Who is Emilio Muñoz Guadix’s wife Felisa Gracia and why did she impersonate Anabel Segura?
FELISA Garcia is the wife of convicted kidnapper and murderer Emilio Muñoz Guadix.
She played a crucial role in the plot to extort the family of Anabel Segura, despite the fact the missing 22-year-old was already dead.
Kidnapping
Anabel Segura was kidnapped during her morning run in La Moraleja, an affluent area of Madrid, Spain on April 12, 1993.
Emilio Muñoz Guadix and Candido ‘Candi’ Ortiz Aon forced her into their van at knifepoint.
In Netflix‘s 900 Days Without Anabel, police investigator Juan J.B says: “Where the van had been parked, a Walkman, a white T-shirt, and a young woman’s sweater were found.”
The case quickly gained national attention, with Spanish authorities launching a massive manhunt to locate Anabel, as well as a prolonged investigation to apprehend her kidnappers.
The only eyewitness was a local school gardener who didn’t catch the license plate.
Without any solid leads, the case started out as a dead end.
That is until kidnappers made contact with Anabel’s family, initiating a tense period of negotiations that would last an agonizing 900 days.
The longest kidnapping in Spanish history came to a heartbreaking conclusion.
Anabel was killed just six hours after she was abducted, although her kidnappers continued to demand ransom for years afterward.
Felisa Garcia’s involvement
Three months after Anabel was taken, Felisa Garcia participated in a sinister scheme orchestrated by her husband Muñoz Guadix, and his accomplice Ortiz Aon.
She agreed to impersonate Anabel in an audio recording that was sent to the victim’s family.
In this tape, pretending to be the missing 22-year-old, Garia claimed she was “OK” and pleaded to be brought home safely.
She said: “Hi Mum and Dad, it’s June 22nd. I just want to tell you I’m OK, all things considered.
If the demands aren’t met she will be executed
ransom recording
“They’re not treating me badly, but I really want to be home with you, and I miss you all a lot.”
The recording also contained a chilling threat: “If all our demands aren’t met in the delivery of the ransom, thirty days after receiving this tape, we will execute her.
“I repeat, if the demands aren’t met she will be executed.”
While the family clung to the hope that Anabel was still alive, her father José Segura Nájera wasn’t convinced.
Head of the national police’s kidnapping group, Jaime Barrado, said: “After listening to the recording, José, without letting his wife, who was crying at the time, speak, immediately said: ‘That’s not Anabel’.’”
Even though Anabel was already dead, the deception allowed the kidnappers to continue their attempts to extort money from the family.
Between 1993 and 1995, the kidnappers made 14 calls and reportedly demanded up to 150 million pesetas ($2 million) from Anabel’s family.
To raise funds for the ransom and offer a reward of their own for information leading to Anabel’s safe return, her parents mortgaged their home.
The Spanish Interior Ministry offered a reward as well.
Anabel’s parents had the ransom money ready within two days, but it was never collected.
The kidnappers then went silent, with months passing without any news.
Police released the kidnapper’s voice to the media in November 1993, receiving over 30,000 calls in response, of which 1,600 were deemed credible.
By the second anniversary of her kidnapping in April 1995, there were still no arrests.
A tearful Jose said in a plea on TV: “I am willing to do whatever it takes to bring Anabel back to us and my family feels the same way.
“Whether within the law, or if need be outside the law. All we want is to have Anabel back.”
The breakthrough eventually came when of the callers — a resident in Toledo — told cops: “That is Candi’s voice, the plumber of my town”.
After the tip-off, Muñoz Guadix and Ortiz Aon led police to Anabel’s remains in an abandoned warehouse near Toledo, about 40 miles south of Madrid.
Their daughter’s body was finally discovered on September 30, 1995 — 900 days after her disappearance — at an abandoned warehouse.
On the day of the discovery of Anabel’s remains, the Segura family lawyer said at a press conference: ”Anabel’s parents are not dominated by hate but they want the full weight of the law and justice against the kidnappers and killers of Anabel.”
Convictions
When the truth finally came to light in 1995, Garcia faced legal consequences for her role in the crime.
She was charged with covering up the kidnapping and impersonating Anabel on the tape.
In 1999, Garcia was sentenced to six months in prison for her part in the deception.
For their roles in the kidnapping and murder, the Spanish Supreme Court gave Ortiz Aon and Muñoz Guadix to 43 years in prison each
In 2009, Ortiz Aon died in prison at the age of 48.
But Muñoz Guadix was released on November 27, 2013, following a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) that affected the application of Spain’s Parot doctrine.
The Parot doctrine was a 2006 Spanish legal ruling that changed how prison sentences were determined for serious offenders.
It applied sentence reductions to each individual crime rather than the overall sentence, effectively extending prison terms.
This controversial practice was later deemed a human rights violation and abandoned in 2013 — which led to Muñoz Guadix’s release.
900 Days Without Anabel
Directed and co-written by Mónica Palomero, 900 Days Without Anabel features never-before-heard tapes recorded by the police when they tried to negotiate for Anabel’s release.
The docuseries also focuses on the devastating impact that Anabel’s kidnapping had on her family, as well as on Spanish society at large.
900 Days Without Anabel dropped on Netflix on November 22, 2024.