The Civil Guard has detained two people for trying to defraud the mother of Henry Alejandro Jiménez Martín, the 20 year old man who disappeared from his home in the Orihuela Costa on New Year’s Day.
Related: Henry Alejandro Jiménez
The couple, a 49 year old Spaniard and a woman, a Colombian aged 23, were arrested for fraud after demanding 2,000 euros from the mother, in exchange for the return of her son.
Henry was reported missing by his mother on 2nd January after he walked out of his home during the early hours of New Years morning following an altercation with a friend. His disappearance was publicised across the area via social media as well as hundreds of posters that were posted by his family who also appealed for information regarding his whereabouts through the local media.
Hundreds of volunteers joined the security forces, helicopters and specially trained dogs, to search the beaches, gulleys, forests and ravines, but despite their efforts over many days there were no further sightings of Henry.
However, two weeks after the Henry’s disappearance, a young Columbian woman contacted Henry’s mother by telephone, using a blocked number, to tell her that she knew where he was. The caller then demanded 2,000 euros from the mother in exchange for information about his whereabouts.
The Guardia Civil were informed and as they tried to identify the owner of the phone number a meeting was arranged in a public place to carry out the exchange, but on two occasions the woman didn’t appear.
Just last week, however, the Guardia were finally able to identify the owner of the phone line and on Tuesday the team in charge of the case, the Judicial Police of the Civil Guard of El Pilar de la Horadada, arrested two people in Torrevieja, as the alleged persons responsible of a crime of attempted fraud.
The man was released after he made a statement at the police headquarters while the woman was held in police custody before appearing before the courts. She was eventually released from police custody but her passport was retained.
Although there have been no positive results in the 7 week search for Henry the Guardia insist that they will continue to analyse every scrap of evidence until he is found.
Henry is 1.81 cm tall, he has curly brown hair and wears a tattoo on his right forearm featuring the face of a tiger. Anyone with any information about his whereabouts is asked to call in confidence 062 or 112.
