THE lives of José Segura Nájera and Sigrid Foles were torn apart when their 22-year-old daughter Anabel Segura disappeared in 1993.
The tragic kidnapping and murder of the Spanish student is examined in Netflix docuseries 900 Days Without Anabel.
José Segura Nájera was a Spanish businessman who worked in the petrochemical industry.
He started a business in Germany before returning to Spain with his family.
José played a crucial role in the efforts to find his daughter Anabel after her disappearance.
He went to extraordinary lengths to secure her safe return, including remortgaging his home and offering substantial rewards for information.
José also hired private companies to investigate his daughter’s disappearance.
Sigrid Foles was Anabel’s mother.
Of German origin, she moved to Spain with her husband José after he established his business in her homeland.
Anabel was Sigrid and José’s eldest daughter.
At the time of Anabel’s abduction, Sigrid and her younger daughter Sandra were in Marbella.
On April 12, 1993, Anabel, a business student at ICADE university, was kidnapped while jogging in the affluent neighbourhood of La Moraleja, Madrid.
She was abducted by Emilio Muñoz Guadix and Candido Ortiz Aon, who forced her into a white van at knifepoint.
Anabel was taken to an abandoned factory in Toledo, where she was tragically murdered within six hours of her kidnapping.
Anabel’s parents are not dominated by hate but they want the full weight of the law and justice against the kidnappers and killers of Anabel
Segura family lawyer
Her kidnappers continued to demand ransom for years afterward, making 14 calls between 1993 and 1995, reportedly demanding up to 150million pesetas (€900,000).
Throughout the 900-day kidnapping investigation, José and Sigrid never gave up hope of finding their daughter alive.
The family’s ordeal finally came to an end on September 28, 1995, when Muñoz Guadix and Ortiz Aon were arrested after a member of the public recognised the latter’s voice from televised recordings of the ransom calls.
The kidnappers confessed to the crime and revealed the location of Anabel’s body.
The suspects led police to Anabel’s remains in an abandoned warehouse near Toledo, about 40 miles south of Madrid — allowing her family to finally hold a funeral for their daughter.
Understandably, the bereft couple stayed out of the public glare in the aftermath of the gruesome discovery, and there are no reports of where they are or what they’re up to now.
The family lawyer, who attended a busy press conference on the day of the discovery of her body, said: ”Anabel’s parents are not dominated by hate but they want the full weight of the law and justice against the kidnappers and killers of Anabel.”
Ortiz Aon and Muñoz Guadix were sentenced to 43 years in prison each for their roles in the kidnapping and murder by the Spanish Supreme Court.
In 2009, Ortiz Aon died in prison at the age of 48.
However, following a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) that affected the application of Spain’s Parot doctrine, Muñoz Guadix was released from prison on November 27, 2013.
The Parot doctrine was a 2006 Spanish legal ruling that changed how prison sentences were determined for serious offenders.
It effectively extending prison terms by applying reductions to each individual crime rather than the overall sentence.
Muñoz Guadix was released after this controversial practice was deemed a human rights violation and abandoned in 2013.
Netflix has released a groundbreaking documentary series titled 900 Days Without Anabel.
The series provides an unprecedented look into the Anabel Segura case, featuring never-before-heard recordings of negotiations between the police and the kidnappers.
It also includes testimonies from Anabel’s relatives, investigators and experts, as well as re-enactments of the tragic events.
The three-part doc dropped on Netflix on November 22, 2024.
