Juan, Manolo, Jonathan, Mónica and Antonia are the five residents of Letur, in the province of Albacete, missing since a catastrophic flood engulfed them on Tuesday as it passed through this town of less than a thousand inhabitants. To the vast search operation, made up of two hundred members, two dogs from the Civil Guard trained to locate human corpses were added this Thursday.
Jonathan and Mónica, a young couple in their thirties, are the parents of two minors, who were at school and high school at the time of the accident, around one o’clock in the afternoon. Jonathan works in the Letur cheese factory and Mónica’s stonemason had just started at the municipal campsite, declared a historical and artistic ensemble in 1983. Their children are with their maternal grandmother, a resident of the municipality, and they spend their hours with friends from high school and from school.
Juan and Manolo, two municipal employees, were working when the violent flood waters, a sort of “tsunami” according to neighbors, devastated the old town. Word around town is that the flood nearly caught the mayor in his car. Another vehicle behind him was less fortunate and disappeared when the mayor looked in the rearview mirror.
Antonia is a septuagenarian who lived in a mill converted into a home. Her friend Ascensión once asked her if she wasn’t afraid of living alone, but neither of them could imagine what happened on October 29, 2024.
The sixth person missing in Letur was Dolores, 92 years old. His body was found this Wednesday morning more than a kilometer from the town, near the wastewater treatment plant. She lived next to Jonathan and Monica’s house, which was destroyed by floods.
