Roca family, and head to Pere Lloses Street to find out what the hell happened.

'The pharmaceutical.

492 days kidnapped '.

Carles Porta.

Translation by Noemí Sobregués.

Reservoir Books.

It is published on March 3.