the greatest pain she could imagine
In the final days of April, two young sisters in Tenerife — Olivia, aged six, and Anna, aged one — disappeared from the world under circumstances that would soon shake an entire nation. Spanish authorities allege their father killed them at his home, placed their bodies in weighted bags, and cast them into the sea, before vanishing himself beyond the reach of the law. The recovery of Olivia's body from the ocean floor, and the continued absence of Anna, have left a mother suspended between grief and uncertainty — a wound that speaks to something far older and darker than one family's tragedy. Spain has responded not only with outrage, but with a reckoning over the violence it has yet to confront within its own borders.
- A father failed to return his daughters after a custody visit on April 27, and what followed would become one of Spain's most devastating recent crimes.
- Authorities allege he killed both children, sealed their bodies in sports bags, and dumped them from his boat — then was stopped by police for a curfew violation and allowed to go free.
- Divers recovered Olivia's body from 1,000 metres below the ocean surface more than a week later; her one-year-old sister Anna has not been found.
- An international arrest warrant has been issued for the suspect, who disappeared after midnight on April 28 and remains at large.
- Demonstrations erupted across Spain as citizens and leaders condemned the case as a symptom of a broader, unresolved crisis of domestic and vicarious violence.
- A mother waits without full closure — one daughter recovered, one still missing, and the man accused of both deaths beyond reach.
On the last day of April, a man in Tenerife did not return his daughters to their mother as arranged. Olivia was six years old. Anna was one. What began as a custody violation would become one of the most haunting cases in Spain's recent memory.
A preliminary judicial investigation alleged that Tomas G. — identified only by partial name under Spanish privacy law — killed both children at his home on April 27. He then placed their bodies in sports bags, drove to his boat, and at around 10:30 that evening, dropped them into the sea. The court's findings were unsparing: his alleged intent was to inflict upon his former partner the greatest pain imaginable, by leaving her in deliberate uncertainty about what had become of her daughters.
In a detail that would later seem almost unbearable, Tomas G. was stopped by a police patrol boat that same night for violating the coronavirus curfew — and was allowed to leave. After midnight, he took his boat out again and vanished. By the following Saturday, an international arrest warrant had been issued on suspicion of two counts of aggravated homicide and domestic violence.
More than a week after the girls disappeared, divers found a sports bag at a depth of 1,000 metres near where the boat had been discovered drifting. Inside was Olivia's body. A second bag at the same location was empty. An autopsy found she had died from pulmonary edema. Anna has not been found.
The case sent people into the streets across Spain. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, speaking from abroad, addressed the nation's grief and named what many had long argued: that this tragedy existed within a broader pattern of vicarious violence — violence inflicted on children to wound their mothers — that Spain had not yet reckoned with fully.
For the girls' mother, the recovery of Olivia's body brought a terrible and incomplete closure. Anna remains missing. The man accused of taking both daughters from her remains at large. The investigation continues, but the questions that cut deepest — where is Anna, and how does a father arrive at such a choice — may never be fully answered.
On the last day of April, a man in Tenerife failed to bring his daughters back to their mother as planned. Six-year-old Olivia and one-year-old Anna never came home. What began as a custody violation would become one of Spain's most haunting cases of recent years—a tragedy that would move the nation to rage and grief, and leave a mother searching for answers that a court document would later describe in language almost too stark to bear.
The preliminary judicial investigation, released on Saturday, alleged that the man—identified only as Tomas G. due to Spanish privacy law—killed both children at his house in Tenerife on April 27. According to the court's findings, he then placed their bodies in sports bags, wrapped them in towels, and drove to his boat. At around 10:30 that evening, he dumped both bags into the sea. The court's language was unsparing: his plan was to inflict on 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."
What happened next bordered on the surreal. After returning to port, Tomas G. 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 his boat out again and vanished. By Saturday, an international arrest warrant had been issued for him on suspicion of two counts of aggravated homicide and one count of domestic violence.
On Thursday—more than a week after the children disappeared—divers recovered a sports bag from the ocean floor at a depth of 1,000 metres, near where the boat had been found drifting. Inside was Olivia's body. A second bag, found at the same location, was empty. An autopsy determined that the six-year-old had died from pulmonary edema. Anna, aged one, has not been found.
The case ignited demonstrations across Spain on Friday. In cities throughout the country, people gathered to protest what they saw as a failure to protect children from domestic violence. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, speaking from Costa Rica, addressed the nation with words that reflected the collective shock. "All Spain is shocked," he said. "All our support for the families whose pain is absolutely unbearable and unimaginable. All our rejection of sexist violence, the vicarious violence that some still deny in our country." His words acknowledged a broader crisis—that this case, horrifying as it was, existed within a pattern of violence that Spain had not yet solved.
For Olivia's mother, the recovery of her daughter's body offered a terrible kind of closure while leaving her with an impossible absence. Anna remains missing, her fate unknown. The man accused of taking both girls from her remains at large, somewhere beyond the reach of Spanish law enforcement, his whereabouts unknown. The investigation continues, but the questions that matter most—where is Anna, and why did a father choose to destroy his own family—may never be fully answered.
Notable Quotes
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 Sanchez
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why would a court document use language like that—about deliberately causing pain? What does that tell us?
It suggests the investigation found evidence of intent beyond the act itself. He didn't just lose control in a moment. The court believed he was trying to punish his ex-partner by making her suffer the worst uncertainty imaginable.
And he was stopped by police that same night, after he'd already done it?
Yes. He was breaking curfew in his boat. They let him go. It's one of those details that haunts the case—how close the system came to catching him, and how it missed.
Why does the Prime Minister's statement mention "vicarious violence that some still deny"?
He's pointing to a larger problem in Spain—that violence against children through the targeting of mothers isn't always recognized as what it is. It's treated as a custody dispute rather than what it can become.
One body was found. The other wasn't. What does that mean for the mother?
It means she has one answer and one endless question. She knows what happened to Olivia. But Anna—she's still out there somewhere in the sea, or she isn't. That uncertainty is its own kind of cruelty.