DALIA THIEM: "I KEEP HOPING THAT DENISE WILL STEP THROUGH THIS DOOR AND THAT OUR NIGHTMARE WILL END"
ElMundo.es
http://www.elmundo.es/sociedad/2017/04/10/58e78c4ce2704eba178b45de.html
"The sadness of not knowing if my daughter was alive was such that it can not be explained in words, not knowing where she was, if she was hurting ... When they found the body it was even worse. My hope was always that she would come back and even today I think she will come through the door at any moment and this nightmare will end." Dalia Thiem, the mother of the pilgrim Denise, murdered while she was walking the track from Astorga to El Ganso on the Camino de Santiago, breaks her silence for the first time, two years after the disappearance of her daughter. After the trial (which has been held - up to the sentencing - in the Provincial Court of León), she says:
"She was not the only one who died that day. The person who murdered her also killed the Thiem family."
That person, according to the recent verdict of the nine members of the popular jury, is Miguel Ángel Muñoz Blas, 41, who was found guilty (by eight votes to one) of "intentionally causing the death of Denise Pikka Thiem in a surprise attack and without that the victim could notice it or could defend herself. " In addition, they considered it proven that he "undressed Denise's body in order to accelerate the process of decomposition and hid it in a hole in the ground ..., not without first cutting off both hands, which he buried elsewhere and that have not been found. " The jury unanimously declared him guilty of "robbery with violence". He declined to testify before the court, but during the investigation phase he did confess the crime once, although he later changed his version and said that he invented everything.
Dalia, 69, speaks exclusively to EL MUNDO from her home in Phoenix, Arizona, the home she still expects Denise to return to. "Her father sits down every day in his daughter's bedroom to mourn the loss of her. Her brother Cedric continues to buy her small souvenirs from the places he travels to. It is still extremely difficult for everyone to continue with our day to day life since she disappeared," her mother explains. She does not hesitate to tell that she has lost "the desire and energy to live," that "the pain of losing a daughter is indescribable" and that "a part of me has gone forever."
Q. Why has no one from the family come to the trial in Spain?
A.
Both her father, Seng (71 years), and I have a delicate health that has not allowed us to travel. In addition, we would not have survived neither emotionally nor physically the pain that it causes us to relive in detail everything that happened during such a long process. That's why her brother Cedric either did not go either. Our suffering is unbearable. Since we retired, Denise was our support for everything. We have lost the strength she gave us because of her brutal death.
The trip to Spain to walk the Camino de Santiago was the last stage of a longer adventure, that took Denise to various places in Asia before starting her pilgrimage to Santiago. She wanted to close this journey by doing the Camino, "something that she wanted very much since she saw the movie
The Way" and that, in addition, was going to help her reflect about the change of life she had planned for her return. "She had decided to move to Oregon when she returned, and before she took that step, she wanted to travel, so she went to Spain to regain energy and meditate on her future, and her belongings were already packaged and labeled for her move before this fatal experience," Dalia laments. She highlights how "talented, determined and successful her daughter was, but above all, what a good and loving daughter she was."
The family can not yet look at the photos of Denise - who did an MBA in International Business and was licensed in Project Management - without something breaking inside again. "She was 41 years old and had many plans for her future," says Dalia Thiem.
Pending the sentence that the judge will hand down to the defendant - the prosecution asks for 25 years of imprisonment and the private accusation 27 -, the family is somewhat "calmer", although they do not feel the peace that they had hoped for, after they heard the verdict of the jury. Her mother only wants "the truth to prevail." "I want justice for Denise," she says.
Before the arrest of Miguel Ángel Muñoz Blas, no one had told them about him, nobody told them that they had him in the radar of the investigation. "I learned of his existence through a video of a Spanish television channel that I saw on the internet and in which the name was mentioned of an individual who had been arrested for the murder of Denise. That was how I found out. The police did not give us any information because, as they explained us, they could not tell anything about an ongoing investigation " Dalia tells with some bitterness. Although she did not know of the existence of Miguel Ángel until she saw him in the press, she believes that he is "guilty of the death" of her daughter because "he is the only one who directed the police to the area where the body was. No one who would not have killed her would have known that place."
These two years have been hell for them, a nightmare they have not yet awakened from. They do not forget thow their heart missed a beat when they stopped receiving news of Denise or all the anguish that came later. This is what they tell.
Q. When did you know that Denise had disappeared? Did you think from the beginning that something bad had happened to her?
A. We had almost daily contact with Denise. As soon as we lost that contact, on April 2, 2015, we knew that something had happened, because she was extremely responsible and organized with these things. She informed her brother about every move she made, every step she took. The siblings trusted each other so much that Cedric had access to Denise's bank accounts and her credit cards and he could see her activity even when she could not call or access the internet to tell us.
Q. How did Cedric's trip to Spain happen to report the disappearance?
A.
We were told that in order for the police to open a file on a missing person we had to go in person to make the report. Only then could the local police investigate. That's why Cedric went, to denounce the disappearance of Denise and give the police all the information they needed. Those were very hard days. We were very worried and we could not shake off the feeling that something terrible had happened. We could not stop thinking about it because it was absolutely unlike Denise to lose touch with us. However, we did not imagine for one moment that at that moment she might already be dead.
Q. Four months after Denise's disappearance they asked for help with a letter to former US President Barack Obama, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, and other authorities, such as Senator John McCain. Why did they turn to them? Did they get an answer?
A. Denise was still missing. No one told us anything about her whereabouts nor about the investigation. I could not sit quietly watching the news without doing anything, so the least I could do was try to ask for help. We hoped that someone who might have a clue would help the police. Any citizen can write to the president. That's why we turned to Obama and Rajoy (some letters were published exclusively by this newspaper), but neither responded. Senator McCain did get involved and offered Spain the help of the FBI.
This US intervention has been the focus of the defense strategy of counsel Vicente Prieto, lawyer of Muñoz Blas, who insisted during the trial that his client "had to be charged at all costs," because "there was a lot of interest in resolving this case" (after the offer of the FBI). "After five months without finding anything, when McCain intervened an unprecedented operation was initiated, because, of course, there had to be an explanation for the disappearance of an American woman. The operation was like a movie and now my client must be condemned no matter what," Prieto insisted. Dalia Thiem does not know whether "McCain's mediation helped to prioritize the search for Denise," but she is thankful "for his support and intervention to try to improve our situation."
On September 11, the Police detained Muñoz Blas in a bar in the Asturian town of Grandas de Salime and on the night of that same day the body of the pilgrim was found.
Q. How did you find out about the find?
A. Cedric called me. I felt no relief when I heard the news. All this time I had hoped and whished for her to return to my side.
With the appearance of the remains, the torment of the Thiem family was long from over. It took Denise more time to return, because they could not take the mortal remains home until February 2016.
"I do not understand why Denise's body was held up for so long in Spain, further increasing our suffering. I was informed that the delay was due to the defense wanting a second autopsy - which never took place - and to collect additional evidence But I do not understand."
Dalia has words of thanks for all the people in Spain who have helped them during this time and also for the jury, for their dedication and effort. "I hope no parent will have to go through a similar tragedy as ours. I hope no one else will feel this pain." Denise's mother will never be able to heal the wound, but she does want the sentence to end the whole process and that both they and her daughter may rest, at last, in peace.
BBM
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