He left me alive so I would suffer looking for them without rest
Off the coast of Tenerife, in waters more than three thousand feet deep, investigators recovered what a father had tried to make the sea keep forever. Tomás Antonio Gimeno allegedly drugged and drowned his two young daughters — six-year-old Olivia and one-year-old Anna — not in a moment of rage, but as a calculated act designed to leave their mother, Beatriz Zimmerman, alive and searching without end. A Spanish judge concluded this was not a tragedy born of grief or desperation, but a premeditated architecture of cruelty, in which children became instruments of punishment. The case has since entered the broader human reckoning with how love, when it curdles into control, can reach for the most irreversible of weapons.
- A father vanished with his two daughters in April after learning his ex-partner had begun a new relationship, telling her she would never see them again — and then making good on that threat.
- Weeks of desperate public searching followed, with the girls' mother releasing videos on social media and celebrities amplifying the plea to millions, as Spain held its breath over two missing children.
- Deep-sea robots eventually found Olivia's body weighted to the ocean floor in a sports bag; a second empty bag nearby almost certainly held Anna, who has never been recovered.
- Medical and forensic evidence — opened sedative packets, surveillance footage of the father loading bags onto a boat — pointed unmistakably to premeditation rather than impulse.
- A judge ruled that the killings were designed not merely to take the children, but to inflict lifelong psychological suffering on their mother, leaving her alive to grieve and search forever.
- The case has become a symbol across Spain of custody violence, prompting public vigils and awareness campaigns, as the names Olivia and Anna are carried by strangers who never knew them.
In April, Tomás Antonio Gimeno took his two daughters — six-year-old Olivia and one-year-old Anna — and disappeared. He had learned that their mother, Beatriz Zimmerman, was in a new relationship. Before vanishing, he confronted her new partner and beat him. He told Zimmerman she would never see the girls again.
For weeks, she searched. She posted videos of her daughters online. Celebrities including Georgina Rodriguez, partner of Cristiano Ronaldo, amplified the plea to millions. Spain watched. Then a deep-sea robot descended into the waters off Tenerife and found a sports bag weighted to the floor of the ocean, more than three thousand feet down. Inside was Olivia. Beside it was a second bag, empty. Anna has never been found.
The medical examiner determined Olivia died of pulmonary edema. Investigators found opened packets of sedatives and muscle relaxants in Gimeno's home. Surveillance footage showed him carrying bags from his car to a boat at a marina. The boat was later found abandoned, its anchor missing.
Judge Priscila Espinosa Guterriez reviewed the evidence and was unambiguous: this was not a custody dispute that collapsed into tragedy. It was planned. Gimeno had told people beforehand he would disappear with the girls. He had acted with at least one accomplice. The judge concluded his intent was to inflict what she called inhumane pain on the mother — to leave her alive, searching, and forever uncertain.
Zimmerman said publicly that she believed he had spared her deliberately, so she would spend the rest of her life looking for them. She said she wished she had been there to hold their hands. She called what he did the most monstrous act a person can commit.
The case became a symbol of custody violence across Spain — of the ways children can be turned into weapons by a parent seeking revenge. Protesters gathered. Moments of silence were held. The names Olivia and Anna passed through the mouths of strangers, carried forward by people who understood, even without knowing them, exactly what had been taken.
In the waters off Tenerife, a deep-sea robot descended into darkness and found a sports bag weighted to the ocean floor. Inside was the body of six-year-old Olivia Gimeno, recovered from more than three thousand feet below the surface. Her younger sister Anna, not yet two years old, has never been found. Their father, Tomás Antonio Gimeno, vanished the same day in April, leaving behind a deliberate architecture of loss.
The sequence began when Beatriz Zimmerman, the girls' mother, started a relationship with a new partner—a wealthy Belgian man named Eric Domb. Gimeno, learning of this, confronted Domb and beat him before taking the children. He told his ex-partner she would never see them again. Then he disappeared. For weeks, Zimmerman searched. She released videos of her daughters to social media. Celebrities, including Georgina Rodriguez, partner of Cristiano Ronaldo, amplified the plea to millions of followers. The world watched for two small girls in a Canary Island tragedy.
When Olivia's body surfaced, a medical examiner determined she had died of pulmonary edema—fluid in the lungs. Next to her bag, searchers found a second one, empty, which almost certainly held Anna. The evidence suggested sedation: opened packets of muscle relaxants and sedatives were discovered in Gimeno's home. Surveillance footage showed him carrying bags from his car to a boat at a marina in Santa Cruz. The vessel was later found abandoned, its anchor missing.
A judge, Priscila Espinosa Guterriez, examined the facts and concluded this was not a custody dispute that spiraled into tragedy. It was planned. The judge wrote that Gimeno had deliberately chosen to kill his daughters in a premeditated way, then hide their bodies in the deepest part of the ocean where he believed they would never be recovered. He had told people beforehand he would disappear with the girls. He had acted with at least one accomplice. The judge found that his intent was not to take the children but to inflict what she called inhumane pain on their mother—to leave her alive, searching, grieving, forever uncertain.
Zimmerman, in a statement to reporters, articulated the geometry of this cruelty. She said she wished she had been there in that moment, holding their hands, dying with them. She wrote that her former partner had left her alive deliberately, so she would suffer looking for them without rest for the remainder of her life. That was the reason, she believed, that he had not killed her too. The girls, she said, had become two angels sent to teach a lesson at the cost of their own lives. She called his actions the most monstrous act a person can commit.
The mayor of Santa Cruz, Jose Manuel Bermudez, said there were no words to express the terrible desolation he felt. Spain's Guardia Civil police continued searching the waters for Anna, though hope had long since ceded to certainty. The case became a symbol of custody violence—the ways that children become weapons in the hands of a parent bent on revenge. Protesters gathered in Malaga to hold moments of silence. The names Olivia and Anna circulated through Spain and beyond, carried by people who had never known them, moved by the deliberateness of what had been done.
Notable Quotes
As a mother it pains my soul not to have been able to save their lives. I wish I had been there at that moment with them, holding their hands and dying together.— Beatriz Zimmerman, the girls' mother
He planned to kill them in a planned and premeditated fashion to cause his ex-partner inhumane pain, deliberately trying to create uncertainty regarding the fate his daughters had suffered by hiding their bodies on the ocean bed.— Judge Priscila Espinosa Guterriez
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why would someone do this? Why not just take the children and disappear?
Because the point wasn't escape. The judge found he wanted her to suffer specifically—to spend her life searching, not knowing. That's the cruelty of it. He didn't want to vanish. He wanted her to vanish into grief.
The sedatives in his home—was he planning this from the beginning?
The evidence suggests yes. The opened packets, the surveillance video of him carrying bags to the boat, the way he'd already told people he'd disappear with them. This wasn't a moment of rage. It was constructed.
And the second bag, the empty one—what does that tell us?
It tells us Anna was there too. That he used the same method, the same deliberation. Two children. Two bags. One recovered, one still in the dark.
The mother said she wished she'd died with them. How does someone survive that knowledge?
I don't know that she does, not in any full sense. She survives it. She speaks about it. But the father achieved what he set out to do—he left her alive to carry it.
Why did celebrities get involved?
Because a mother's desperate plea reached them, and they had the reach to amplify it. For a few weeks, the world was looking. It didn't change the outcome, but it meant the girls weren't forgotten in silence.