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CostaBlancaPeople 6th -12th March 2018
Hundreds search for missing boy Some 1,000 police officers, firefighters and volunteers searched on Saturday for an eight-year-old boy whose disappearance four days previously in Almeria has gripped the country. ABRIEL CRUZ was at his grandmother’s home in the small village of Las Hortichuelas when he left to go play at a friend’s house nearby last Tuesday afternoon. He has not been seen since. His relatives alerted police who published a missing person’s alert with a photo of the smiling boy, which went viral in Spain via mobile messaging services and social media. Since then, police and volunteers have been combing the countryside in the area
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on foot and on horseback, using helicopters and drones to try and locate him. Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido said police were also searching waters off the coast nearby. Cruz’s parents have given several tearful interviews to Spanish media, saying he knew the area well and could not have got lost. “We hope we will get Gabriel back soon and that he will return home with his family, which is where a boy who is only eight should be," his father Angel Cruz told reporters at a press conference, before breaking down in tears. In a twist on Friday, it emerged that a man had been detained this week for stalking Gabriel’s mother Patricia Ramirez, though authorities stressed he was not held in connection with the disappearance of her son. The man, named as Diego Miguel, had become "obsessed" with Ramirez and in
garment was indeed Gabriel’s. They say the report of the clothing Gabriel was wearing when he vanished – a red jacket and black Adidas tracksuit bottoms – did not mention a vest, although as it is an undergarment, it may have been forgotten. The search has now become more ‘selective’, say inspectors, who have cordoned off the area around the reservoir pools and water treatment plant in the Las Negras sewage works close to the footpath which leads to the San Pedro bay. This time, the search continued in the dark, and detectives were out all night. They are accompanied by the nowfamous 12-year-old Belgian shepherd dog Elton, one of the Guardia Civil’s 550 sniffer dogs, who helped to find the body of Madrid sixth-former Diana Quer on New Year’s Eve in a disused warehouse in Galicia, where she had been dumped after being raped and murdered 16 months earlier.
2016 was ordered by a judge to stay away from her and given a threemonth suspended jail sentence. However, he broke this order several times, including in the hours when Gabriel disappeared, and was detained for this reason authorities said. Police said they are investigating the circumstances, but Angel Cruz stressed Saturday he believed the man had nothing to do with his son’s disappearance.
Latest development A child’s vest was found in the rural area near Níjar where Gabriel disappeared. His father identified the item of clothing as being his son’s and on Monday the Guardia Civil carried out DNA tests which confirmed that the
MISSING BOY, GABRIEL CRUZ RAMIREZ
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