On the morning of September 4, 1990, police received a call regarding a body discovered hanging from a pine tree on a steep hillside above Portbou, a Spanish town bordering France. The girl was visible from the beach and surrounding areas. She had grey-blue eyes, thick chestnut-brown hair, and wore blue dungarees over a turquoise green shirt. She was barefoot.
Portbou, a Mediterranean town of 2,000 residents, had a significant police presence due to its proximity to the French border, which was heavily guarded before the Schengen Agreement. However, these officers specialized in immigration and smuggling, not investigations of violent deaths. Enrique Gómez, a 35-year-old investigator from the Guardia Civil in nearby Figueres, was assigned to the case. He received the call while having breakfast.
Carles Cereijo, an 18-year-old reporter for the local newspaper El Punt Avui, arrived at the scene before Gómez. Alerted by a waiter friend, Cereijo quickly grabbed his camera and headed to the location. He recalled that police procedures were less stringent at the time, allowing him to approach the body closely. He noted the girl appeared to be his age.
Gómez and his colleagues arrived at 8:30 a.m. A thin white cord was around the girl’s neck, suspended from a low branch. Her feet were slightly above the ground, sparsely covered with herbs and prickly pear plants. Her black sandals were placed neatly beside each other nearby.
While the scene suggested suicide, several questions arose. It was unclear how she could have climbed the tree, tied the knot, and positioned herself in the dark without leaving any marks. Furthermore, nobody in Portbou recognized her, and no foreign backpackers reported a missing companion. She had no identification, passport, money, or tickets. Her pockets were empty, as if her identity had been deliberately erased.
The scene had a striking quality, with some observers noting an angelic appearance to the girl. Cereijo described the setting as theatrical and deeply impactful. Later, someone placed a pink cloth over her head, resembling a bridal veil. The composition, with the veiled girl framed by pine trees and overlooking the bay, was considered beautiful despite the grim nature of the scene.
The girl's body was transported to the morgue at Figueres cemetery. Forensic doctor Rogelio Lacaci, who examined the body, saw no reason to dispute the magistrate's ruling of suicide. There were no signs of violence, except for the mark from the cord around her neck.
An autopsy confirmed the cause of death as hanging. Lacaci did not conduct blood tests for drugs. The girl, estimated to be in her late teens or early 20s, appeared to be in good health. Her skin was pale with a slight tan, suggesting she was from a northern European country. Lacaci meticulously photographed her clothing, hoping for clues, but the labels offered little information.
After two months, the girl remained unidentified. Due to frequent malfunctions of the morgue's refrigerator, Lacaci moved the body to the cemetery. He embalmed the corpse and placed it in niche number 134, a space owned by the town hall for those without family-funded niches. The niche was marked "NN" for "no name." Lacaci believed the girl would be easily identifiable if her family ever came looking.
Over the years, the Spanish media revisited the case. The girl's information was added to European websites listing missing persons and unidentified bodies. Families from Spain, Germany, and France sought information about their missing daughters, but fingerprints and medical records ruled them out as matches.
In 1999, the Spanish government established the Fénix program, a DNA database for missing people. This should have simplified the identification process. However, when Lacaci went to collect a DNA sample in 2001, the niche was empty. The gravedigger, following municipal regulations, had reburied her in the cemetery’s communal grave after 10 years, mixing her remains with others.
Lacaci stated that unidentified corpses in Figueres were typically marginalized individuals. The Portbou girl did not fit this profile. Like many involved in the case, he never forgot her. In 2017, police officer-turned-author Rafael Jiménez wrote a novel imagining her story, titled "The Hanging Bride in the Land of Wind."
Carles Porta, a 61-year-old writer and filmmaker, hosts a true crime show for Catalonia’s TV3 called Crims. In 2022, Tura Soler, a journalist, reminded him about the Portbou girl, who remained unidentified three decades after her death. Soler had consistently covered the case, ensuring the courthouse saved the relevant documents.
Porta was drawn to the mystery, hoping a Crims episode might lead to her identification. During their investigation, the team interviewed Lacaci, whose statements cast doubt on the suicide verdict. After reviewing the Guardia Civil’s photographs, Lacaci questioned how the girl could have tied the cord herself in the dark. He reconstructed the scene and concluded it was impossible.
Ramón Iglesias, a local journalist in Portbou, recalled meeting backpackers in the late 1980s who had been drugged and robbed on trains from Italy and France. He wondered if something similar had happened to the girl.
Lacaci theorized that the girl might have been hanged as part of a macabre game or initiation ceremony near the hilltop cemetery. He noted the absence of signs of struggle and the difficulty of dragging someone up the steep steps to the tree unless they were unconscious. He also found it suspicious that there were no marks on her body indicating she had climbed the tree.
Gómez, the Guardia Civil officer, had encountered Austrian campers near the scene in 1990. They claimed not to recognize the girl and were eventually released after questioning. It seemed unlikely that a murderer would remain nearby.
Porta's team located one of the Austrians, Peter Treinbenreif, who remembered little beyond the early morning encounter. Porta then contacted the Austrian broadcaster ATV, which aired a segment on the mystery girl in April 2022, hoping to reach the other campers.
An Italian woman saw the show and contacted ATV, suggesting a possible connection to Evi Rauter, an Italian girl who had disappeared 30 years prior. Benedikt Morak, the Austrian show’s director, contacted Cristina Rauter, Evi's sister, who was initially skeptical due to past false leads.
The last time Cristina Rauter saw her sister Evi was on September 3, 1990. Evi, 19, was staying with Cristina in Florence before starting a new job. She had recently traveled to Ireland with friends. Cristina recalled nothing unusual about Evi that morning. Evi mentioned possibly visiting Siena and left a note saying she had gone there. However, she never returned.
Evi was responsible and friendly, not prone to sudden changes in plans. Cristina grew worried and contacted her parents in Lana. Her father, Herman, searched the railway station. Cristina reported Evi missing, providing a description that matched the Portbou girl.
Evi’s family put up posters and gave interviews, emphasizing that Evi would not have run away. The police seemed to suspect Evi had disappeared willingly. Cristina considered various scenarios, including kidnapping or an accident, and felt guilt over not preventing her disappearance.
In 2011, the family had Evi declared officially dead. Cristina stated that while they would never forget, they had to learn to live with it.
Cristina processed the information from Morak's call. After examining the photos, she recognized the clothes, and her mother identified the underwear. Cristina was struck by the serene expression on her sister’s face in death and the dramatic setting, which she found unnatural.
While the discovery brought resolution, it also caused emotional pain and media attention. Cristina believes foul play was involved. The family was left with questions about how Evi traveled to Portbou, what happened to her belongings, and how she found the tree in the dark.
Evi was found about 22 hours after saying goodbye to her sister. While it is possible she could have taken a train to Portbou, it would have required her to leave Italy with limited money. A woman near the scene reported hearing voices and a cry on the night of the incident. The Austrian campers nearby did not see or hear anything.
In June 2022, Italian police opened a murder investigation, but Spanish courts refused to reopen the case due to the statute of limitations. Nevertheless, Cristina hoped to find answers.
Cristina traveled to Portbou with Porta’s team in May 2022 and met with Lacaci, Gómez, and others involved in the case. She questioned Gómez about his initial impressions. In January 2024, Cristina returned to Portbou privately to process her emotions. She found the town frozen in time.
Cristina sought permission to exhume the communal grave at Figueres cemetery, hoping to find Evi’s remains and bring her home for a proper burial. Despite obtaining permission, the search in December yielded bones from about 200 corpses, but not Evi's body.
Cristina expressed anger at the mistakes made during the initial investigation and the loss of her sister’s body. She had not informed her parents about the exhumation to avoid further stress. She hoped someone might eventually reveal what happened to Evi.
The mayor of Portbou, Gael Rodriguez, noted that the town had become a destination for visitors seeking the pine tree. The site had become a memorial to Evi Rauter and other unnamed individuals.
Cristina and Rodriguez agreed to erect a sculpture in Portbou’s graveyard to honor Evi and the nameless dead.
