Original subtitles

A NETFLIX ORIGINAL DOCUMENTARY SERIES

MAY 1997

NO EVIDENCE, NO TRIAL

Nearly five years have passed,

but outrage and grief are still present in Alcàsser.

The families of the murdered girls don't want the trial for Míriam,

Toñi and Desirée's murder to take place.

They claim that the investigation should go on.

That is why they don’t like the fact

that the process to determine how and who killed the three girls

will start next Monday the 12th at the High Court of Valencia.

I don't want to take part in this farce, this trial they've contrived for a while,

to close it for good but wrongly.

We've proven that more people took part in the murders,

apart from Ricart and Anglés, who are the ones they accused.

We want justice!

We want justice!

We want justice!

Fernando García has just come back to his work

after dedicating all his time for more than two years

to a campaign to collect signatures to make rapists serve

their full imposed sentences.

18 MONTHS EARLIER NOVEMBER 1995

I still haven't come to terms

with my daughter's loss.

MIRIAM'S FATHER

Some nights I give her a hug in my dreams.

I dream that everything was just a dream.

Something that hasn't really happened.

I'm fighting to move on. It's very difficult to get out of it.

MIRIAM'S MOTHER

But I'm fighting hard. And because I have two more children.

And because I hope that justice will be made before I die.

Almost three years after that horrendous crime,

the police investigation

seems to be at a standstill. However, the parents

won't give up till they know who killed their daughters.

Fernando García, Míriam's father, denounced the secrecy of the case

and announced that he will launch a parallel investigation.

I didn't have any interest in putting Ricart in prison.

I knew that Miguel Ricart had never seen my daughter.

-When did you reach that conclusion? -At the beginning.

With my daughter still in her coffin at the town hall in Alcàsser,

there were the newspapers on the chairs

saying that the perpetrators had already been caught.

And I saw who the perpetrators were and said: "Oh, my God!

My God, they were fast!"

That was when I realized.

Everything was at a standstill for four years.

Then I said: "We should review the case."

"No, you'd rather not see the proceedings because..."

I had a lawyer who didn't want me to check the case and know what was going on.

I didn't like that.

The mere reading of the facts explained in the proceedings...

FAMILIES' LAWYER

...really makes anyone's stomach turn.

It's something horrible.

The fact that several months passed without any news

doesn't mean that no investigation was being carried out then,

no work was being done, no analyses were being made.

He had everything figured out.

He was the pope of lawyers.

What else could I tell him? Everything was fine.

He was working the right way.

Well, until I realized that wasn't the case.

Some things hadn't been done.

"And hasn't this been done?", "No, that's not worth it." "Come on!

That's your opinion, but not mine."

That was when I fired the president of the Bar Association.

JUNE 1996

After three and a half years of investigations, Romero Villafranca

withdrew the private prosecution due to differences with Fernando García.

He was replaced by Vicente Attard.

He stayed there...

Three years had passed and during those three years,

Fernando García forgot about the media.

But he did keep

the memory of the children alive, collecting signatures to try

to change the Penal Code.

So he becomes almost forgotten.

JOURNALIST AND CRIMINOLOGIST

I recall my meeting with Fernando García. I thought he was a lost man.

He even claimed that sometimes he lost consciousness.

FRANCISCO EMILIO VOLUNTEER INVESTIGATOR

He literally said: "Sometimes I think I've gone mad."

I found myself alone.

Then Juan Ignacio appeared.

He was a crime reporter working on Mississippi.

Juan Ignacio, good evening.

He is our specialist in this matter. He just came back from Alcàsser.

He was doing some work on the case for Mississippi.

He was willing to dig deeper

and he agreed with me about some things I had said on television.

He had watched and heard me.

When I first approached him,

he gave me some information

that he had gathered during those three years.

I was honest with him. I told him: "Look, I've been through so much

that the only thing I want is honesty. How far are you willing to go?"

And he told me that he was willing to help me go as far as I wanted to.

I think they're hiding something

that they fear I might uncover. My goal is to uncover it.

And I'll uncover it no matter what.

I went back to Valencia.

Fernando García came up with the idea: "What if I quit my job,

you come here and we focus full time

on the investigation and check things out?"

Obviously, I saw the light and said:

"What else could I want?"

He told me he was willing to go on

and do a thorough research. Well, then, let's do some research.

So we dedicated our full time

to do what I like most in this world,

which is investigating.

He wanted to get involved, and in order to do that he said:

"The problem is that I don't have the resources to remain in Alcàsser."

He had to pay a hotel and Mississippi didn't accept it.

"I can go to Mississippi once a week,

do a report, they pay me, but..."

"If you need a bed and that one is okay for you..."

I had a room with two beds, one for my son Fernando and the other was empty.

And that's where he stayed.

Back then, my position in that group

we had just formed, was that of an anonymous person

whose goal was to try to gather

as much as information as possible on the ground.

We settled there straight away and I think that Juan Ignacio Blanco

slept in Míriam's bedroom sometimes.

Probably, he also slept at some point in the bedroom I was initially in,

and some other nights in Madrid. Juan Ignacio Blanco was traveling.

Juan Ignacio was the channel that my father had

to get into the world of criminology.

He settled for a long time in my house,

and he was just one of us, in our family.

MIRIAM'S BROTHER

I was a child. There were topics that they talked about confidentially.

He saw that there was much to be done

and that this required a lot of time to investigate.

That was when he continued working as a criminologist,

the Alcàsser criminologist, so to speak.

Fernando García, good evening.

-Evening. -Juan Ignacio Blanco is also with us.

The two of them have been looking for clues surrounding this case

for a few months already.

Is this changing the investigation drastically, Fernando?

This must have a solution at some point and I think...

There were basically three roles. Juan Ignacio Blanco was the expert,

I had to work on the ground and Fernando was the key to open all the doors.

The team formed by Fernando García, Juan Ignacio Blanco and Francisco Emilio

begins its parallel investigation in the summer of 1996.

EXCLUSSIVE ALCÀSSER

This is at the pit. Up there, wrapped in blankets,

there are the bodies of Míriam, Toñi and Desirée once they've been dug out.

One of Fernando García's ideas was to ask:

"Where do we begin?" "From the beginning."

Let's check the statements of those who found them.

They were the first to give a statement.

Surprisingly, we found out the beekeepers had never been questioned.

The beekeepers were the only two people that went up to that area.

At first, I thought that they had been found by chance,

maybe while the man was walking by,

but considering all the traces that had been left here for the girls to be found,

because it seemed there was the need for them to be found,

and, paradoxically, pants, jackets and socks were found here.

There was a group of objects to draw the attention

of anyone who would pass by and find the girls.

During the 74-day search for the girls,

almost the whole province of Valencia was canvassed by members of the police,

and facing the threat of arrest,

they obviously made the bodies come to the surface

so that someone would find them and make it public.

That was something particularly noteworthy.

That was precisely what made us

begin to think in that alternative theory when we saw that things didn't add up.

I said: "That's a watch!" And he said: "Yes."

Then I got closer through this path

and I said: "You're right, my goodness! That's a hand!"

I went to see one of the beekeepers, Gabriel Aquino González, at his house.

BEEKEEPER

I knocked on his door and told him I represented two of the girls' families

and wanted to ask him some questions.

Surprisingly, Gabriel Aquino told me that he wouldn't talk about it.

"I can't talk about that. I just can't."

He repeated it twice as he closed the door.

I told him: "Then you don't want justice to be done?"

And we couldn't talk to him.

We have one here.

No one in four years had taken the statement

of the person who found the bodies of the Alcàsser girls.

I thought it was a man's hand because it was thick.

I went to see José Sala, the other beekeeper,

as I had done with Gabriel, so that he could give us his testimony

of what he saw that day.

I found a man protected by his family, who were the ones really interceding.

I asked José.

And he looked at his relatives, who told him directly:

"Don't talk about this."

That silence, those refusals, that lack of collaboration

make us believe that there is something hidden in this crime that can't be known.

This is the hut where they say that all the events took place.

I've come here occasionally to spend some time.

THE MURDERERS RAPED THE GIRLS IN A HUT LOCATED 800 METERS AWAY FROM THE PIT

THE DEFENDANTS SLEPT AFTER RAPING THEM AND EXECUTED THEM IN THE MORNING

I always have the same certainty.

The blood spatter

should have been found in different areas,

both on the walls and on the mattresses.

The mattresses used in those days are still here.

Now we're walking to the top floor.

The mattresses are still there

and they are dirty, but there are no blood stains anywhere.

As you can see. The mattresses...

are just dirty.

This is a spring mattress.

And as we can see, if we take a closer shot,

we can notice it is just dirty.

And the same thing on the bottom, just dirty.

But not a single drop of blood.

Miguel Ricart and Antonio Anglés never saw my daughter. Never.

And how do you think that on March 2nd,

long before the results of the autopsy were known,

Miguel Ricart is able to provide such a comprehensive account

and with details so close to the findings of the autopsy?

RICART'S INCRIMINATING STATEMENT FITS IN WITH THE RESULTS OF THE GIRLS' AUTOPSIES

There are accounts that one just needs to sign.

Nothing else, just sign them.

Written by somebody else and that's it.

Someone asked me: "What will you do when you're done collecting signatures?"

"If my daughter's case hasn't been solved,

I'll have to do it myself."

Unfortunately...

I think that Fernando García,

when I appeared, I made him rediscover, so to speak,

his appearances in the media.

He somehow decided that this was something hugely satisfying

and that it can help him on many levels.

My struggle during those two months centered around having access

to what was the best kept secret in this country: the case file.

Apart from gathering

information to fill the Mississippi show,

my interest in my collaboration with Fernando García was

to contact his lawyers, so that they, at some point,

allowed me to have access to the documents,

because the real information of the Alcàsser case was there.

I told them that the case file could not be made public.

ATTORNEY OF MIRIAM AND TONI'S FAMILIES

He asked me to see it and I demanded that he be advised by a psychiatrist

first in order to see it,

because it is very tough.

It was shocking, dismal, terrifying.

One evening, we met Vicente Attard in his office,

and we already had our plan figured out.

Our intention was clear.

We wanted to snatch the case file. Let's say that we would "borrow" it.

We arrived at his office. Juan Ignacio Blanco's mission

was to distract Vicente Attard while Fernando and I snatched the case file.

As Juan Ignacio Blanco was with Vicente Attard in his office,

Fernando and I used that moment to take the complete case file.

With all the pages under our arms,

we ran around Valencia like crazy taking photocopies of the case file.

Our intention was to give it back to Vicente Attard as soon as possible.

As we were doing the infinite amount of copies that had to be done,

because I think the case file was about 4,000 or 5,000 pages long,

we went to a photography shop.

Fernando had already talked to the photographer.

He locked up and we took pictures

of the photographs of the removal of the corpses and the autopsies.

We took pictures of the photographs.

When we got the case file, we started to work.

I had the suspicion from the day my daughter was in her coffin

at the Alcàsser town hall, which made me feel something wasn't right,

and I began to confirm that something wasn't right.

It hadn't just been my fantasy or some sort of enlightenment.

It was because the father's love I felt for my daughter

told me that two nobodies didn't do what they had done to her.

When I went to look for the nobodies, I knew who they were.

What you're seeing here, ladies and gentlemen, is an exclusive.

What you're seeing here is the Alcàsser case file.

We've gotten access to it.

Antonio Anglés, the most wanted man in all of Spain...

SEPTEMBER 9, 1996, 11:22 P.M.

That night, my wife was watching the Mississippi show

and I saw the sketch with the trajectory of the bullet.

The following day, Fernando said that he had stolen it from me.

I really appreciated that because, at least,

somehow I was cleared of any responsibility.

Everything that we'll present, question,

and show tonight comes from the reading of this file.

Implausible objects were found at the place where they were buried.

Papers with Anglés' name were found

and it was absolutely impossible that in the middle of the mountains

during November, December and January, that paper was there

and it hadn't been blown away and was still legible.

A mountainous area where there are winds and storms,

the fact that the little pieces of paper were there

looked a bit suspicious.

But what is even more surprising is the fact that the medical report

was given to Anglés

when he went to see the doctor because of gonorrhea, an STD,

at 1:00 a.m. on May 14th,

and then he carried that paper in his pocket for six months

and, curiously enough, he dropped it the day they buried the girls.

The paper had his name and address, of course.

It was like a business card that they left at the pit

so that no one worries about looking for the real culprit.

The beekeeper said that he remembered the papers tangled in the thorns

and fixed to the ground.

He said that they could have been there for a long time.

He said that.

Well, I'd ask anyone to grab some papers,

go there, leave them and go back after 75 days.

As you can see, in spite of the usual wind in this open space,

those papers remained here

and the name of one of the Anglés brothers was written on them.

These are the pieces of paper that we found.

JUDICIAL POLICE

They were spread out around this hillside,

Some of them were almost illegible,

because they were wet after two months of rain.

We'll try to delve deeper

into one of the most bizarre stories told in this country in recent history.

Where can Antonio Anglés be?

Since the very beginning, I've always thought

that Anglés is dead. Someone thought that Anglés was an uncomfortable witness.

Someone that could talk and pose some problems.

And, as we say colloquially, he was wasted.

He wasn't caught because they only catch whoever they want to catch.

If Anglés appeared, the whole truth would be known.

ONLY EXISTING VIDEO FOOTAGE OF ANTONIO ANGLÉS.

TRIAL FOR THE KIDNAPPING AND ABUSE OF HIS FORMER GIRLFRIEND, NURIA PERA, 1990.

The truth is there is no clear conclusion of the participation of Antonio Anglés

in the whole file.

When they went looking out for him,

the Spanish police were considered the clumsiest in the world,

because they didn't manage to find him.

What can this make clear?

That there is an organization

watching his back or which has just gotten rid of him.

One evening, after an interview,

I noticed a vehicle nearby us.

I asked my partner to watch

the vehicle discreetly from the rearview mirror only when I signaled him to

and tell me if he could identify the driver.

He told me that it was a Civil Guard from Catarroja.

At some point of the route, a second vehicle drove ahead of us

and stopped abruptly just when another vehicle

that was parked on the other side of the road, a 4WD,

drove forward and tried to throw us off of the road.

At that moment, I swerved and dodged them,

and of course...

I was shocked by how coordinated it was.

It didn't look like it had been accidental.

My surprise came the next day,

when I tried to find out the identity of the drivers from their license plates.

When I got the information, to my surprise,

they told me that the license plates were no longer active,

so the vehicles were out of circulation.

We had the feeling that we were fugitives,

and we especially had the feeling that we had been declared

enemies of authority.

Maybe this will look bizarre,

but Fernando has to be careful of what he eats anywhere,

because something might be in his food.

He must be careful with his changes in schedule or when he moves around,

he must have police protection under certain circumstances.

Suddenly, he became a pocket-sized James Bond.

He is investigating 24 hours a day,

he's putting his heart and soul into it and he's doing it quite well.

Once, I was collecting signatures at a table, a guy came, said hello

and told me: "I'd like to talk to you about something." I said: "Tell me."

"I was hired to kill you."

I said: "You've had a good career!"

That was my reply, because look at me.

This is me hiding away.

"No, but then I decided I wasn't going to take on the assignment because..."

"Well, okay.

Thank you, then."

The instructions were clear. "These guys must be stopped.

They must be warned against doing what they're doing.

They're making us look pathetic."

No matter how many walls they build, I'll jump over them.

They won't stop me. I've said that many times.

They'll have to kill me if they want to stop me.

There are some things... My wife was kidnapped,

I went to the hospital six times because of their beatings.

I mean, I've been threatened multiple times.

They tried to buy me off.

Then they used the following technique:

trying to discredit you as much as possible

so eventually it won't matter what you say.

THE TV SHAMELESS

There is no incriminating evidence against Ricart.

Not only against Ricart, but against Anglés or anyone else.

What we usually consider irrefutable evidence,

such as fingerprints, traces of semen, blood or hair,

biological evidence that can totally prove direct responsibility,

unfortunately, we must say there is none

that incriminates any person known to us at the moment.

According to Mr. García, the prosecutor's report contradicts the case file.

He denounced that no traces of blood or semen were ever found

in the abandoned hut at La Romana,

where Míriam, Toñi and Desirée were allegedly raped.

That is why he thinks this wasn't the crime scene.

According to the opinion of the Civil Guard,

the events took place in an abandoned hut near the dam in Tous.

Look at this video. We walked the same alleged path as the killers.

A macabre 25-kilometer route through an almost impenetrable path.

Those are the huts where, officially,

the girls were tortured and killed.

This is the pit where the girls were found buried.

From the pit to the huts, there is a distance of 600 to 800 meters.

If they were brought here alive

and they were killed here, blood should have been found in the pit.

That is another mystery, because no blood was found here.

I've walked up to La Romana three times, I think.

The whole crew was there to shoot something,

and I hope I never go there again,

because every time I go to La Romana, I can't help it...

EX-POLICE AND JOURNALIST

I feel so sad...

The whole crew came back devastated, because having that experience,

that desolate spot, shooting detailed things of what had happened,

whether you like or not, you end up feeling bad.

-Hey, come on! -Start!

-Fernando! -Come on!

Come on!

MAY 1997

Everybody hide away!

Everything was a setup. The girls had to be found,

-so they leave a trail of clothes... -We were surprised

that the three bodies were dug out in less than an hour.

That means that it wasn't done carefully.

We can publicly say that the Civil Guard fabricated evidence in the Alcàsser case.

I'm saying this considering the responsibility I'd have to assume.

On January 28, 1993, at the visual inspection,

one of Míriam's earrings was found.

The only trace of the girls found in the hut.

-Silence! -Go ahead.

This is the place where my daughter's earring was allegedly found.

I've always said and I'll always repeat that someone planted the earring here,

just as the rest of the evidence was planted.

EARRING FOUND IN THE HUT CLOSE TO THE PIT

I'm totally sure that these mattresses

should have been analyzed thoroughly

if they really thought that the crime had been carried out here.

No traces of blood were found and I work with mattresses.

I collect old mattresses. When there is a blood stain on them,

they stay there forever until the mattress is destroyed.

There was no blood or anything else on that mattress.

"THERE WAS A LOT OF BLOOD ON THEIR BODIES"

Why no traces of blood in the hut?

However, Miguel Ricart says that he remembers an abundance of blood.

Why wasn't there any blood on their clothes or in the pit?

Who planted the objects around the pit?

Who buried the girls? Who planted the paper with Anglés' name?

Gentlemen, say hello, they're coming!

Say, "Hello, how are you doing?"

Doesn't Anglés' escape look like a setup?

Why was manipulated evidence sent to the Toxicology Institute?

Who enjoyed the girls' death? Were their deaths taped?

And we came back from there, well,

thinking again that we were being told a lie.

As you can see, I'm now online.

I think there are people who would like to give me some information

and don't dare because of their work as officers,

this is an anonymous way to give me any clue that could help me

find a solution to all the atrocities that are happening

in our country, unfortunately.

In the last few years, not only the Alcàsser girls have gone missing,

but around that time,

in the last years, How many years? Two, three years?

Yes, around four or five years, but those are just some of the cases.

-How many people went missing? -There are 11 unsolved murders.

Unsolved. The mothers of all these minors

denounce almost the same things.

Inefficiency in the investigation,

a total lack of information, excessive haste in closing the cases.

They doubt that justice can solve their children's deaths.

Who killed Marisa,

Andrés, Isabel, Francisco, Pilar, María,

María Jesús and María del Carmen?

"DISAPPEARANCE OF A MINOR"

We're talking about an organization that kidnaps girls,

carries out a series of sexual abuse acts with them

-and then finally kills them brutally. -Exactly.

Unfortunately, this network and these people

are not only featured in films, but they exist in our country.

We'd be most certainly surprised

if we knew who belongs to these networks.

I understand that Fernando don't want to say it

because the goal of the investigation is important,

but there is a specific group of people who gets together

and kidnaps minor girls,

but they're not kidnapped randomly.

During those orgies, people are allowed to perform

any kind of sexual aberration,

even of a sadistic nature.

Then, a person who has previously won the lot,

having paid around 15 and 20 million pesetas,

gets to enjoy the execution of the victim.

And then another person, who even pays twice as much,

gets the trophy, so to speak,

which is usually some remains of these girls, specifically, their hands

which is what they admire the most, as if it was a real hunting trophy.

Is it too far-fetched to think that maybe the Alcàsser girls

could have been victims of a network of this kind?

Anglés and Ricart didn't carry out those abhorrent acts on the girls.

The only logical explanation, if that wasn't the case,

is that they could obviously be a part of it.

The way I was doing it was the only way.

Making public opinion

feel what I was feeling.

Blanca Estrella Ruiz, representing Clara Campoamor Association

in defense of women's rights,

stated today in Valencia that she hopes

justice will show more rigor and depth

in the investigation of the murders of the Alcàsser girls.

POPULAR PROSECUTION

CLARA CAMPOAMOR ASSOCIATION

DEFENDANT

I think these men

Anglés, Ricart and someone else, were working for someone,

they took the girls to someone who used them, and that person

asked them to get rid of the girls.

They were working for someone, and I want to catch him.

Blanca was outraged too and she joined our cause,

because she saw it was unfair.

Miguel wants the trial to take place as soon as possible

because he insists that he is innocent

and he just wants it to be proven as soon as possible.

Since there was this media buzz, I told him:

"I think you'll have more chances of being acquitted by a jury,

and we can show the truth that way."

MIGUEL RICART'S LAWYER

-And that was when... -Why didn't you request it?

Just a week after that, I was getting the document ready,

when I was notified that Miguel Ricart had given up my counsel.

I was really surprised.

I thought: "Another weird thing I'm seeing in this process."

DECEMBER 18, 1993

Miguel Ricart waives Vicente Quilis' counsel.

He is replaced by lawyer Juan Pitarch.

I know I had Ricart's trust, because you just know those things.

When a client trusts you, you just feel it.

My idea was to request a jury trial,

and since we also wanted to request a polygraph test,

I don't know if some people were worried or what happened,

but as soon as I said this, I was taken away from the case.

When Juan Pitarch showed up,

a paralegal at Herrera de la Mancha prison,

that was when Ricart, I don't know if persuaded by someone,

because I can't know what was going on through Ricart's mind,

decides to change his lawyer and hire this new lawyer.

MIGUEL RICART'S NEW LAWYER HAS ONLY BEEN WORKING FOR 20 DAYS

The lawyers had gone to prison with no prior communication.

That showed a huge lack of professional ethics and respect.

I would never visit another lawyer's client in prison.

He talks to Miguel Ricart and says,

as Miguel Ricart himself explained,

that Vicente Quilis was managing his defense very badly,

and he volunteers to do it in his place.

According to what Miguel told me,

he was told that someone had bought me off and I was deceiving him.

They alarmed him, made him sign some blank papers,

I think they wanted to have the case file

to know whether or not the people who participated could be charged,

they checked it out just for a couple of weeks, not too long,

and when they saw there was no problem, they gave up Miguel Ricart's defense.

MIGUEL RICART'S NEW LAWYER GIVES UP HIS DEFENSE 15 DAYS AFTER HIS APPOINTMENT

The changes in lawyers have been odd, as well as all those maneuvers,

because there is a crucial point here. Until December 6th,

the Alcàsser case file was the best kept secret in Spain,

so all these attempts at changing lawyers

were caused by some people's interest,

who maybe should be named at some point,

in knowing whether their names are in the Alcàsser file,

whether or not they've been investigated.

Juan Pitarch refused to comment on his brief counseling of Miguel Ricart

alluding to attorney-client confidentiality.

Miguel Ricart, the only man charged with the murders who is in prison,

is under probation after the four-year period

that the law establishes for pre-trial detention.

This court decision doesn't mean that Miguel Ricart will get out of jail,

because he is serving two other four-year sentences for bank robberies.

If he shows good behavior in prison, he is entitled to those leaves.

If he requests them, they'll be granted.

So the trial must take place earlier.

We're deliberating here about Miguel Ricart's freedom,

but that's something I don't worry about.

I hope someone will grant me an interview with Ricart.

I'd like him to be released tomorrow. I'd wait for him at the gate

and say: "Hi, Miguel, I've been waiting for you."

We could have a coffee and talk.

-It would be a way... -So that he gives you some information?

Yes, of course, they won't allow me.

Do you think he has some crucial information about this case?

Of course he does.

You only need to see all the maneuvers they're doing with him in prison.

Someone told me not long ago

that he was told to sign 14 blank documents

when he was visited by several lawyers lately.

If someone could tell us something about the crime, that was Miguel Ricart.

BAMBU PRODUCCIONES' OFFICE

-What if he didn't want to speak? -There was a father

whose girl had been murdered.

We're human beings. I don't want to justify any action by saying this,

but it's very likely that some primal instincts would take over.

Having in front of you one of the possible perpetrators

of your daughter's murder as well as the other girls' murders...

The need for Ricart's trial to take place before January 1997

has prompted Judge Alicia Valverde's decision to close the investigation.

Four years of pre-trial detention will have passed early next year,

the legally allowed length of confinement.

Therefore, if the trial doesn't take place before that date, he could be released.

ALZIRA'S JUDGE CLOSES THE INVESTIGATION OF THE ALCÀSSER CASE FOR THE FOURTH TIME

In January 1997, there is tension between those who want the investigation closed

and those who defend that it must continue no matter what.

Once the investigation was closed, Fernando García and Juan Ignacio Blanco

take one step forward to avoid abandoning the investigation.

JANUARY 27, 1997

I remember I was watching TV that day.

Everybody who followed the case and watched Mississippi

knew that they were taking a step further every day.

That live moment on Mississippi

was when, somehow,

I started to question what I was doing in Alcàsser.

-Where were you at that moment? -Behind the camera.

These days Valencia is full of gossip. The can of worms has been opened

and some names of investigated people have come to light.

I remember when Pepe Navarro makes the comment

about some names being revealed,

that some information had been revealed in Valencia.

I started to get angry then, because I thought:

"Where are they getting at? What are they talking about?"

Juan Ignacio, is it true that the media in Valencia has been revealing names

of possible perpetrators

-of this horrible crime? -Yes.

In one radio network in Valencia...

What I said on Mississippi

was caused by two specific facts.

First, because it had been said on that same day

on another network,

and that is the Onda Cero radio network in Valencia.

When Juan Ignacio Blanco makes the claim

that some names had been revealed on a radio network in Valencia,

I literally threw up my hands in horror,

I started to make some uncontrollable movements

as if trying to tell him: "What are you talking about? Stop!"

One of the names is Alfonso Calvé, former civil governor of Alicante,

as one of the alleged perpetrators of this crime.

Luis Solana's name has also been mentioned

as one of the participants in these aberrant acts.

We have to say that more people are being investigated,

such as a film producer who lives in La Moraleja, just like Alfonso Calvé,

a psychiatrist and former civil governor of Alicante,

Mr. Bermúdez de Castro.

Francisco Laína has also been mentioned,

who had been Secretary of State for Security.

There is no evidence of the revelation of these names on Onda Cero Valencia.

Second, because according to the conversations we'd had

with the Ministry of the Interior,

the only specific thing that had been discussed

was that these people were being investigated.

We're talking about very important people

in high political positions,

and we're talking about people with major economic power

who are being investigated, not only by the police,

but also by the army's intelligence service, CESID.

That is an indisputable fact

and it is totally perceptible.

Do you remember if this revelation on prime time had an impact on society

or at least on the ministry's activities the following day?

MINISTER OF THE INTERIOR (1996-2001)

I don't remember it myself.

But hearing it now, it seems to me like a low blow.

Using those names

to allegedly implicate them, the moral prejudice caused is very high.

Giving out those names in that public window,

which, at least in my case, were just notes on a paper,

and having no means

of connecting them to the case,

seemed to me like a big mistake.

The following day, in Alcàsser,

when we got to Fernando's home, almost his whole family was there,

and more or less told us:

"Thank God you're here safe."

What had been done the night before on the show...

...a public explanation...

...could be the trigger

for someone to try to get rid of us.

At that moment, Fernando opened his arms trying to reassure his family

and said: "Don't worry, we're fine.

Don't worry, because this..."

He continued in his role

as a valiant father with an extraordinary strength.

I interrupted him and said: "Look, Fernando, this is enough.

Please sit down, we're no longer in the street

or on the TV set. I think this has to end here.

What you two did last night on the show

is total nonsense."

As I was enraged, I even used very harsh words

which I regret today as I regretted back then.

"Fernando, excuse me, but what you did last night

not even your daughter's murderers did this."

Then, Fernando did look up,

stared at me intently,

and at that moment I felt

that the moment of my crucifixion in my relationship with him had come.

Big national commotion.

Last night, up to 7.5 million people followed at some point

what we showed and said about the Alcàsser case.

Juan Ignacio Blanco and Fernando García

are here with us again tonight to explain themselves.

Why did you talk about some names last night

when you hadn't done that so far?

Why did you reveal those names last night?

We have actual evidence, because the documents are real,

that they are being investigated because of their possible involvement,

but we never meant that they have anything to do with the case.

However, we could have revealed the names of many more people

who would be familiar to all our viewers,

and who have been or are being investigated.

That alleged involvement of these important men,

I'm sure that if there had been any information, I'd have been warned

by the law enforcement institutions.

This was all nonsense to me, like a tall tale.

This is even the first time I'm hearing those names.

ALFONSO CALVÉ SUES "THE MISSISSIPPI" SHOW AND FERNANDO GARCÍA

ONE MORE LAWSUIT AGAINST PEPE NAVARRO ON ACCOUNT OF THE ALCÀSSER CASE

FILED BY FILM PRODUCER BERMÚDEZ DE CASTRO

ALCÀSSER CASE: GRANADOS CLAIMS FERNANDO GARCÍA'S ACCUSATIONS ARE NONSENSE

We have Francisco Granados on the phone.

Government delegate in Valencia at the time of the Alcàsser case.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 1997

He is one of the people you mentioned

who should or could say something about it.

-Mr. Granados, good evening. -Good evening.

FORMER GOVERNMENT DELEGATE

It is complicated to talk about someone who has already passed away,

because he can't counter anything that we say,

but Mr. Granados, in a phone conversation with us that morning,

knowing that he was going to take part on Pepe Navarro's show,

he somehow gave us his support.

Finally a figure in authority sided with us.

In that conversation, he tried to take us for a ride

by telling us that we could count on his support for our cause.

I want the viewers watching the show

to come around.

What you did was turn into a playing field,

-Mr. Granados... -the investigation of the case.

-Mr. Granados, please. -Why don't you take that evidence

-Mr. Granados, please. -and bring it to court?

If we forget that there is a requirement to provide proof, this will be the jungle.

The higher you aim, the more viewers you'll have.

As you may know, I can tell you that I've been defenseless

with Mr. Romero Villafranca, president of the Bar Association...

-Don't say that about the president. -I've been totally defenseless.

I've been defenseless for almost four years

because I haven't had access to a single page of the case file.

And when I've had it in my power, I realized

that the file was forged and badly investigated.

JANUARY 1997

JANUARY 29 SOME NAMES ARE REVEALED ON TV

JANUARY 30 GRANADOS MAKES A LIVE CALL

FEBRUARY 3, 1997 5 DAYS AFTER REVEALING THE NAMES ON AIR

When I arrived, the first thing Juan Ignacio said was:

"Tonight we'll have to apologize for revealing the names last time."

Pepe has been reprimanded.

He was called from above and they told him

that we should retract and apologize publicly

or Tele 5 would be shut down.

Then I said: "What are you talking about?"

And he said: "Yes, yes, Pepe hasn't been given any other choice."

"They're not saying they will shut down Mississippi, but Tele 5."

Fernando García and Juan Ignacio Blanco are with us tonight.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1997

Fernando, do you have any comments about what I just mentioned?

Maybe the other day I went too far by using your show

to give some names that I shouldn't have given.

Therefore, I want to apologize publicly.

-Juan Ignacio? -Well, like Fernando García,

the truth is I'd like to apologize

for breaking a rule that I've known from the time I worked

on your show, which is not giving any names.

I want to apologize not only to you but to all the people...

Those were two, three nights of total anxiety.

LEVANTE NEWSPAPER

We started to publish it just telling what...

-What they were saying. -What they were saying.

The girl's father, Fernando García,

accuses four important personalities of being the instigators of the killings.

I said that that was outrageous and we should do something about it.

And the editor said: "Go ahead."

And that was the origin of the article "Unsubstantiated" published that Sunday,

but also the origin of the campaign...

JOURNALISTS

...that went on until May 12, 1997, the day the trial started,

where we fought on unequal terms and with all we had...

Totally.

We were the little David against the Goliath that a TV network is,

just to tell the truth.

Only the truth, not the official or unofficial versions, but the truth.

On Sunday, February 2, 1997, four days after revealing the names live,

the newspaper Levante-EMV published the article "Unsubstantiated",

confronting Fernando García's thesis.

UNSUBSTANTIATED TWO READINGS FROM THE SAME CASE FILE

FERNANDO GARCÍA'S THESIS

THE CIVIL GUARD VERSION

Tomorrow, this man will file a lawsuit

against the newspaper Levante

in Valencia.

The newspaper Levante accused him of having...

PROFITABLE DELUSIONS

..."profitable delusions" thanks to his daughter's murder. Word for word.

According to this paper, citing Civil Guard sources,

what Juan Ignacio Blanco and Fernando García said is unsubstantiated.

BLOOD: NOT A SINGLE DROP IN THE HOUSE, THE MATTRASSES OR RICART'S CAR

BLOOD: HEMORRHAGES WERE ONLY CAUSED IN THE MOUTH INSIDE THE CAR

DOUBLE BURIAL: THE GIRLS WERE BURIED AND THEN LATER REBURIED IN LA ROMANA

For the first time, someone said "no" to the father.

No one had said anything against Fernando García up until that moment.

The reaction was immediate. Our telephone line was blocked.

The person we had at the reception back then, Julia,

heard "bitch" around 200 times every morning.

The insults were directed towards her, her family, our families,

the whole newspaper, there were threats...

A lot of people canceled their subscriptions.

When someone, categorically,

on a TV show with a big and growing viewership

throws a bomb like that...

Fortunately, people aren't experts in criminal investigations,

but if one is called "criminologist" and the other one is called "father",

-what they say must be true. -Sure.

-Anything visceral leaves a deeper mark. -And we suffered a lot.

This whole issue around these girls

involves a black hand with a lot of money.

They pay people in jail to kidnap those girls.

What's your opinion on what Fernando is doing?

Wonderful.

As a father, it's his obligation.

There is no father like him in the world because he has left no stone unturned.

Fernando is doing a great deal, because he's moving the whole country.

The hope of finding the criminal keeps him going.

Wonderful, we all support him in this town.

We think that he is fighting hard.

Thanks.

In town, most people thought that Fernando did everything

and I wasn't doing anything. I had stayed at home

and didn't want to know anything about it, I didn't want to know who'd killed her.

No, that's wrong.

I did want to know who had killed my daughter.

And I wanted him to pay and I still want him to pay.

What I don't want to do is to lie.

I want reality, not fantasy.

Rosa began to...

refuse to go on with the investigation.

TOÑI'S SISTER

But at first, we were all pulling in the same direction.

But then Rosa said that she trusted justice,

the version they were giving.

Let's hear what one of the mothers told us.

She seems to disagree with what's being said on this show

and with our way of handling the topic.

Listen to what this woman had to say about us.

I want Spain to know...

DESIREE'S MOTHER

...that I don't agree with what's being done

on Pepe Navarro's show.

Everything that's being revealed about what they did to the girls

has been very hard for me.

I know that you're a proper journalist, but Pepe Navarro has no principles.

And the man who brought the case file is just like him.

They are shameless. They have no heart.

-Fernando, do you understand Rosa? -Yes, of course I understand her.

And I understand Rosa, she is a woman who has been used

to say negative things about me at one point.

But are you sure that you haven't been used too, Fernando?

The ones who can use another are not those who want, but those who can.

That TV network has played with his head on that show.

People have watched him every night, I know the whole country watched him.

But people think that what he says is true.

And I was upset when I heard him and I was being told certain things.

I've suffered a great deal.

The whole time that show was on, I've suffered a great deal.

Rosa knew about her daughter's wounds

because Fernando and Juan Ignacio showed photographs on the show

where they detailed

meticulously each one of the wounds she had.

I understand that this is something painful.

Especially for me, I'm Míriam's father.

To have access to these photographs, we had to steal them.

We had to steal what we should have by rights.

MISSISSIPPI'S RATINGS SKYROCKET THANKS TO ALCÀSSER

What's that document, Juan Ignacio?

This is a report recently finished by Professor Frontela.

It is a detailed and meticulous analysis

of the rug, or at least one of the rugs,

that were used to wrap up the girls' bodies.

We agreed with Fernando's thesis for a long time.

We were always trying to make

the investigation as comprehensive as possible.

In that process, at some point, a few distorting elements appear.

For example, I remember that I was very surprised

when he put the rug into question

saying that it was a Persian carpet, or something like that.

POPULAR PROSECUTION ATTORNEY

There was no evidence.

Let's talk about those rugs, there seems to be some evidence.

Antonio Carrascosa, lieutenant colonel who conducted the investigation,

had an interview with Fernando García, and he can tell us everything about it.

One of the things I said was that I wanted to see that rug.

He called me and told me that the rug I was talking about,

a sergeant of the Patraix station

mistook it for some old junk and burned it.

Mr. Carboneres, who dug out the bodies,

told us that it was a good thick carpet

and its color was blue.

His theory was something like:

"Some people say it's gray and others say it's blue.

That means there are two rugs.

One has been hidden while the other is the one in the case file."

There is a blue rug which has never been found.

However, that one doesn't have anything to do with the one we'll see now.

This is the brown rug with long threads,

analyzed now four and a half years later by Professor Frontela.

That rug was dug out at night.

It had been stained with mud

and the liquids of decomposition.

Some people could have thought the rug was one color and others another color.

But one shouldn't infer from that

that there was another carpet, let alone Persian.

And it's even more implausible to think that if there was a very valuable carpet,

because it was his thesis and I don't know where he got that from,

that meant that a very important person had taken part in the crime.

What did Professor Frontela find on that infamous rug?

First, he found blood.

He found three semen stains.

-Had something been found the first time? -No, I'm very surprised

because I know the work of Toxicology Institute in Madrid,

where they've kept that rug for more than four years,

and we should note that the rug is crucial for the investigation,

because the girls' bodies were wrapped in it.

In the months before the hearing, the trial by media begins to take shape.

Blanca Estrella Ruiz goes with Fernando to the show.

Here we have with us tonight, Fernando García, Míriam's father.

-Good evening. -Good evening.

And Blanca Estrella, of Clara Campoamor Association.

Together with them and Juan Ignacio Blanco, we'll try to...

She told me that she had been invited to participate on Mississippi.

I advised her not to.

She did go, and from that moment,

she distanced herself from Fernando García.

I was asked to go to Mississippi.

We were three and I was in the middle.

And I suddenly saw on a wall at some distance

something written... I don't remember the name of the host.

Pepe Navarro.

Navarro, question to Fernando. This one.

Fernando, reply to Navarro.

That was when I realized about the question and the reply.

Fernando had to reply that it was some white collar guy and the question was:

"Fernando, do you think it was someone important?"

Fernando was going to reply and then I said: "Fernando, excuse me.

Let's see, I'm going to answer that."

Who killed the Alcàsser girls?

At least, Miguel Ricart clearly killed Desirée.

And if you allow me, I'll talk to the camera and to Miguel Ricart.

Which is my camera?

-Which is my camera? -That one over there.

Look, I don't respect you because you're an animal, but let me tell you something.

Maybe your lawyer took you for a ride. Animals can also dream freely.

Justice will judge you and we want you sentenced.

We will sentence you.

Society already did, as well as our association, and now justice will.

Clara Campoamor Association won't forgive you.

They almost killed me.

What happened with Mississippi,

and she noticed,

was that...

we had forgotten about the defendant.

However, we talked about other people

who could have participated through all those conspiracy theories.

Actually, when we did talk about the defendant

was to highlight that the defendant hadn't taken part in the crime.

And that was almost an insult.

ALCÀSSER, THE POPULAR PROSECUTION DISTANCES ITSELF FROM FERNANDO GARCÍA

Fernando, it has often been said

that the media have used your tragedy

to get viewers and make some profit.

Matilde, Luisa, Fernando, everyone here from the family.

Do you feel used?

I use the media when I want my voice to be heard.

If I didn't have that window to lean into the houses of Spain,

I'd be like Jesus Christ preaching in the desert and no one would hear me.

So I use the media.

But the media also uses

the need of the Spanish people to know,

and that translates into viewers.

But God bless the curious viewers who want to know more

about what is happening with our children.

PROVINCIAL HIGH COURT VALENCIA

The long-awaited trial has a date.

The trial of the Alcàsser case will take place on May 12th.

The only defendant will be Miguel Ricart.

The tension is obvious. The people from this Valencian town

have demonstrated to request the cancellation of the trial.

-The families of the girls... -To request the cancellation...

They want to accuse Ricart.

He is a scapegoat, it's as plain as day.

It is obvious that nothing is clear.

There has been more controversy. Fernando García considers the trial a farce...

Fernando García, Míriam's father, requests the cancellation of the trial

and wants the whole investigation to be reviewed.

I don't want to participate in this circus.

I don't want to be a part of this weird setup.

The popular prosecution have announced that they will request the adjournment

as soon as the hearing starts,

and two days ago, a forensic report was published

that could change the investigation again.

Forty-eight hours before the trial started, the results of two new tests

to uncover the perpetrators were published.

The bodies of the girls had been washed

to destroy all evidence and prevent them from being analyzed.

But Professor Frontela managed to collect countless hairs

and we're still asking them to be analyzed.

FORENSIC DOCTOR

...and nothing is kept away from me, I will.

An analysis of 15 hairs found on the girls' bodies,

and none of them belongs to Miguel Ricart, only defendant in the case.

The only conclusive evidence against him is his own self-incrimination.

That is why they don't like the fact

that the process to determine how and who killed the three girls

will start next Monday the 12th at the High Court of Valencia.

We are with Fernando! We are with Fernando!

But the hairs belong to seven different people, according to the coroner.

The second piece of evidence is the rug

used to allegedly wrap up the remains of the victims.

It took them four years to discover blood and semen on it.

Frontela had it for three years, and only now has he reported the blood and semen.

The popular proseuction is outraged by the delay.

Everything they say is missing, Frontela had it,

the expert of those accusing the Civil Guard.

There has never been any withholding of evidence, but quite the contrary.

We've kept them safe

so that they could be at the court's disposal at the moment of trial.

The pieces of evidence allegedly burned and lost by the Civil Guard

are marked with Frontela's name.

The Association will investigate what is the criminal responsibility

of an expert who withholds evidence from justice.

She defended that there were people of high economic status...

They were working for someone, and I want to catch him.

...behind this crime, as she has done for the last three and a half years.

She suddenly changed her mind.

That woman seems to be blaming us for whatever the Civil Guard have done.

If I was the judge and I had that power, Frontela would be arrested right now.

Traces of blood and semen

on the rug used to wrap up the girls' bodies.

With the evidence in our hands,

at least eight people took part in the crime.

I ask any mother at the demonstration:

"Do you want your daughter to be the next girl killed by Ricart?"

If you demonstrate, be logical.

Stopping this means that Ricart will be immediately released.

I don't want an alleged murderer to be released.

I'm fighting hard to prevent that,

because I do care about the next girl that will be murdered by Ricart.

And if the Valencian parents haven't realized that, well, they should.

We want justice!

I can only think that they fear that we might uncover someone.

A hundred journalists will report daily

from the most spectacular trial of the year.

Please stand up next to the microphone.

MONDAY, MAY 12, 1997 OPENING SESSION OF MIGUEL RICART'S TRIAL

The prosecution,

according to the Penal Code in force at the time of the events,

accuses you of three counts of murder,

three counts of kidnapping,

and four continuous counts of rape.

Do you acknowledge having committed the crimes

of which you are accused?

No.

Sit down in that chair.

Subtitle translation by Carolina Daza León