WEBVTT

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In 2015…

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I traveled to Seville

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and I met Manuel Blanco Vela.

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One day…

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I got an email

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that said, "Terrible news

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about a CIEE program participant."

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A friend of mine wrote back.
She replied to the email and said,

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"Are we in danger?"

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Then we found out that…
she had fallen from Manuel's apartment.

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They called me "Iberian meat."

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I sent a friend request to Gabrielle Vega.

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Gabrielle was talking
about Discover Excursions

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and was telling a story

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that was very similar
to the story I remembered.

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When we got to Seville,

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each group had
an assigned "culture guide."

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My culture guide

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took us straight
to a travel agency office.

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This agency was called
"Discover Excursions."

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Their office
had lots of flags from our universities.

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The flag from my university,
Penn State, was there.

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And behind a desk

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was Manuel White.

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At the time,
I thought he was about 40 years old.

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He had dark hair and a super white smile.

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He asked me where I went to school.

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And I said, "I'm studying at Penn State."

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And he said, "Oh, how exciting,

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because I love Penn State girls."

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"They're fun and know how to party."

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I remember
that at that moment, I felt like,

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"What a weird thing to say."
Because in my mind, he was like a teacher.

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I thought, "Oh, okay,
Discover Excursions and Manuel White

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are associated with the university,

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and this is where we go
if we want to make another trip."

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Well, I never would have imagined
what was really going on.

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Manuel says,
"We do trips to Lagos and Morocco."

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"We do everything for you."

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"And we also have an activity
every night."

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He used to throw parties at the office.

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Very informal.

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Manuel Blanco is very knowledgeable

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about Seville's nightlife,

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or at least the student area.

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Alfalfa, Cuesta del Rosario,

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Betis Street, Alameda de Hércules.

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He went to those places
with the American students.

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On the travel agency's own blog,
he even had…

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a schedule of nights out in Seville

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that not even the most hard-partying body
could handle, because it was every day.

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Monday on Betis Street.

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Tuesday in Alfalfa.

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I want one too.

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-Wednesday, soccer.
-Seville!

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And Thursday at the Buddha nightclub.

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I felt like I had an "in." I thought,
"I can go to Buddha. I don't need to pay."

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A lot of girls would always repeat
this same schedule every week,

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because if you didn't have
anything else to do, you had this plan.

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Manuel Blanco came to introduce himself

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as the Prince of Seville.

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That hints
at what his personality was like,

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or what he is like.

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He had a lot of power and connections.

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But I also felt something else.
Like this man doesn't have a soul.

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His vibe was a little off.

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He also organized
various activities, like travel raffles.

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Manuel was giving away
trips at the raffle party.

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They handed out pieces of paper.

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And I got mine, without thinking,

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because I hadn't bought a raffle ticket
or anything like that.

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And like a few minutes later,
about an hour later or so,

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someone came, looked at my ticket number
and said, "You won!"

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And I was like, "Well, what did I win?"

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And they told me,
"You won a free trip to Lagos, Portugal."

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It was always
the really pretty girls who won.

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A guy never won.

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And my parents told me
they didn't think it was a good idea.

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I remember that I arrived
on the trip that I had won…

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to Portugal, to Lagos,

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and Lauren Bajorek was there.

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And that was
one of the last days of her life.

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Gª PEÑA & ANDÚJAR
ATTORNEYS AT LAW

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Carey Bajorek is Lauren Bajorek's mother.

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She contacted me as her lawyer

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in a terrible state of mind.

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One of absolute disorientation
and absolute desperation.

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All this, moreover,
from thousands of kilometers away.

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Her daughter was an only child.

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She was 21 years old.

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And she sent her to Spain
with all the enthusiasm parents have

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when they send a child abroad
to learn, in this case, a language.

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A few weeks later,

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they call her to say her daughter has died
after jumping from the 10th floor.

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And without further explanation,

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they give her the option
to repatriate her body,

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and that's the end of the story.

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That's when she asked us
to try to determine

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the circumstances
surrounding her daughter's death.

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Beyond the obvious conclusions
of the autopsy,

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which was death due to multiple trauma.

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Gabrielle Vega reports her rape
by a Sevillian tour guide and businessman.

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And it turns out that in 2015,
two years earlier,

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another young American woman had died

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at the home of the same guide
who had been reported.

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Well, it's not a coincidence.

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The police conducted an analysis

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to determine whether
there were any prints on the terrace wall.

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It was very small,
only 80 centimeters high,

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which is
extremely dangerous on a 10th floor.

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At that height, when you get close,
it only comes up to your knees.

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If you lean forward even slightly,
you fall.

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And the wall obviously had
a metal-and-wood barrier

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running along the entire penthouse,
except at one end

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where the barrier had been removed.

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That part was at the end of the penthouse,
where there was a Jacuzzi without water.

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And the police ruled out…

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Rather, no prints were found there,
which led police to rule out

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that Lauren Bajorek
had been sitting on the wall,

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since there were no footprints
or handprints.

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In other words, she fell directly
from inside the terrace outward.

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That could be consistent with a push,

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but also with an accidental fall,

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given that the wall was only 80 cm high.

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It's consistent with both theories.

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In the transcription of the police report,

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it states that Manuel says she jumped.

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When you have someone
who has fallen from the 10th floor,

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it could be an accident,

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it could be a homicide,
but it could also be a suicide.

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The police did a psychological autopsy

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based on the WhatsApp messages the girl
had sent minutes and hours earlier

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to her mother
and her partner in the United States.

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PSYCHOLOGICAL AUTOPSY

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The police ruled out suicide.

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That left only two options.

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Either it was an accident,
or it was a homicide.

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What happened in that penthouse is known
only to two people who are still alive.

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Those are Manuel Blanco Vela and Sarah.

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Sarah gave her testimony
to the police while drunk at the scene,

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not even at the police station.

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Right there, the officer
took her statement in one paragraph.

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Which who knows how closely
it matches reality, if at all.

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MANUEL BLANCO TOOK BOTH OF THEM

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TO DRINK THE "PENULTIMATE"

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PARTIALLY UNCLOTHED

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THEY WENT INSIDE
TO GET A GLASS OF WATER

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LEAVING HER ON HER OWN

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DO NOT CROSS
POLICE LINE

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At the time,
although it seemed an accidental fall,

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they do not miss the opportunity
to administer a breathalyzer test

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to both Manuel Blanco and Sarah.

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BREATHALYZER TESTS

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This was two hours or so
after the accident.

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RESULT

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Sarah's level was 0.48,
if I remember correctly.

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A fairly high blood-alcohol level.

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Lauren Bajorek's test showed

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2.99 grams of alcohol per liter of blood.

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That blood-alcohol level
was close to an alcohol-induced coma.

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In the words of the forensic examiner,
with 2.9 grams of alcohol in the blood,

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one is either dead

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or unconscious.

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And Manuel tested at 0.0.

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0.0.

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That is,
he took both of them out partying.

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Both of them drank,

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one of them to the point
of reaching an alcohol-induced coma,

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and he tested at 0.0.

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He was in control
of the situation at all times.

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I think Manuel is a predator.

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He's a predator, a hunter.

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I think that night he went hunting

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and had the attitude predators have.

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That is, a plan, a strategy,
and the patience predators have.

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It took him hours to end up
where he wanted to end up,

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and in the situation he wanted to be in,
which was at 5:00 a.m.

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in his penthouse, with two girls
who were completely vulnerable

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as a result of consuming,
at the very least, alcohol.

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And he tested 0.0.

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Those are the facts.

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One day later, I received an email

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that said, "Terrible news

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about a CIEE program participant."

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I realized
that it could have easily been me.

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When I look at photos from that time,

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I realize I was very vulnerable.
All of us were very vulnerable.

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And we didn't see that.

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But Manuel did.

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So when the new group of students arrived,

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they all came in like,
"We heard a girl died. What happened?"

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And I told them,

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"Don't go on a trip with Manuel White."

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"Don't trust that guy."

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"I don't know what happened there,
but something's off."

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When Carey Bajorek hires us for this case,

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the criminal side of the case
had already been dismissed.

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The investigating judge in Seville,

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without carrying out
any further investigative steps,

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closed the case

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saying that there was not enough evidence
to continue the investigation.

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But in my opinion, it was absolutely
premature and unjustified.

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There were no grounds
to rule out anything.

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Without further eyewitness testimony,
the proceedings were closed.

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Hours later, she was flown back to the US.

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And that also caught our attention.

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SARAH LEFT THE COUNTRY AFTER THE EVENTS,
MAKING AN EXTENSIVE INTERVIEW IMPOSSIBLE

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We explained to her
that the criminal route was closed

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and that there was no way to reopen it.

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But there was a possibility
of civil proceedings.

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COURTHOUSE

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And that is what she hired us to do.

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It's what we did, and that's the case
we took to court in Seville.

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A few days before the trial took place,

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Lauren's mother, Carey Bajorek,
told me she was dying,

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and that she would hold on
until the trial was over

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and we had a ruling.

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And that's what happened. The judge
upheld our claim and ruled in our favor.

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He found that there had been
liability for negligence

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on Manuel's part,

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and set compensation
at just over 70,000 euros.

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I informed her of the ruling,
and a few days later she died.

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She felt relieved in the sense
of at least knowing part of what happened.

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But of course, a ruling couldn't give her
what she truly wanted.

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Do you swear to tell the truth?

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As defendant,

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you have the right not to plead guilty,
not to testify against yourself,

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or not to testify at all.

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Any words for the victims?

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Hey, don't touch me.

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I'm just talking to you.

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If they don't know each other,
how do all their statements match?

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I had nothing to do with it.

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I had no relationship
with that person during that trip.

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I didn't do anything.
with that person during that trip.