Family, friends and neighbors say their last goodbye to the 17-year-old girl stabbed to death by her ex-boyfriend
On a cold February afternoon, two municipal workers seal the tombstone of Claudia Abigail, located in a row of niches at the back of the Virgen del Carmen municipal cemetery in Totana. With the last shovelful of cement, a cloud of twenty-five white balloons, carried by relatives and friends in their hands, flies into the sky. One of them, in the shape of a heart, has the young woman’s name written on it. “They are for her,” says a relative.
A crowd watches the farewell scene. That river of people has just crossed the town accompanying the hearse that carries the body of the girl, from the church of Santiago, next to the Town Hall. There, in the midst of intense silence, the funeral mass of the 17-year-old girl stabbed to death by her 19-year-old ex-boyfriend took place last Tuesday, as he himself has confessed.
Consternation and mourning approached the temple at five in the afternoon at a slow pace, following the mournful rhythm of the bells and the hearse, sheltered by flower crowns with messages of remembrance: ‘Your family does not forget you’, ‘ Your parents and your brothers’. From the José Antonio funeral home, on Rambla de la Santa avenue, the same street where Claudia Abigail’s body was found in a storage room of the building where the alleged murderer lives, the procession reached Constitución square, where the church. More than a thousand people gathered there, according to Local Police sources, who attended the farewell, although not all were able to enter due to lack of space in the temple.
The scenes of pain took place during the religious celebration, in an atmosphere of great sadness. Carlos Patricio, father of Claudia Abigail, received numerous signs of affection from her relatives, while four relatives carried the coffin of his daughter to introduce it inside the church. The parish priest Francisco José Fernández approached the family before mass to offer his condolences.
“You have come to the gates of the temple in silence and afflicted, with tears in your eyes […]. I invite the family to imitate the attitude of the Virgin Mary, that serenity that she maintained in the face of the violent death of her son on the cross. Because even today it is your turn to bear the scandal of a violent death », she declared from the pulpit.
The priest recalled that the victim was a “loving, kind person who was beginning to live.” He did it before the dejection of Carlos Patricio, who at one point hugged the coffin of his daughter, in front of the altar, presided over by a photo of the young woman.
More than a thousand people attended the funeral, although not all could enter due to lack of space in the church of Santiago
The priest also alluded to the tragic circumstances of his death, asked for respect for the pain of the family and declared that “now a harsh winter begins for you that you must overcome. But you are not alone, the parish will walk with you».
During mass, the parish priest had to stop the service on two occasions due to the tears of the family. Ignacia, her mother, was assisted at all times by a psychologist and she was accompanied and held at the end of the homily by members of the Emergency service, since she could not walk. “She is broken with pain,” said a close friend.
Claudia Abigail’s burial occurred hours after Johan SP, the 19-year-old arrested for the events, entered the Sangonera la Verde prison. This was decided last Thursday by the head of the Investigating Court number 3 of Totana after taking her statement.
Claudia Abigail’s parents reported her disappearance last Tuesday. The investigation led the agents to the young woman’s ex-boyfriend and it was her own mother who alerted them that her son had confessed that she had done “something bad” to Claudia.
The investigators went to his home at dawn on Wednesday and found the body of his ex-girlfriend in a storage room on his property and Johan SP was arrested. There were no previous complaints of ill-treatment because, according to the young woman’s father, her daughter had not had any prior problems with Johan.