Anabel Segura

On 12 April 1993, Anabel Segura, a 22-year-old university student, was kidnapped by Emilio Muñoz Guadix with the help of his friend, Candido "Candi" Ortiz Aon. After being taken while jogging in La Moraleja, Madrid, Spain, the kidnappers had no plan what to do next, driving around for hours with her. She tried to escape, so they took her to an abandoned factory in Numancia de la Sagra, Toledo, strangled her and buried her body on the grounds of the factory.

Despite having murdered Segura the day they kidnapped her, Ortiz and Muñoz repeatedly contacted her family over the following months, promising to release her in exchange for a substantial amount of ransom, but never went to the meeting points to pick up the money. Two months after the kidnapping and murder, in June 1993, Muñoz and Ortiz sent the family a tape recording of Felisa Garcia, Muñoz's wife, pretending to be Segura.

On 28 September 1995, nearly two and a half years after her death, Muñoz and Ortiz were captured and confessed to the kidnapping and murder of Segura, and revealed the location of her body. Muñoz' wife, García, was also arrested for pretending to be Segura on the tape. In 1999, Muñoz and Ortiz were sentenced to 43 years in prison.

Segura's kidnapping received extensive media coverage and made headline news; it was a case that "shocked Spanish society". The media monitored the case for two years after the kidnapping.

Background

Victim

Anabel Segura Foles was a 22-year-old woman from La Moraleja, an affluent residential district of Alcobendas municipality in northern Community of Madrid, Spain. She was the eldest daughter of José Segura Nájera, a businessman in the petrochemical sector, and his German wife Sigrid Foles. Her father had started his business in Germany where he met and married Sigrid. They returned to Spain to raise Anabel and younger daughter Sandra in a wealthy golf community. Segura was a four-year business student at ICADE university.

Kidnappers

Emilio Muñoz Guadix and his wife Felisa, had moved from Vallecas, Madrid with their children to the Toledo municipality of Pantoja, to have a better future for their family. Emilio worked as a delivery driver in Madrid for a parcel company.

Cándido Ortiz, Muñoz's childhood friend, had moved to Escalona, Toledo. He worked as a plumber and used to travel to the capital to do work.

Crime

Kidnapping

On the afternoon of 12 April 1993, Muñoz and Ortiz went to the area around the La Moraleja urbanization with the intention of kidnapping someone. According to investigation sources, they were convinced that the area was “safe bingo”. Segura, as she did every afternoon, went out with a walkman to go jogging in the Intergolf neighborhood of La Moraleja, where she lived. Segura's family was out of town on vacation.

Ortiz and Muñoz got out of a white van and held Segura at knifepoint. They put her in the van and drove off. Segura resisted, losing her tracksuit and walkman in the struggle.

Antonio, a janitor at the nearby Scandinavian School, witnessed the ordeal. When Antonio noticed what was happening, he was unable to make out the license plate number because he was without his glasses. He called the police right after.

Murder

Segura unsuccessfully attempted to escape from her captors and was held captive in an abandoned factory in Numancia de la Sagra, Toledo. She was subsequently strangled to death and buried nearby.

Investigation

Rescue calls

Despite the murder, Ortiz and Muñoz decided to continue with their plan and ask money for Segura's false ransom.

On 14 April, two days after the kidnapping, the kidnappers asked for the sum of 150 million Spanish pesetas for the "liberation" of Segura. This was the first of the 15 calls that were made to the family, who named the attorney Rafael Escuredo as their mediator. José Segura mortgaged his home to raise funds and even offered 15 million pesetas to whoever provided a valid clue to find Segura. Companies specialized in solving kidnappings were also hired. On two occasions, the family representatives went to the point agreed upon with the kidnappers to pay the ransom, but neither of the two kidnappers came to the point.

Fake tape

Two months after the kidnapping, Muñoz and Ortiz sent the family a tape recording in which the supposed voice of Segura could be heard, who said she was fine while crying out to be taken out of there. In reality, it was the voice of Felisa Garcia, Muñoz's wife, who was pretending to be Segura at her husband's request.

A resident of Escalona called the police after hearing the tapes with the voice of the kidnappers on television. The man said: "That is Candi's voice, the plumber of my town". On 28 September 1995, that call led the police to arrest Ortiz and later Muñoz and his wife.

Imprisonment

Muñoz and Ortiz confessed to locating Segura's body and said they had only done it to receive a reward and that they had not wanted to kill her. In 1999, Muñoz and Ortiz were sentenced to 39 years in prison, but the Supreme Court raised the sentences to 43 years in prison. While Felisa had six months in prison, for covering up the kidnapping and impersonating Segura in the tape.

Cándido Ortiz died in prison in 2009. In 2013, Emilio Muñoz was released when he had already spent 18 years in prison.

Media coverage

Her kidnapping and murder case received considerable local media coverage, being described as "the case that shocked Spain". Her case was compared to the murder of Diana Quer, another young woman from Madrid who was kidnapped and murdered in A Pobra do Caramiña, Galicia.

Memorial

On 10 May 2021, a Memorial for Anabel Segura was held next to the Civic Center that bears her name in Alcobendas, Madrid.

See also

*Crime in Spain
*List of solved missing person cases

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Segura, Anabel
1990s missing person cases
1993 murders in Spain
Female murder victims
Formerly missing Spanish people
Kidnappings in Spain
Kidnapping in the 1990s
Missing person cases in Spain
Murder in Madrid
People murdered in Spain
Spanish murder victims
Trials in Spain