Some local people have dismissed the alleged kidnapping as an exaggeration.
Denise Pikka Thiem.īut for the moment, the police are not making any connection between the incident and Thiem’s disappearance. “I have always believed the Camino to be safe.”įears for the safety of women traveling the Camino de Santiago have been further heightened after a woman from a small village close to Astorga told police that two men in a van “who spoke with Eastern European accents” tried to kidnap her while she was jogging. “There’s no need to become paranoid, it’s simply a question of being careful,” she warned. Annie Carvalho, who writes about different pilgrimage routes in Spain online, warned women in a blog posted in May about straying from the route and traveling alone, referring to problems in the area where Thiem has gone missing. Local media in Astorga say a number of women have reported “harassment” while walking the Camino. “Both women fought him off with the sticks they were using for walking.” “He drove up, got out to talk to them, and told them his supposed name, then he assaulted one and tried to force her into his car,” says the Civil Guard source. In Sarria, a small community in Lugo province about 150 kilometers from Astorga, and 100 kilometers from Santiago de Compostela, where the Camino ends, the Civil Guard says it is looking for a man known only as Miguel, who is believed to have attacked an American and a Dutch woman on the route. There’s no need to become paranoid, it’s simply a question of being careful” “There is also a rumor, which could be true, that in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port a backpack was found that supposedly belongs to a Korean,” she says. Many of them are unaware of Thiem’s disappearance, while some Asian visitors have reportedly “panicked” over the case, says Justyna, a Polish woman making the pilgrimage.
Missing person notices have been put up all over the area where Thiem – a Chinese American from Phoenix, Arizona – disappeared, and are seen by the hundreds of people who pass along the Camino de Santiago every day. Ramiro Rodríguez, who has been running a local bar there for 25 years, says he cannot remember “a single incident” involving pilgrims along the route. In her last email, Thiem said she planned to attend Mass on Easter Sunday and then, around midday, make the 14-kilometer trip to El Ganso, a small community that only survives because of its location on the pilgrimage route. Some Asian visitors have reportedly “panicked” over the case, says one pilgrim
0 kommentar(er)
