Five years after the disappearance of Julian Herrera and his nine-year-old daughter , Clara , the mountains seemed to have claimed them for good. The case had dominated headlines for weeks in 2020 when they vanished during a short, seemingly safe hike in the French Pyrenees. As time passed, with no leads and no trace of them, the official search was called off. The family, heartbroken and exhausted, clung to the hope that perhaps they had decided to start a new life far away. Others, more realistic, considered the possibility of a tragic fall in some inaccessible spot.

Nothing happened for years. Until, at the end of August, a Catalan couple decided to explore a little-traveled area near the Roland’s Breach. Among the deep cracks in the rock, he thought he saw something that broke the grayish uniformity of the place. He crouched down, shone his mobile phone’s flashlight, and saw a rectangular shape covered in dust and dampness.

” It’s… a backpack ,” he murmured, not daring to touch it.

The woman approached. As she wiped what appeared to be a label with her fingers, they both looked at each other in surprise.

— Julián Herrera.

Their hearts raced. This couldn’t be a coincidence. The backpack was wedged between two rocks, as if it had fallen from a crevice above. The couple took photos and sent them to the gendarmerie, who reacted immediately. Within hours, a specialized rescue team arrived by helicopter and cordoned off the area.

Captain Morel , who had participated in the original search five years earlier, opened the backpack wearing gloves. Inside he found a dented metal bottle, bagged food scraps, a crumpled map… and something that chilled him to the bone: Clara’s blue notebook , recognized by everyone during the investigation.

The media pressure returned with a vengeance. The family was alerted, and journalists from both sides of the border blocked the access roads. But the mountain wasn’t about to give up answers easily.

The crevice where the backpack was found was barely fifty centimeters wide, but it extended several meters downwards and much further upwards. According to experts, it was possible that Julián had tried to descend at a nearby point looking for a shortcut or shelter, and that they had become trapped.

However, Captain Morel wasn’t convinced. There was something odd about it: the backpack was barely damaged, with no signs of a long fall. Furthermore, the map included a pen mark that hadn’t been present when the copies had been examined five years earlier.

“This doesn’t add up,” Morel whispered to one of the technicians. “If Julián wrote this after he got lost… we need to find out why.”

The reopened investigation became a puzzle. And what the team found the next day, as they descended deeper into the crevice, completely changed the interpretation of the case.

The rescuers began their descent at dawn. They set up ropes, anchors, and thermal sensors. The crevice was narrow and damp, and every meter seemed to swallow the light. The sound of the wind faded as they descended, replaced by a heavy silence, as if the air had been trapped there for centuries.

At eight meters they found the first significant clue: a piece of red fabric , possibly part of Julián’s windbreaker. It was torn, but not from a sudden fall; rather, it seemed to have been intentionally ripped off, like a mark or sign.

“This is deliberate,” Morel said. “Julian was trying to leave a trail.”

The theory fit with something that had always worried the family: Julián was an experienced hiker. It wasn’t logical that he would have disappeared on a moderately difficult trail. But if he had chosen an alternative route for some reason, perhaps to take shelter from a sudden storm, it would make sense that he would try to navigate using trail markers.

Three meters further down they found the second clue: a small metallic wrapper , with an expiration date two years after the disappearance. That left them perplexed. It seemed to indicate that someone—not necessarily Julián—had brought food there after 2020.

“Is it possible that someone used this crevice as a hiding place?” one of the technicians asked.

—Or that someone found Julián and Clara —Morel replied—. And didn’t report it.

The descent became more difficult from that point. The crevice widened to one side, forming an irregular cavity. Shining a light on the area, they saw what appeared to be a small makeshift camp: remnants of a thermal blanket, an empty can, a short rope, and, at the bottom, a partially soaked notebook.

Morel opened it carefully. Many pages were illegible, but some words were distinguishable: “doesn’t go up,” “wait,” “wound,” “we hear voices .” There were no names, but the handwriting seemed to be Julián’s.

The most disturbing sentence appeared on a middle page:

“I can’t move. She must stay…”

The sentence ended there, cut off, as if Julián had abruptly stopped writing.

“Something serious has happened here,” Morel said. “Julian was wounded, and Clara was still alive.”

The most likely hypothesis was that they had been trapped after a partial fall. But something crucial was missing: none of the bodies were there . And given the depth of the cave, it was unlikely they could have gotten out on their own without leaving a trace.

While exploring the cave, one of the rescuers found markings on the wall: three vertical lines repeated several times , like a rudimentary code, possibly used to count days.

“There are at least thirty brands,” he reported.

Thirty days. A month trapped.

Media pressure increased and the police expanded the search area. For the first time, a theory emerged that until then had seemed unthinkable: that another person was involved .

And that theory was reinforced when, at the end of the day, a rescuer found a modern and relatively new rope, which belonged neither to Julián, nor to Clara, nor to the teams working in the area.

“Someone was here,” Morel said, looking at the mountain as if it could answer him.

But the mountain remained silent.

What they found the next day, however, would speak for her.

The third day of the search proved crucial. The exploration expanded to the upper part of the crevice, where the rock formed a kind of vertical corridor filled with ledges and small platforms. According to experts, a person could have moved through there with difficulty… but not a nine-year-old girl alone.

Twenty meters from the cave, they found evidence of recent human activity: light footprints, as if someone had climbed up on their toes. The strange thing was that they seemed too recent to correspond to the time of the disappearance.

The key came when one of the rescuers found a star-shaped metal pendant among loose stones . The family immediately confirmed that it belonged to Clara. It was her favorite amulet, the one she had worn since she was five years old.

But the biggest surprise came three hours later.

On a natural ledge, half-hidden among dry bushes, they found a metal first-aid kit , rusted at the edges but clearly placed there intentionally. Inside were bandages, remnants of medication… and a note carefully folded inside a plastic bag.

Morel opened the note. The shaky handwriting left no doubt:

“If anyone finds this, please help her. It wasn’t her fault. He came back, but he wasn’t the same. We couldn’t get down. We tried to call for help. If Clara is alive… please take care of her.”

Signed: JH

The message sowed confusion. “He came back”? Who was this “he”?
The family clarified a chilling detail: weeks before disappearing, Julián had had conflicts with a man named Aitor , a former expedition partner who had publicly accused him of appropriating a joint photography project. The end of their friendship was abrupt and bitter.

The gendarmerie reopened a parallel investigation into Aitor. It turned out he had been in the Pyrenees during the days of the disappearance… but he had never confessed.

Meanwhile, the teams found a natural exit at the top of the crevice, a narrow passage leading to a wooded area far from the main trail. There, under layers of leaves, they found traces of a rudimentary camp, apparently used years ago: remains of a campfire, a rusty knife, and several food wrappers.

Among the items found was something devastating: a small shoe , identified as Clara’s, along with remnants of her clothing. There were no bones, meaning the girl could have left that spot alive.

“This changes everything,” Morel said. “They were here, but they moved. And not alone.”

The final investigation revealed that Aitor had been seen in the area by local shepherds. One of the strongest hypotheses suggested that he encountered Julián and Clara after the accident. Instead of helping immediately, he tried to resolve his personal conflict with Julián, demanding explanations at a critical moment. The argument may have escalated, leading to a forced separation between the adults and leaving Clara completely vulnerable.

Aitor was temporarily detained, although he insisted on his innocence. He said that he did see Julián, but that when he returned with help, they were no longer there.

The most painful question that remains unanswered is: what happened to Clara?

The search teams expanded for weeks. Isolated traces were found, but never a body. Authorities now believe Clara may have been taken in—or held captive—by someone in one of the remote villages, or tried to walk on her own in search of help.

The case, reopened five years later, remains active. And although the mountain revealed much of its secret, it still conceals its most important truth.

The girl might still be alive.