El forense

A fisherman's dog discovers a woman's corpse in a riverbed, hidden among the leaves. Thus begins one of the most representative cases of Bardalet's career. It was just when I was starting, when I was assigned to Navarre in the midst of the ETA terrorist wave. And while the autopsy progresses, Manel Alías digs into Bardalet's origins in search of the day he decided to become a forensic scientist.

Manel Alias never sets foot in a cemetery, but this time he will make an exception to visit the graves of the dead of Narcís Bardalet in Figueres cemetery. It stands out above all the pantheon where a young girl of the gypsy ethnicity, almost a teenager, who appeared burned to death in a forest on the outskirts of Figueres, rests. A case with an unexpected twist ten years later.

Bardalet has spikes stuck in it. Nearly 10,000 autopsies, but they don't always help to catch the killers, who walk away without paying any price. As in the case that occurred in 1986, which moved and possibly still moves the residents of Figueres. It is the thorn that Bardalet still has after 40 years.

We may not be able to choose the day, the time or the way to die, but if we could, Bardalet is clear: at home, accompanied and without pain. But it's not always like that. Like the case of the woman who appeared in the middle of a field near La Jonquera in the 90s. It was impossible to guess who she was. She was not wearing any identifying items, no jewelry or tags on her clothing. Except for one detail: the tattoo of a snake that ran all over his body.

Year 1980. End of July. Bardalet has just returned from Navarre and is faced with the most emotionally charged case of his entire career, the abrupt disappearance of a child on the beach of Sant Pere Pescador. He was only seven years old. No reliable track. A case very similar to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. But with a different ending. Death and children; an uncomfortable subject, but necessary to address.