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CRIMINAL

Volunteers join search for missing woman

Volunteers are on Sunday set to continue the search for a 20-year-old woman who went missing near Boden in northern Sweden last week while police investigate a suspected abduction.

Published: 12 May 2013 07:52 CEST
Volunteers join search for missing woman

The Missing People organisation is orchestrating the search for the woman who was last seen last Saturday when she visited a friend.

The police search for the missing woman was called off on Friday while reports emerged on Saturday that she had filed several police reports.

The police however declined to confirm the nature of the reports.

“I can’t say what the reports concern in detail but there have not been any threats directed towards the missing woman,” said police spokesman Lars-Ivar Johansson to the local Norrlänska Socialdemokraten daily.

Police are now working on the theory that the woman may have been abducted.

The search was called off on Friday as the police deemed it unlikely that the 20-year-old would be found alive.

“This doesn’t mean we will stop looking. We are now working with following up tips and trying to map out her movements,” said Ulf Sköld at Luleå police to news agency TT on Saturday.

The police are, among other things, conducting extensive interviews with residents in the area to gather intelligence.

There are currently no suspects nor has anyone been detained in connection with the investigation.

TT/The Local/pvs Follow The Local on Twitter

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SKIING

Spain mourns Blanca Fernández Ochoa, the Olympian skier found dead in Madrid’s sierra

The body of former Spanish alpine skimedallist Blanca Fernández Ochoa was found Wednesday in a mountainous area near Madrid after days of searches for her by hundreds of police and volunteers, officials said.

Published: 5 September 2019 09:34 CEST
Spain mourns Blanca Fernández Ochoa, the Olympian skier found dead in Madrid's sierra
Archive photo of Blanca Fernández Ochoa during her Olympic career.

The 56-year-old — won a bronze skiing for Spain in the 1992 Winter Games in Albertville, becoming the country's first female Winter Olympic medallist — had been missing since she was last spotted on surveillance video at a shopping centre on August 24th.

Her car was later found at a parking lot near the start of a hiking trail in Cercedilla, a mountainous village near Madrid. The authorities said they are still investigating the cause of her death.

“Solidarity, support and human warmth have been felt these days in the mountains of Cercedilla. Security forces and many volunteers have taken part in the search for Blanca Fernández Ochoa. But nothing could be done. My affection to all her family,” Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez tweeted.

Hundreds of police, firefighters, forest rangers and volunteers, backed by helicopters, drones and tracking dogs, had taken part in the search for Fernández Ochoa.

Her family only alerted the authorities about her disappearance on August 29th because they said it was not unusual for her to go on hikes in the area, even without her phone, according to Spanish media reports.

Police on Saturday issued an appeal on social media for help from the public in locating Fernández Ochoa along with a picture of her, which drew media attention to her disappearance.

She was well known in Spain, where she had taken part in several TV reality shows after retiring from sports.

Her older brother, Francisco Fernández Ochoa, won a gold medal for skiing in the 1972 Winter Olympics in Japan. He is the first and only Spaniard to have won a gold medal at the Winter Olympics.   

There is a statue in his honour in Cercedilla.   

Until 2018 the brother and sister were the only Spaniards to have won medals at a Winter Olympics.

“It is a very sad day for Spanish sports,” Spain's secretary of state for sports, Maria Jose Rienda, said in a statement.

READ ALSO: Snowboarder from Ceuta wins Olympic medal for Spain

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