The average profile of missing persons in 2023 is characterized by four traits: they have Spanish nationality, they are a man, they are of legal age and they left voluntarily without giving any explanation. Although each missing person has a different story, the National Center for Missing Persons has drawn up a profile of the most frequent disappearance case of the last year. The portrait differs from the previous year, in which the most common case corresponded to a male, also Spanish, but a minor. The number of people missing last year has decreased by 6.9% compared to 2022 and 95% of the cases have been resolved. The director of the Center, Pilar Muniesa, explained this Tuesday at an event held at the center's headquarters, that 30% of the 15,126 people who were absent without apparent cause last year, have been missing from their homes on more than one occasion. chance. They are called “repeat missing persons” and the average of these cases is 3.2 disappearances per person.
More than 66% of disappearances are resolved in the first seven days and the missing persons are men in 61.5% of cases. Almost nine out of every ten cases reported in 2023 were voluntary disappearances, 5% were involuntary, and in 0.4% of cases there was a forced disappearance. Madrid (14%), Barcelona (12%) and Las Palmas (7%) are the provinces with the highest number of complaints. Regarding nationality, 63% are Spanish citizens and among the foreign nationalities, Moroccan stands out, with 11.3% of the cases. On December 31, 2023, the closing date of the balance sheet, 6,001 reports of disappearances remained active.
This portrait was drawn at an event in which, in addition to the balance of the center's activity, a large group of relatives of missing people met with the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, and raised their concerns and complaints. In their interventions, they have demanded greater understanding and attention from the authorities, that the police search protocols be unified or that relatives be helped to go through especially painful times, especially in the first hours of the disappearance or when they have to register. officially their loved ones as deceased. “These things are not counted to draw blood, but it is true that you have to have knowledge to be able to improve,” excused Isidro Molina, father of Paco Molina, who disappeared in Córdoba in 2015, when he was 16 years old, after recounting the “ nonsense” committed in the investigation of his son's case. “I ask for closure for each missing person,” claimed Merche, daughter of Adelina Pintos, 82, who disappeared in 2022 in San Just Desvern (Barcelona).
Grande-Marlaska has announced that an information letter will be made available to relatives of missing persons that includes all the resources at their disposal, including free psychological care provided by professionals hired by the Ministry of the Interior. As explained by the minister, an economic file is already being processed to contract psychological services and, once concluded, the National Center for Missing Persons will offer this service to all those relatives who require it.
During this Tuesday's event, tribute was paid to the InterSOS association, created in 1998 and which ceased its activity last January. Grande-Marlaska has awarded a distinction to its founders, Luisa Vera and Juan Bergua. They are both the parents of Cristina, who disappeared at the age of 16, on March 9, 1997. The struggle of this couple to find the whereabouts of their daughter led Congress to proclaim each March 9 as the day of missing persons without apparent cause.
In the last year, the center has launched a new alert procedure for disappearances with great national impact and which is aimed at two especially vulnerable groups, minors and elderly people. These notices, called PAV (“vulnerable alert publication”), are launched in cases where the person is at serious risk and have been launched through an agreement with five outdoor advertising companies that give up their digital advertising monoposts to launch the notices. The system has been in operation since March 2023 and, after its use, three people have been located in good condition, two are dead, and one of the searches is still active.
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The center has also reported that, in collaboration with the security forces, 294 deceased people have been identified, a figure that exceeds records from previous years, and which has allowed the relatives of the missing people to close their grief.
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