As he liked to do on spring Sundays, Florencio Peñacoba Álamo went to the banks of the Ebro in Cenicero to fish for crabs. It was May 26 and that day his temporary job granted him the first rest of the week, deserved after many … hours weeding the vineyards of the region. ‘Peña’, an affectionate nickname given to her by her acquaintances, she was wearing dark blue pants and a red sweatshirt at that time. After a long time with the bucket and net capturing crustaceans, the friends who accompanied him were satisfied and left, although Florencio decided to stay a little longer.
“My father and my daughter, who were with him, went up from the Ebro to the house around four-thirty in the afternoon, and Peña was left alone in the pier area,” says Patricia, owner of the Verdemanzana bar in Cenicero and one of the people closest to Florencio. It was at that moment when he lost track of her. As the hours passed, anguish began to take over her and the rest of the people around her, and the first unsuccessful attempts to search began with voices and shouts along the banks of the river.
Without a trace, once Sunday night had fallen, several people approached the apartment where he lived in the town to see if he was there. Nothing. The next morning, neither. Florencio had to report to the field soon to continue his job as a wine laborer, but he had vanished. “When we saw that he still didn’t appear, we started looking like crazy for him around the pier area, upriver, downriver,” says Jonathan, owner of the agricultural company ‘El Patron’, which had employed Peñacoba since the beginning of 2024. “No. “We found nothing, and I was surprised by his absence because he is a punctual and compliant person, so on Monday afternoon, aware that his departure was not voluntary, I myself filed a complaint at the barracks,” the chief adds ruefully. who admits to not stopping thinking about the matter.
Ten days after the disappearance, no relative of Florencio Peñacoba has yet appeared in Cenicero
That same day, May 27, Monday, the official search effort began for this 63-year-old from Burgos, who arrived in Cenicero two springs ago to try his luck in the land of wine. “Peña wasn’t much of a talker about his past, but one time he told us that his ex-wife had recently died of cancer and that he had a daughter whom he hadn’t seen in forever,” explains Patricia, from the Verdemanzana bar. “Of course, neither the girl nor any other family member she may have left has shown up at Cenicero yet,” adds the hotelier, who finds talking about her disappearance a difficult time.
Search operation
To date, the deployment of the Civil Guard has been intense, combing every corner of the Ebro River, in a kind of ‘déjà vu’ of the Márquez case from a few months ago. “We have brought helicopters, boats, trained dogs and the best GEAS agents, but, for now, no sign of the man,” says Miguel Ángel Sáez, spokesperson for the Benemérita. “If it does not appear this week, we will redouble our efforts starting next week,” confirms Sáez as the latest news.
“I come to the orchard every day and see the police passing by with the boats at mid-morning, and foot patrols in the afternoon, but nothing is known about Florencio,” says a local gardener next to ground zero. Within the town of Cenicero, there are all kinds of mixed feelings. A large number of neighbors did not know Peñacoba, but those who did, maintained a very close relationship with him. For example, his temporary colleagues gave up several days of work to lend a hand in the first search efforts. Life goes on for them, but the feeling that they may never see him again weighs on them inside.
“He was a happy, honest, pleasant guy, close to everyone, who really liked going to the bar to drink his wines, always without messing with anyone or making a fuss, he was very integrated into the society here,” says a neighbor. who worked with him. He had achieved such a good fit in Cenicero that, on May 11, he was even present, as a guest, at the communion of the daughter of one of his new friends. That was the last time he was seen walking the streets, when the image was taken that now illustrates the ‘missing’ posters that are plastered on the walls. They demand that, if they have any clue as to his whereabouts, he urgently call 941 454 077.
