The inexplicable death of David Hernández one night of confinement in Laguna de Duero

Lorena Sánchez, mother of David Hernández, with a portrait of her son. Javier Álvarez

David Hernández was 18 years old when he was murdered, but his mother still speaks of him as “the boy”.

The boy was “getting older”, the boy was tall and skinny, the boy was well loved, the boy was learning to value family and the boy appeared with a blow to the head and two stab wounds one morning during confinement in a sidewalk in Laguna de Duero (Valladolid, 24,000 inhabitants).

Almost two years have passed and the investigation does not clarify what happened that morning when David left the house "disturbed".

He was wearing a tracksuit over pajamas.

He had a cell phone and a lighter.

He never came back.

There are no detainees.

Lorena Sánchez, 39, sighs near the lake where the body was found.

As much as she reconstructs the night, she can't find certainties.

The wind carries her phrases and the gray of the sky imitates her tone when she explains that the young man was hyperactive and that the quarantine crushed him.

At midnight on April 16, her son had sung happy birthday to her sister Carolina, who was turning 16. "He was nervous and at one in the morning he left home," says her mother.

After a while, without a reply to her messages, she went to bed, worried.

At dawn, she still had no news and went out to buy a cake for her daughter, who suddenly sent her a picture of her.

"It was David's body," recalls the mother.

The image circulated around Laguna and her mother ran to the Civil Guard, who maintained that the boy was 16 years old and had no documentation.

"He's 18 and he's my son," she exclaimed.

The DNI closed the debate and opened the anguish: “Why?”.

The woman suspects conflicts "that got out of hand" and points out that her son, who had great trust with her but was in a bad time, did not want to return to Salamanca, the place of origin of his maternal family: "He did not want to leave us rolls”.

Summary under secret

The investigations do not shed light, although "he has declared half a Lagoon" and the lake was searched for the weapon.

Her mother has been finding out from the press in a case under the secrecy of the summary, a secrecy that she understands, although she asks for "empathy" so as not to discover the details through whispers: "I am her mother."

Her best words go to the town, which is contributing money for an act on the second anniversary of the death, and some of the young man's friends: "They are having a terrible time."

The murder shocked the gang, says Lucas Rodríguez, 19, who lost seven kilos after the event.

His friend David never let him down: "When he was 15 and I left him with a girlfriend, he was very worried and invited me to the Manhattan bar, where he worked."

In recent times the deceased, normally smiling, "was quieter."

Another friend, Rubén Llamas, 19, adds that the group avoids talking about what happened: "Long faces come out."

The deceased's first teenage love takes a deep breath and speaks slowly to contain the emotion.

Aitana Moro, 18, had a relationship with him.

"When we were kids," she adds.

Hours and hours together and maximum complicity forged a bond that transcends loss.

"My world fell apart when I found out," she sobs, and regrets that, although she didn't live in Laguna, she "could have helped him because she knew perfectly well how she was doing."

The affectionate message that that boy "with a huge heart" sent her when he found out that she was going to be a mother makes her voice break when she evokes the suffering of Lorena Sánchez.

Moro keeps a sweatshirt and a CD that she gave to that teenage love whom she remembers in her WhatsApp status: "I keep her smile in my head forever."

The mother's gaze blurs as she sits on the sofa at home with a photo of her son in her hands: "They're not going to give him back, but I want a reason."

The two brothers go to therapy.

The oldest expresses her pain, but the youngest, Álex, 11, hardly speaks.

He says almost nothing, although the subject is not taboo in the home.

He suffers in silence.

He wears his brother David's clothes.