The disappearance of Julián Gómez and his 12-year-old daughter, Laura, began as a seemingly ordinary family outing—one of many short sailing trips they had taken aboard their boat, El Albatros. On May 14, 2012, Julián prepared the vessel for what was intended to be an uneventful overnight excursion.

His wife, María, watched them depart, troubled by an instinctive sense of dread she could not articulate. Though nothing outwardly suggested danger, her intuition proved tragically accurate. When father and daughter failed to return the next day, María alerted authorities, triggering a standard maritime search. What followed would reveal a mystery far more complex and sinister than a simple accident at sea, unraveling over more than a decade.

By the evening of the second day, the missing-person alert escalated, prompting a widespread Coast Guard effort. Search crews finally located El Albatros drifting aimlessly 17 miles offshore early the next morning. The condition of the vessel raised immediate questions: the sail was ripped as though by force, not weather; the radio was inoperable as if deliberately disabled; and the deck bore unusual impact marks inconsistent with ordinary sailing mishaps.