THE DARK SIDE OF THE CAMINO DE SANTIAGO
A woman leaves for a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. But suddenly she disappears under mysterious circumstances. An isolated case that might have happened anywhere in the world?
Neue Zürcher Zeitung
http://www.nzz.ch/nzzas/nzz-am-sonntag/die-dunkle-seite-des-jakobswegs-ld.1264
On July 3, his mobile phone vibrates. For three months now, a stone has landed on Cedric Thiem's chest every time he picks it up. What now? New photos. A policeman from Spain has sent them. Thiem sees women's clothing on a heat-dried field. If he recognizes the things, the policeman wants to know.
It was on April 1, the International Day for bad jokes, when Cedric Thiem last telephoned with his sister Denise via Skype. Four days later, on Easter Sunday, she was officially seen for the last time. Then her phone went dead. [*] "The person you have called is temporarily not available."
Denise is gone. Disappeared. She left no message. No kidnapper has come forward. On a 'missing' poster you see the 41-year-old as a pretty woman. With her smooth black hair and soft eyes. On another she pulls a face. She sticks out her tongue, goes without make up. A Chinese-American woman from Arizona who until recently worked as a project manager for an animal food chain. Happy she looks. In the photos.
Cedric Thiem zooms in on the mobile phone, taking a look at the clothes in the field. Then he sighs. The question of the Spanish policeman is answered with the two letters that until now he has had to use every time a little hope seemed to appear on the horizon. «No».
Profanation of pilgrimage
When women disappear, it is generally considered that this is not of their own choice. One reckons with the worst forms of external influence: kidnapping, rape, murder. Did Denise Thiem become a victim of crime? The place where she disappeared, is an unexpected venue for it. She made a pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago. The name stands for a variety of pilgrim routes throughout Europe, that converge in northern Spain to a main route and have the alleged grave of the apostle James in Santiago de Compostela as the destination. Those who walked this Camino in earlier times had purely religious intentions. Today, the motivations of the pilgrims have become more diverse. Many Spaniards complete the Camino de Santiago, because it looks good on their CV, some are looking for active holidays. Some are at a point in their lives where they get stuck. After a divorce or the loss of a loved one. A time out.
The development into the secular is reflected not only in the talks with pilgrims on the Camino, it is also already being recognized by official bodies. In the pilgrim's office of the Dome chapter of the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela, most pilgrims fetch a certificate after arrival like they would do after they a passed exam. For this you also have to explain, in addition to the kilometers walked that are certified by the Camino stamps, your motivation. Meanwhile one can tick next to religious also "spiritual" or "tourist" reasons.
Despite the profanation, the Camino de Santiago still promises a journey into the inner self. Denise Thiem followed this promise. "She wanted to make a profound spiritual experience," says her cousin Desiree Yao, who has been working full-time since nearly a month in a team with Cedric Thiem and other family members and friends trying to find Denise.
The originally Catholic promise of the Camino de Santiago: If you pull it through to the end, all the sins of your life will be forgiven. Denise Thiem has disappeared precisely on Easter Sunday, the day which symbolizes the triumph over death, and the forgiveness of human sin. On Easter Sunday, the American was still 238 km away from the destination, and thus in the Catholic context of the Camino away from the grace of God [**]. When she, presumably, became the victim of a person who was looking on the Camino for something completely different from forgiveness .
The inspiration for the pilgrimage, Denise Thiem got from the movie "The Way". In this movie a young man dies in an accident on the Camino during storms. The father decides in his grief to finish the Camino for his son. He meets many people and makes peace with the fate of his son and his own loss. It's a film that propagates the healing power of the Camino de Santiago.
Denise Thiem quit her job at the headquarters of Pet Smart. She got herself on a world trip for half a year. Singapore, the Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam and France - the northern Spanish route of the Camino de Santiago should have been the end of a great trip. But was this for Denise really just that: a trip around the world? Or is there the possibility of a targeted, radical break with her former life? Was Denise suffering from a life crisis and did she want to strip off the old life on the Camino? And so simply "disappeared"?
"Inconceivable!" the cousin, a professional psychologist, says emphatically. "Denise was happy on the Camino, she has also previously led a contented life." She had only terminated her job in order to feel truly free during the long journey. She hoped to derive from Camino an experience of spiritual change, but not radical and not out of despair. "In addition, she was in daily contact with Cedric." A warm and important contact for Denise, that broke off stone cold overnight. "Those who know her, know that she would never have gone into hiding of her own accord," said Yao. Even months after the disappearance of Denise she wrestles with emotions when she is confronted with questions such as these.
Looking for traces in Spain
After Denise had disappeared, Cedric Thiem tried to find out something on the Internet and through phone calls about the whereabouts of his sister for two weeks. It led nowhere. On April 19, he boarded a plane to Spain. With the help of a translator, he made a report at the local police station at the airport. Then he went to Santiago and walked the Camino backwards. Secretly he hoped that he would run into his sister accidentally or would at least gather more information. He did not meet her. Instead, he wandered around in the hostels and villages along the way and met a lot of people who could not help him. Finally he went to Astorga, where Denise had been last seen. He stayed for three weeks. Spent lot of time in the offices. "The Spanish police were friendly," he says. "But they gave me no information." On May 3, he flew back to the US.
Because of bestsellers like Hape Kerkeling's "I'm off" and movies like "The Way" the numbers of pilgrims have experienced a boom at the Camino de Santiago in recent years. 1984 only 423 pilgrims certificates were handed out, in 2014 already 237 810. Another reason for the huge increase can be found in the Spanish unemployment rate of over 20 percent for the total population. The youth unemployment rate is more than 50 percent. This creates time and space for projects like big walks and self-discovery.
After the case of Denise became known thanks to the Missing-posters along the Camino and through the exchange of Pilgrim Community in the online forums and networks, other pilgrims came forward and spoke out about bad experiences from sexual harassment to threats by men.
Desiree Yao collects the reports. She keeps a spread sheet in which she enters the stories of women. Some report that they had been persecuted by vehicles. Others were groped. Still others met exhibitionists who masturbated in front of them. Desiree has already collected 21 stories of women. Of the case of the German pastor, who vanished without a trace on the Camino de Santiago in 2011 , she has not heard before. "Send me that," she says on the phone. In return, they will send the link to an article about a corpse found at beginning in 2015.
A man was found on a hiking trail near the village of El Puerto. He was emaciated, the police suspected that he had been held in captivity prior to his assassination. The dead man was missing a foot.
The passage behind Astorga, that Denise Thiem probably has embarked on on the road to Santiago on the day of her disappearance, leads through remote bush and heath land and through the village of Santa Catalina de Somoza. In May, six weeks after the disappearance of Denise, another woman in this very section of Camino only just escaped a kidnapping. The local hiker reported the experience to the police: Not far from a resting place for pilgrims, she discovered a dark car. The men would have beckoned her, as if they wanted to ask something. But the woman had a bad feeling. On closer inspection, she realized: One of the men was half masked. The other got out of the car and ran up to her - then she ran off. The man caught up with her and grabbed her arm, she was able to break free. Finally she found a hiding place in the bushes. The men did not speak Spanish but, according to the woman, an Eastern European language.
At the end of 2013 a group of European men attracted attention on the Camino. They spoke loudly on cell phones and apparently traveled in both directions - without backpacks, water or walking poles. A pilgrim who has come forward in the meantime to the Thiem family, also noticed that the men were always clean, unlike the pilgrims who hiked all day. He never saw the strange men hiking and encountered them only at rest stops. A group of Koreans who met the pilgrim on the road, told him also that one of these men had sexually approached them.
Diego Yoon, president of an association of Korean pilgrims, speaks of Pilgrim travel plans for this summer being cancelled by some Koreans because of the harrowing travel reports that have come to light in recent months, and especially concerned Asian women.
The Dark Side of the Camino de Santiago?
Officials in Spain don't want to know anything about it. The Camino is one of the biggest tourist attractions of the country, the good reputation is accordingly important. On June 18 the Mayor of Astorga where Denise was last seen said, "This is an isolated case, that might as well have happened in any other place in Spain or anywhere in the world."
Statements like these are unrealistic. Anyone who is a trafficker or just perverse, finds in the Camino de Santiago the optimal hunting ground - however ugly it is to say that.
Firstly: Potential victims are often found alone and in remote areas. Many women make their way unaccompanied in order to be able to better deal with their own issues. Lately, movies like "Wild" in which Reese Witherspoon plays a courageous solo traveler, have contributed to the trend of female solo travel. Something that still evoked head shakings a few years ago, enjoys increasing popularity especially among younger women.
Second, the victims are trusting. Since the pilgrims community has so far enjoyed a reputation in general, to be friendly and helpful, women on the Camino reckon with good experience and nice acquaintances. Everyone talks with everyone.
The fundamental openness that prevails on the way, can be exploited easily.
Thirdly, the holiday mood.
On the Camino de Santiago, the sense of time is another. They make friends, but if someone is not seen for a few days, also no one thinks anything about it. It happens that pilgrims temporarily join one of the hippie communes, who live by the roadside. Or it might be someone wants to be alone for a few days.
In this climate, the disappearance of a woman becomes a certainty much later than in everyday life, where the police would be alerted immediately by friends or family if a woman does not come home from work as usual in the evening. Also in case of Denise it took the brother back home in Phoenix weeks to really become clear about the importance of the termination of the contact between him and sister.
Thanks to the efforts of friends and pilgrims all over the world, but especially through the massive effort of Thiem's own family, who try to finance the search through online fundraising, it has been possible to generate wide attention. The "New York Times", "USA Today," Fox News, European newspapers have reported about the case. The Thiems have also achieved a meeting with Senator John McCain, who gave them his cell phone number and assured them he would take up the case "personally".
All this has yielded as tangible result: nothing. Denise has become invisible. Whether the Spanish police actually still is investigating, no one knows with certainty. When Desiree Yao calls them, they say: "I'm sorry, we can not tell you anything." Cedric Thiem is also frustrated about the amount of responsibility that gets lost between the bureaucracies of two nations. Constantly the private search party of Thiems is passed on from one official to the next.
"In cases like these, is anybody really responsible?" Cedric Thiem asks helplessly.
Golden window
Three weeks after the Thiems had been in contact with the US ambassador in Spain, they received a letter from him: "If I had the impression that they [the Spanish police] would not sufficiently take up the case of your sister, I can assure you that I would use all my available resources to ensure this." He added that he could not meet the family. His next visit to the US was postponed from July to September. A meeting at a later date he did not offer.
In kidnappings, time is measured in hours. Counts in days are a hope killer in the case of children and of women, to which usually only direct relatives cling. The golden window of opportunity for abductees is 72 hours. Then, the probability that one of the following scenarios has already been implemented, becomes enormous: Imprisoned by a pervert. Raped, murdered, eliminated. Shipped, put on drugs, forced prostitution. Gutted for organ trafficking, eliminated.
Denise Thiem is now missing for 119 days.
Chronicle of a search
APRIL 5: Denise Thiem has breakfast in Astorga with an Italian pilgrim, they go to Mass, say goodbye at noon. It is the last time that Denise is seen.
APRIL 20: After investigations from Phoenix, Arizona, Denise's brother Cedric Thiem landes in Madrid. At the airport police he reports his sister missing. He looks for her, returning to the United States on 3 May without her .
JUNE 8: The Spanish police arranges a conference call with Cedric Thiem at the FBI Department of Phoenix.
JULY 1: Cedric Thiem meets with Senator John McCain. The former presidential candidate pledges his personal commitment.
JULY 3: The Spanish police sends photos of possible belongings of the disappeared woman to his brother. He does not recognize the objects. Until press time, this is the last time that the Spanish police contacts the family with news.
BBM
[*] Denise did not carry a phone. "The person you have called is temporarily not available" is probably a message from Skype.
[**] The pilgrim who dies on the Camino goes straight to heaven, no questions asked.
raying:
