ANABEL Segura was a 22-year-old Spanish university student who was kidnapped and murdered in 1993.
Her tragic story and the shock to Spanish society caused by her kidnapping will be examined in the Netflix documentary 900 Days Without Anabel.
Anabel’s terrifying kidnapping
Anabel was kidnapped on April 12, 1993, by Emilio Muñoz Guadix with the help of his friend Candido “Candi” Ortiz Aon.
She was jogging around the La Moraleja area in Madrid when the pair dragged her into their van at knifepoint.
The pair had arrived in the area with the intention of kidnapping someone, but did not specifically plan to kidnap Anabel.
Anabel’s kidnap was witnessed by a janitor who was unable to read the van’s number plate, but he alerted the authorities right away.
Muñoz and Ortiz took Anabel to a factory in Toledo where they held her hostage.
The university student tried to escape but was caught by her captors, who then murdered her and buried her nearby.
Muñoz and Ortiz began to make ransom calls which offered the 22-year-old’s release in exchange for 150 million Spanish pesetas, which is roughly equivalent to 2 million euros.
Eventually, Anabel’s family decided to pay the ransom but neither of her captors came to the agreed meeting point.
Muñoz and Ortiz decided to take their scheme one step further and sent Anabel’s family a tape recording in which Anabel’s voice could be heard.
It was later revealed that the voice actually belonged to Muñoz’s wife, Felisa Garcia, who was pretending to be Anabel.
When the tape was aired on TV, a Toledo resident recognised Oritz’ voice and called the police which led to the kidnappers’ arrest on September 28, 1995.
Life before April 12, 1993
Before her tragic murder, Anabel was a business student at the private ICADE university.
She was known for her love of running and often took her Sony Walkman with her when she exercised, so she could listen to music.
At the time of her death, Anabel was living with her parents in La Moraleja, a wealthy residential district in the Community of Madrid.
Anabel’s affluent family
Her father José Segura Nájera worked in the petrochemical sector and her mother was a German woman named Sigrid Foles.
Anabel’s parents had met in Germany when he launched his highly successful business.
Anabel also had a sister named Sandra.
Anabel’s kidnappers faced justice
Muñoz and Ortiz confessed to locating Segura’s body but claimed they had only gone to find it with the intent of receiving a reward.
In 1999, the pair were sentenced to 39 years in prison but the Spanish Supreme Court raised their sentences to 43 years.
Ortiz’ wife received a six month sentence for her part in the crime.
After serving 18 years in prison, Muñoz was eventually released in 2013.
When he left prison, he described his motivation for his crime as being “purely economic”.
By this time, Candido Ortiz had died in prison in 2009.
900 Days Without Anabel
900 Days Without Anabel will land on Netflix on November 22, 2024.
The series was directed and co-written by Mónica Palomero and features never-before-heard tapes recorded by the police when they tried to negotiate for Anabel’s release.
The documentary also focuses on the impact that Anabel’s kidnapping had on her family and Spanish society at large.
