Galicia
41 year old Denise Pikka Thiem is a United States resident of Chinese origin and disappeared in Astorga (León) on April 5, and her whereabouts remain a mystery.
Aug 11, 2015 - 1:55 PM
An American pilgrim on the Way to Santiago has been missing for 125 days
41 year old Denise Pikka Thiem is a United States resident of Chinese origin and disappeared in Astorga (León) on April 5, and her whereabouts remain a mystery.
Aug 11, 2015 - 1:55 PM
After 125 days of absence, inquires realised, and dozens of statements from possible witnesses, neither the National Police, who are carrying out the investigation, nor the Guardia Civil, with their many searches, have found no clue on what could have happened
Interior Minister, Jorge Fernández Díaz, affirmed on July 19 on a visit to León that diverse clues exist and open lines of investigation and he assured ‘founded hopes’ that one of them is fruitful. However, until now there has been no viable clue to the whereabouts of Denise Thiem.
From the United States, republican Senator for Arizona, John MacCain, has sent a letter to Mariano Rajoy in which he offers the collaboration of the FBI, to bring a solution to the case, and especially if the open lines of investigation indicate an assassination.
The National Police has established that although she was last seen in Astorga, the disappearance could have happened on the next stage of the pilgrimage, which would point at the locality of Ganso, where witnesses have confirmed Denise had named that as her next stop, where there is a rural facility owned by the Guardia Civil.
According to the investigations, Denise started her pilgrimage in Pamplona on March 6 and was walking alone. For the next month, she followed the Way and took several photographs which she put in her private account on a social network. The last uploaded photo was on April 4 and was taken the day before.
The investigators have also established the last time she extracted money from a cash dispenser was 50 € on April 1, and the last day she communicated with a friend was on April 4. On that afternoon Denise presented her credentials as a pilgrim in the San Javier hostel close to the Astorga cathedral, as confirmed in the hostel’s registry.
The day later Resurrection Sunday, she had breakfast in the Gaudi cafeteria, according to the statements of several pilgrims, and the timeline then ends in the Santa Marta church. According to her last internet message, she planned to assist mass, and then embark on the next 14 kilometres to Ganso, where she had been told the hostel was ‘decent’.
Since then nothing. The searches and tracking by the Guardia Civil and volunteers is still to uncover some clue, and neither have any of her belongings been found, including a distinctive turquoise rucksack.
Sources in the investigation revealed the time which has passed before the missing report was filed hadn’t helped either, as many of the possible witnesses would have returned home, before the search got underway.
Of the hundreds of people who make the pilgrimage, are a large number of foreigners and Asians, do as Denise did and walk alone. The searches have continued and the brother of the missing woman, Cedric Thiem, has taken part in some of them after travelling to Spain to report his missing sister.
The Police has also investigated other incidents during recent months on the Way to Santiago, among them an attempted kidnap, which was not confirmed, and the harassment of several pilgrims, but none of these incidents has shown any light on her vanishing.
Denise Thiem - archive photo
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Interior Minister, Jorge Fernández Díaz, affirmed on July 19 on a visit to León that diverse clues exist and open lines of investigation and he assured ‘founded hopes’ that one of them is fruitful. However, until now there has been no viable clue to the whereabouts of Denise Thiem.
From the United States, republican Senator for Arizona, John MacCain, has sent a letter to Mariano Rajoy in which he offers the collaboration of the FBI, to bring a solution to the case, and especially if the open lines of investigation indicate an assassination.
The National Police has established that although she was last seen in Astorga, the disappearance could have happened on the next stage of the pilgrimage, which would point at the locality of Ganso, where witnesses have confirmed Denise had named that as her next stop, where there is a rural facility owned by the Guardia Civil.
According to the investigations, Denise started her pilgrimage in Pamplona on March 6 and was walking alone. For the next month, she followed the Way and took several photographs which she put in her private account on a social network. The last uploaded photo was on April 4 and was taken the day before.
The investigators have also established the last time she extracted money from a cash dispenser was 50 € on April 1, and the last day she communicated with a friend was on April 4. On that afternoon Denise presented her credentials as a pilgrim in the San Javier hostel close to the Astorga cathedral, as confirmed in the hostel’s registry.
The day later Resurrection Sunday, she had breakfast in the Gaudi cafeteria, according to the statements of several pilgrims, and the timeline then ends in the Santa Marta church. According to her last internet message, she planned to assist mass, and then embark on the next 14 kilometres to Ganso, where she had been told the hostel was ‘decent’.
Since then nothing. The searches and tracking by the Guardia Civil and volunteers is still to uncover some clue, and neither have any of her belongings been found, including a distinctive turquoise rucksack.
Sources in the investigation revealed the time which has passed before the missing report was filed hadn’t helped either, as many of the possible witnesses would have returned home, before the search got underway.
Of the hundreds of people who make the pilgrimage, are a large number of foreigners and Asians, do as Denise did and walk alone. The searches have continued and the brother of the missing woman, Cedric Thiem, has taken part in some of them after travelling to Spain to report his missing sister.
The Police has also investigated other incidents during recent months on the Way to Santiago, among them an attempted kidnap, which was not confirmed, and the harassment of several pilgrims, but none of these incidents has shown any light on her vanishing.
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