After a gargantuan search-and-rescue mission the parents hopes were shattered to see the lifeless body of Julen Rosello.
Editor's note: This article was originally published on June 26, 2020. It has since been updated.
The rescue mission that had people around the world stuck to their television sets for thirteen days, praying for the well-being of 2-year-old Julen Rosello, came to a tragic end in the early hours of January 26, 2019.
According to People, his lifeless body was recovered from the 360-foot-deep hole by an emergency personnel. “Unfortunately at 1:25 a.m., the rescue team reached the spot where they were looking for Julen and found the lifeless body of the little one,” tweeted the central government’s representative in the southwestern region of Andalusia, Alfonso Rodriguez Gomez de Celis. Rosello had plummeted down the borehole while he and his family were enjoying a day in Totalán, out in the countryside near Málaga.
This wasn't the first loss Jose Rosello and Victoria Garcia had suffered. In May 2017, the couple lost Julen's older brother, Oliver, to a heart attack caused by a congenital heart defect. He was only 3 years old. The around-the-clock mission covered by the Spanish news outlets faced a lot of engineering and geographical obstacles, which were rightly managed by around 300 hundred people. The team included Spanish mining specialists and a Swedish company that helped rescue 33 Chilean miners in 2010, reported The New York Times.
The rescuers sent a camera down the hole measuring 25 cm in diameter soon realizing that even the camera was too big, and made through only 229 ft. down the hole, reported People. That was just the beginning of the many hurdles they had coming their way. The drilling equipment and giant pipes brought by trucks in an attempt to rescue the trapped boy came to a halt after a drill hit a hard rock eight days after the boy's fall, reported People.
The convoluted terrain had to be kept in mind while making a way to the boy since there were possibilities of the borehole collapsing around him, putting his life in more danger than it was. The team explained that the innocent child was trapped in a very cold environment, which could cause hypothermia given his age. The medical examiners began to confirm the grim possibilities, which everyone knew in their hearts but wanted to avoid.
Even though the media was overflowing with predictions and data, the rescue team did not deter from their goal, which was to rescue the child from this cold nightmare and bring him back safely to his mother and father's warm embrace. But there was the fact that the boy had fallen down the height of almost 30 stories and was trapped with no food or water. Unfortunately, all the attempts made by the best of the best went in vain. His tiny body was retrieved and handed over safely to his mourning and devastated parents.
I knew there was no other possible ending to this story but it’s still just heartbreaking to imagine. https://t.co/iRFXPC3Tyr
— Galadriel Therese (@Khylira) January 26, 2019
Over the weeks of a gargantuan search-and-rescue mission, his parents had been hoping to see their son alive from the moment he had vanished. They believed that an angel was watching over their son and keeping him safe. Never did they move from the rescue site since the fateful day, reported Express UK. His grieving grandmother Reme Garcia, believed that Julen's older brother Oliver was his guiding angel and was taking care of him. He was helping him get through this extremely tough situation. She wrote a heart-wrenching message on her social media crying and asking Oliver to be by his brother's side. “Today all I ask is that your brother comes out now. He needs you. Oliver, don’t forget your brother Julen. You know we’ve been waiting for him for many hours. I know you protect him a lot, my little King.”
The sad and untimely demise of the little soul has opened an investigation on why the borehole wasn't covered. According to the Irish Times, Antonio Sánchez, the businessman who was responsible for the borehole told the Spanish media that he had closed the hole but it must've opened later which he was not aware of. Apparently, holes like these are common in southern Spain, dug in search of more water without proper permits or permissions. One such hole took the life of a young child who still had a long life to live. It's rightly said, the smallest graves are the heaviest.
References:
https://people.com/human-interest/julen-rosello-2-year-old-boy-dead-trapped-in-well/
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/25/world/europe/spain-boy-well-found.html
Representational Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Photo by ClarkandCompany (R) ; Photo by Johner Images (L)
