The crevice was only fifty centimeters wide, plunging deep into the rock and stretching far above. Some believed Julián might’ve tried to descend somewhere nearby—searching for shelter or a shortcut—and accidentally trapped himself and Clara.
Yet Morel found inconsistencies from the start. The backpack showed little damage. And the map had a fresh pen marking something that hadn’t appeared on the original copies examined in 2020.
“This doesn’t make sense,” he muttered. “If Julián marked this after they got lost… why?”
The reopened investigation quickly became a labyrinth.
And the next morning, descending deeper into the crevice, the team found something that rewrote the case entirely.
At dawn, rescuers began their descent. The crevice swallowed their ropes and light. Eight meters down, they discovered a shred of red fabric – part of Julián’s jacket but it wasn’t torn from a fall. It had been ripped, as if left intentionally.
“He was marking his path,” Morel said. “He was trying to be found.”
Three meters lower lay the second anomaly: a metallic food wrapper with an expiration date two years after the disappearance.
“Could someone have stayed down here?” one technician murmured.
“Or someone found Julián and Clara,” Morel replied. “And said nothing.”
The crevice soon widened into an irregular pocket of space. There, under layers of dust, lay remnants of a makeshift camp: a thermal blanket, an empty can, rope fragments—and, soaking in a corner, another notebook.
