On July 28, the family sent a letter to Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, and to U.S. McCain, who, according to the Thiem family, has been personally involved in the case from the beginning.
The hunt for the Arizona woman and her killer took a new turn this summer after the official intervention of Sen. On April 20, Denise's brother, Cedric Thiem, moved to Spain, publicized her disappearance, and actively participated in searches that dozens of volunteers and neighbors conducted along with the police, but without any result. On April 5, Easter Sunday, her trail went cold at the church of Santa Marta in Astorga.Īccording to other pilgrims she intended to go to church and then hike 14 kilometers (8.7 miles) to the town of El Ganso, where she would look for a "decent hostel."
She did not carry a mobile phone but her path could be followed by friends as she checked in occasionally on social media, publishing anecdotes and photographs. was first questioned, according to people in the nearby village of Polvazares Castrillo, he never showed up there any more.ĭenise Thiem had started her pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela from Pamplona on March 6. Attention focused on him initially because he had exchanged over $1,000 into euros four days after Thiem disappeared. The 39-year-old recluse, originally from Madrid, had been interviewed in the course of earlier police investigations, but had never been required to make a formal statement. B., was arrested Friday in the town of Grandas in Asturias, where he had fled on Wednesday as police closed in on his farm. The confessed killer, identified by authorities as Miguel A. No one wanted to believe a murderer stalked the pilgrims, but a storm of publicity was building about Thiem’s unsolved disappearance. The pilgrimage trail that runs for 500 miles from France across northern Spain has become a huge tourist attraction for the mystical and the curious as well as for devout Catholics. DNA tests are expected to confirm its identity shortly.Ĭlearly, solving the case had become a government priority, and for good reason. Within a day the main suspect confessed and the badly decomposed body was found. The government re-launched the search for Thiem last Thursday with a massive and virtually unprecedented police deployment, including members of the Military Emergencies Unit, a unit of the armed forces. She had left her job at PetSmart’s corporate headquarters in Phoenix to take a trip around the world But she disappeared last April 5 in Astorga, in northwestern Spain, while walking the ancient pilgrimage route known as the Camino de Santiago, the Way of Saint James.
Thiem was 41, and born in Hong Kong, but lived in Litchfield Park, Arizona, Sen. This came after the arrest and confession of the suspected murderer, who led police to the place where Thiem was buried and covered with tree branches, only a few meters from his hut. On Friday, Spanish police found what almost certainly are the remains of Pikka Denise Thiem. Senator John McCain pressured Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to call in the FBI. He was arrested in September and led police to Thiem's corpse.The court also found Munoz had stolen $1,132 which Thiem carried with her for emergencies, adding three years in jail for robbery to the 20 incurred for the killing.MADRID-Following five long months of investigation, the case of a missing American pilgrim in Spain was resolved in less than 24 hours, but only after U.S. A Spanish man was sentenced to 23 years in jail today for the murder of US tourist Denise Pikka Thiem as she walked the Camino de Santiago pilgrim route in northwest Spain in 2015.Miguel Angel Munoz, 41, was found guilty last week of ambushing and killing Thiem, originally from Phoenix, Arizona, who was travelling alone when she disappeared aged 40.In April 2015, Thiem was diverted from the official route by a sign which directed her towards a house owned by Munoz, who came out and joined her when she passed, according to the sentence issued by the court in the province of Leon.Munoz dealt Thiem a deadly blow to the head with a blunt object, before dragging her to a secluded place where he cut off her hands, which he buried separately from her body, the court said.Fearing discovery, he dug up her body the following August.
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