He wanted to inflict maximum suffering through uncertainty itself
In the spring of 2021, on the island of Tenerife, two small girls — Olivia, age six, and Anna, age one — were allegedly killed by their own father and cast into the Atlantic Ocean, their bodies sealed in weighted bags. The man, identified as Tomás G., had been ordered to return the children to their mother but instead, according to court documents, chose an act of annihilation designed not only to end two lives but to leave a mother in permanent, weaponized uncertainty. One child has been recovered from a depth of a thousand meters; the other has not been found. Spain, confronted once more with the violence that can live inside a family, took to the streets.
- A father allegedly killed his two daughters — ages six and one — at his home on April 27, wrapped their bodies, and dumped them from his boat into the Atlantic under cover of night.
- The court's own language named his motive as cruelty: he sought to inflict maximum suffering on his ex-partner by ensuring she might never know what became of her children.
- Olivia's body was recovered from over a thousand meters of ocean depth, weighted by an anchor; her one-year-old sister Anna has not been found, and the second bag recovered at the scene was empty.
- Tomás G. was stopped by police that same night for violating a coronavirus curfew, then released — he returned to sea after midnight and has not been seen since, now the subject of an international arrest warrant.
- Demonstrations erupted across Spain before the court documents were even published, and Prime Minister Sánchez, speaking from abroad, called the nation's grief unbearable and condemned what he described as sexist and vicarious violence.
- The case has forced Spain into a painful reckoning with domestic violence — a reminder that the gravest dangers children face can come from within the walls of home.
On the night of April 27, 2021, in Tenerife, a father allegedly took his two daughters — Olivia, six, and Anna, just one year old — to his boat and threw them into the Atlantic Ocean. According to a Spanish court's preliminary investigation, Tomás G. had been ordered to return the girls to their mother at the end of April. He did not. Instead, court documents allege, he killed both children at his home, wrapped their bodies in towels, placed them in sports bags, and drove to the water. Around 10:30 that night, he dumped them overboard into depths of more than three thousand feet.
The court was unsparing about his alleged motive: he wanted to cause his ex-partner the maximum possible suffering by leaving her in permanent uncertainty about her daughters' fate. The not-knowing, the documents suggested, was itself the intended wound.
Olivia's body was recovered days later, her sports bag weighted with an anchor. An autopsy determined she died from pulmonary edema. A second bag was found nearby — empty. Anna has not been recovered. In the hours after the alleged killings, Tomás G. was stopped by a police patrol boat for violating the coronavirus curfew then in effect. He was allowed to go. After midnight, he took the boat out again and vanished. An international arrest warrant has since been issued on two counts of aggravated homicide and one count of domestic violence.
The case broke open something raw in Spain. Protests erupted in cities across the country even before the court documents were released. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, speaking from Costa Rica, addressed the nation's anguish directly, calling the pain of the family 'absolutely unbearable and unimaginable' and condemning what he described as sexist violence — the kind, he said, that some in Spain still refused to name. A mother has lost both her daughters. A country has been forced, once again, to look at the violence that can take root in the most intimate spaces of life.
On a spring evening in Tenerife, a father took his two daughters to his boat and threw them into the Atlantic Ocean. This is what a Spanish court alleged in a preliminary investigation released on Saturday, June 12, 2021—an account so brutal that it moved the nation to anger and grief.
The girls were Olivia, six years old, and Anna, just one. Their father, identified only as Tomás G., had been ordered to return them to their mother at the end of April. He never did. Instead, according to court documents, he killed both children at his house on April 27, wrapped their bodies in towels, placed them in sports bags, and drove to his boat. Around 10:30 that night, he dumped them overboard into water more than three thousand feet deep.
The court's language about his motive was stark: he wanted to inflict maximum suffering on his ex-partner by leaving her in permanent uncertainty about what had happened to her daughters. The document stated plainly that this uncertainty was itself the weapon—a deliberate act of psychological cruelty layered atop the act of killing.
Olivia's body was recovered on Thursday in one of the sports bags, weighted down by an anchor. An autopsy showed she died from pulmonary edema. The second bag, found at the same location near where her father's boat was discovered drifting, was empty. Anna has not been found.
What happened next in the hours after the drownings reveals the strange texture of modern crime. Tomás G. returned to port in his boat but was stopped by a police patrol boat for violating the coronavirus curfew that was in effect at the time. He was allowed to leave. After midnight on April 28, he took the boat out again. He has not been seen since. An international arrest warrant was issued for him on charges of two counts of aggravated homicide and one count of domestic violence.
The case ignited Spain. On Friday, before the court documents were published, demonstrations erupted in cities across the country. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, speaking from Costa Rica, addressed the nation's shock directly. "All Spain is shocked," he said, calling the pain of the families "absolutely unbearable and unimaginable." He spoke of the country's rejection of what he called sexist violence and the vicarious violence—the harm done to others through the actions of one person—that he said some in Spain still refused to acknowledge.
Two children are dead or missing. A mother has lost her daughters. A man is wanted by authorities across the world. And a country has been forced to reckon, once again, with violence that emerges from within families, from the people who are supposed to protect.
Citações Notáveis
The plan of the accused was to cause his ex-partner the greatest pain she could imagine, by deliberately causing uncertainty about the fate that Olivia and Anna had suffered at his hands.— Spanish court document
All Spain is shocked, all our support for the families whose pain is absolutely unbearable and unimaginable, all our rejection of sexist violence.— Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why does the court believe he planned this specifically to cause psychological harm?
The documents say he wanted her to live with not knowing—that the uncertainty itself was the cruelty. He didn't just kill them; he made sure she would spend years wondering what happened.
How did he manage to leave the port after dumping the bodies?
He was stopped by a police boat for breaking curfew, but they let him go. It was April 2020, the pandemic was still new, enforcement was scattered. He left again after midnight and vanished.
What does it mean that one bag was empty?
Anna's body was never found. Whether she was in the water and drifted away, or whether something else happened—the court doesn't say. Her mother will never know for certain.
Why did the Prime Minister specifically mention "vicarious violence"?
He was naming something Spain has been arguing about—the idea that violence against women and children by intimate partners is sometimes treated as a private matter, not a national crisis. This case made that argument impossible to sustain.
What happens now?
They're looking for him. An international warrant means every border, every port authority, every police force is watching. But he's been missing for weeks. He could be anywhere.