Missing six-year-old's body found tied to an anchor 1,000 yards deep in Spain

Spanish authorities have made a gruesome discovery at the bottom of the ocean on Thursday 10 June 2021. The body of a six-year-old girl was found off the coast of Tenerife, in a bag weighted down by a boat anchor, at a depth of 1,000 metres. This news has caused horror and emotion throughout Spain.

The girl has been wanted for over a month

The six-year-old Olivia and her one-year-old sister Anna have been missing for over a month. At the end of April, they were allegedly abducted by their father in the Canary Islands, who was also reported missing. The next day, a boat belonging to their father and a car seat belonging to the younger sister were found adrift near Tenerife.

While the body of the older girl was sadly found, the body of her younger sister Anna and her father remain unaccounted for.

Spanish people shocked by the news

Faced with this terrible news, Beatriz, the mother of the two little girls, is distraught. She told Spanish television through her spokesperson:

It's unimaginable, it's what we least expected. We were all hoping that the girls would be found and that Tomas [the girls' father] was looking after them.

Public authorities are also shocked by the discovery. Queen Letizia of Spain announced her 'pain and sadness' to her fellow citizens. On his Twitter account, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez wrote:

I can't imagine the pain of the mother of little Anna and Olivia, who disappeared in Tenerife, at the terrible news we have just heard.

Irene Montero, Minister for Equality, explained:

There are no words to accompany Beatriz in this moment of terrible pain. This violence against mothers to hit them where it hurts the most is a matter of state.

Indeed, this is Spain's thirty-ninth minor murdered by her father, or by her mother's partner or ex-partner since 2013. A horrifying toll.