He moved from Palma de Mallorca to Cazorla (Jaén). From there, he called his wife to complain about an incident with the man who employed him.
The Civil Guard had to intervene and Edwin was taken to the hospital. Traces of him are lost after receiving the medical discharge. His backpack was found lying next to a road.
“On March 30, the trip arose,” Milton begins. He is one of Edwin’s seven brothers. He is also the voice of the search since this He disappeared. “My nephew told me that a man he knew was looking for people to do a move.” Edwin was looking for a job, they decided it would be him. “My brother, who at that time had nothing fixed, was good for him.” It was something simple: go, make the move and come back.
The trip started. They left on a boat from Majorca both. “On March 31, around eleven at night, my brother called his wife and told her that she was in Cazorla (Jaén), that she had had certain problems with this man. That she was humiliating him. That he had locked him in the van. She told him that everything was going wrong.” It was the last conversation they had with him. Edwin López, 53 years old, He disappeared the next morning, April 1, 2023, after hours wandering around Cazorla. They have been waiting for answers for seven months. Nothing leads to it.
Edwin López, disappeared on April 1, 2023. Seven months without a response.
| Given by his family to OPEN CASE.
Locked with key
“You sleep in the van, this man told him.” Milton, together with CASO ABIERTO, Prensa Ibérica’s events and investigation portal, goes back to hours before the disappearance. “My brother told him not to do that because he suffered from claustrophobia and yet he locked him up“What follows, they have been able to reconstruct with the help of the agents of the Civil Guard. “When Edwin found himself locked up, without light, without air… he became upset. He began to give punches, kicks, from inside.” The ‘boss’ ended up opening. “When he came out, my brother was completely upset, with anxiety.”
The Civil Guard arrived at the scene. “The owner of the van called them.” Edwin had a nervous breakdown, “they called the emergency services and took him to the hospital.” They administered a tranquilizer and, around 3 in the morning, they discharged him.. “When he came out, she was surprised that this man had left, he had left his backpack, and he had left him alone there.” Hours later, 600 meters away, that same backpack would appear lying next to the road. Edwin, since then, has not been there.
The gas station
“The Civil Guard tells us that they have found my brother’s backpack,” Milton reconstructs, “the alarm went off.” His passport, his clothes, his documentation and his telephone number appear next to a road. “All his belongings are there, but he is not there.” The agents draw the line. The backpack appears 600 meters from the Cazorla hospital. In the middle, 300 meters from both points, there is a gas station: “my brother was there.”
“I don’t know why my brother didn’t ask for a charger,” laments Milton. “We would have gone from Palma to the same gas station to get him”
Employees at the pump confirmed that Edwin He was there from three in the morning until ten in the morning. The cameras confirmed the testimony. “The images They show how he goes out alone, wanders, wanders, sits…“. The gas station has a restaurant, a shop, a bathroom. “You can see how he goes in, buys soda, has breakfast outside, sitting, without knowing anything at all what to do…” He carries the backpack. “And you can see how he leaves moving away towards the place where they found their belongings, the Quesada-Úbeda highway”.
In record time his family arrived from Palma de Mallorca to that same point. They beat, without success. They went to the starting point, the gas station. Everyone remembered him. “They say that Edwin didn’t look disoriented, distressed, anything. That he didn’t know where to go, but, yes, yes, he was fine.” While Edwin was looking for a way to return home, his phone – turned off – stored calls and messages from his people. “I don’t know why my brother didn’t ask for a charger,” laments Milton, “we would have gone from Palma to the same gas station to get it.”
Edwin, in a photo provided by his family to this medium.
| OPEN CASE
Hitch-hiking
For eight days the family beat the zone together with the researchers. There was no trace. “There are four or five farms around, no one saw anything there.” The agents combed inch by inch, “with dogs, drones, helicopters, on foot… within a 5 kilometer radius.” Edwin was not there. The Civil Guard He drew a single hypothesis: that the man, with no means to get home, had hitchhiked.
“They say it’s most likely that he got into a car and forgot his backpack by the road. To us… The situation seems a little implausible to us.“That Edwin stops a car, gets in and forgets to take his clothes, his belongings, it doesn’t make sense to me, honestly.”
express return
The family tried to talk to the man who accompanied Edwin, “he has never picked up my phone.” He left him in the hospital and was scared to death. This ruled out at the police level: “the agents assure that when Edwin disappears (around 10:00 a.m.), he was disembarking in Palma.”
The data squeaks. The trip should have been too express. “The boats from Valencia leave at 10:00 p.m. and arrive between 5:30 and 6:00 a.m. to the island. This man called the police at 11:00 p.m. when, by locking up my brother, he has an anxiety attack. From Cazorla to Valencia it takes four hours, and more in a moving van, which is big.” The hours don’t add up. “If this man at 11:00 p.m. He called the police, went to the hospital and left… No matter how much he has run, he cannot be disembarking at 7:00 a.m. on April 1, when my brother disappears in Palma de Mallorca. That imbalance doesn’t let me sleep“.
Soup kitchens and churches
Without answers, without clues, without news, the whole family lives for and to find. “For 20 years I worked in the emergency service in Palma de Mallorca,” explains Milton. “I had a work accident and they gave me total disability.” He has time, but each search is financially costly. He has to take his car from Palma to Valencia and, from there, beat, ask. He has toured Andalusia, Valencia, Murcia and Castilla la Mancha. “I search in churches, hospitals, bus stops, train stops, soup kitchens and marginal neighborhoods,” he explains. “We don’t know where Edwin may be or in what condition. The helplessness one feels is impressive. “It’s searching, searching, searching and finding absolutely nothing.”
The phone has rung three times: Beas de Segura, Villacarrillo and Andújar, the three places where they claimed to have seen Edwin wandering. Milton arrived in record time, but he was not there, he could not verify if it was him.
Edwin has a tattoo on his right forearm with his children’s names. His family, faced with the possibility of being changed, asks that you pay attention to that detail in case of doubt about having crossed paths with him.
| OPEN CASE
A lover of salsa, Edwin enjoyed teaching everyone how to dance. In his country he was a messenger, a biker. Motorcycles and cars, along with dancing, his other great passion. He studied gardening to come to Spain, he expected something permanent from it here. Solidarity, charitable, “he would give his life for his children, for his wife,” Milton completes. “The agents believe that sHe gets into a car and they take him out of Cazorla. The problem is that they don’t know where: Jaen, Seville, Portugal… It’s very painful. We can only hope that someone sees the photo and tells us if they thought they saw it today, tomorrow, yesterday.” The uncertainty tears. It hurts. “Now I could have a beard, a mustache… but the tattoo will not have changed. If you have seen it, please contact us. You are our hope to find him.”