Dubis Reyes is stunned. She keeps crying while attending to the media who found her walking with a friend around the Atalayas nightclub where the tragedy took place. His son is one of the possible victims of the cruel fire that took the lives of 13 people on Sunday morning, many of them belonging to a group of Hispanics who were celebrating a birthday at the La Fonda nightclub.
She stays on the phone as she waits for updates, but it may still be some time before they can confirm whether her son, Yosi Esteban, a 34-year-old from Colombia, is among the dead. The experts have announced that the identification of some corpses, most of which are charred, may take days. We will have to wait to see if the mother's DNA matches that of the young man. The Ministry of the Interior has sent scientific police officers to Murcia to help identify the corpses.
Dubis explains, in a striking testimony, how her son arrived in Spain a year ago, so that she would not be alone. "He came to accompany me and now I think that this would not have happened if he had stayed in my country". He describes his son as "a very sociable being who adapted very well to this place, where he had many friends". On the day of the tragedy, Yosi took his cousin Osneider home, who explained to La Vanguardia that "after leaving me, he decided to continue the party again and we never saw him again".
The young man, who is expected to do the worst because no one saw him leave the burning nightclub, "knew all the birthday attendees and spent the night going up and down the market to talk to people. They all believe that the fire must have surprised him upstairs", explains his mother amid deep consternation.
Homar Muriel still hasn't gotten over the shock of the news on Sunday when he woke up early in the morning. Owner of a nightclub in Murcia, he had personal friendships with practically all the people who died in La Fonda, mostly the relatives and friends of Eric, the young man who celebrated his last birthday that night.
The establishments involved in the tragedy are premises that Muriel has known for many years and which she describes as "very conducive to the spread of flames, as they were made of wood". He acknowledges that he has not called those affected "because these are difficult days and he has to mourn, but I feel dismayed by everything that has happened because they were very good people, workers and members of families adapted to Spain".
His wife, Leonela Mendoza, bursts into the conversation with the serious face of someone who has lost friends. "They were all wonderful people, well-known and with whom even my husband played football." He speaks, in particular, of the father of all of them, and remembers Tania with great sadness. "She is one of the dead, she was my friend."
The news caught Jon Douglas by surprise, a young man who was on a trip and who spoke to La Vanguardia as soon as he arrived in Murcia. "My father, whose name is mine, is one of the dead," he explains, still in disbelief. The victim, 45 years old and a native of Ecuador, was one of the guests at Eric's birthday. "I can't say anything more, I'm tired and we need official confirmation. They are checking his identity with the DNA of family members, no one has called us yet", he explains. "Sadly, we know that he was accompanied by his wife that night."
