The National Police investigating the disappearance of 24-year-old Agostina Rubini, in Palma, on October 2 maintain that "it was she who voluntarily climbed inside one of the rubbish containers and lost consciousness", according to Ángel Ruiz, head of the Homicide Group of the National Police.
At 00:27 hours on Wednesday October 3, an EMAYA lorry collected the rubbish and, unaware that the girl was inside, transported the body to the Son Reus waste treatment plant. The investigators maintain that it is "impossible to survive inside a rubbish truck".
For days now, the National Police, with the help of the municipal waste company EMAYA and incinerator manager TIRME staff, have been searching for the remains among the more than 15,000 tonnes of waste. And in the second zone of the Son Reus incinerator plant, they have found skeletal remains that could correspond to Agostina. They have been sent to the Institute of Legal Medicine in Palma for analysis.
The missing woman was last seen at 23:57 hours on October 2. The investigators suspect that she intended to take the bus, line 104, to Palmanova where she lived after having a drink with her friends. "We have been able to verify that he never took that bus", Ruiz told the media today, Thursday.
The main hypothesis being worked on by the Homicide Group is that Agostina, who was under the influence of alcohol, entered the rubbish bin voluntarily and that, as a result of the alcohol and the medication she was taking, lost consciousness.
The positioning of the missing woman’s mobile phone is in the Plaça des Pont from the time the camera records her until 00.27 hours on the 3rd, when an Emaya lorry collects the rubbish. Since then, the mobile phone follows the same route as the vehicle and at the same speed until it reaches the Son Reus plant, and they consider that Agostina made the same journey.
The lorry loaded with just over seven tonnes of rubbish and - at least - the telephone arrived at Son Reus at 00.52, although it did not unload its contents until 01.59 hours due to a mechanical fault in the treatment plant’s weighbridge. From that moment on, Ruiz explained, the rubbish was mixed with another 12,000 tonnes stored, among which the mobile phone gave its last signal at 2.59am.
This waste is added to the 3,000 tonnes in a plant adjacent to Son Reus and another 209 tonnes - larger rubbish - in another area located in the town of Santa Margalida, among which the agents have been searching for days. In Son Reus using the plant’s machinery - it is impossible, for safety reasons, to do it any other way - and by hand in the municipality in the north of Mallorca.
During the investigation it has also been established that Agostina Rubini Medina was a friend of Malén Ortiz Rodríguez who went missing in Son Ferrer, near Magalluf, eleven years ago. They went to the same primary school in the municipality of Calvia and were both of Argentinian origin. Natalia Rodríguez, Malén's mother, is helping Agostina's family "in everything I can". "My daughter Malén was a close friend of Agostina's sister and, as it is normal, that she also had links with her, despite the fact that Malén was a little older", the mother said.