A 14-year-old boy who vanished after failing to turn up for his first day back to school has been found.
Relief swept through Rincon de la Victoria on Wednesday night after Marc Ian, who had been missing since Monday morning, was found safe and well in Malaga city.
Local police located the teenager in the neighbourhood of El Palo, ending an anxious two-day search that had gripped his family and the wider community.
A voluntary disappearance
Earlier in the day, the Government’s subdelegate in Malaga, Javier Salas, told reporters that while the investigation remained open, ‘everything pointed to a voluntary escape.’
Marc Ian had left home on Monday morning carrying a rucksack with several pairs of trousers, a pack of juices and sandwiches prepared by his grandmother. He did not own a mobile phone, but borrowed hers briefly to message one of his close friends.
Although he lived just 500 metres from his secondary school, Marc set off at 10.45am – an hour before classes began – and never arrived.
Family’s ordeal
His father, Marco Antonio Campos, described the night before his disappearance as completely normal. ‘He was happy and cheerful, he said ‘goodbye dad’,’ he recalled.
The first signs of concern came when Marc asked his grandmother to pack food and noticed he was taking more belongings than usual.
Still, she said he appeared calm: ‘He didn’t look sad, he didn’t look scared, he didn’t look worried – absolute tranquillity.’
When his father realised Marc had not attended school, he reported him missing to the Guardia Civil. In the following days, the family endured a rollercoaster of false alarms after reported sightings in Chilches and near Málaga’s Technology Park (PTA).
Marc’s older brother had appealed for help across social media, while his father admitted the family was in turmoil.
‘We haven’t been eating well since Monday, we don’t sleep properly, we wake up with nightmares. We are tense, worried, anxious about everything,’ he said.
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