In 2015…
I traveled to Seville
and I met Manuel Blanco Vela.
One day…
I got an email
that said, "Terrible news
about a CIEE program participant."
"Dear students, I am very sorry to be writing this email
with the terrible news of an unfortunate accident
occurring to Pennsylvania State University student Lauren Bajorek,
as a result of which…
she died."
A friend of mine wrote back. She replied to the email and said,
"Are we in danger?"
Then we found out that… she had fallen from Manuel's apartment.
I remember the Megyn Kelly episode coming out that morning.
People and locals in Sevilla started reaching out to me.
Like expats, people who had competitor companies. I don't give a shit who it was.
All these whispers started coming out.
They would tell me about the bars he would go to…
that he would go to intercambios with the kids,
that he would always hang out with younger girls,
always American girls, to which restaurants he would take them to.
They started giving me information.
Random people would give me information.
They called me "Iberian meat."
During this time, it was just on Facebook still.
I was just posting every single…
I mean, I would literally go to bed…
on my email, wake up, email, Facebook, talk to people, all day. All day.
I wasn't sleeping.
I was just on my phone, nonstop, talking to people.
Trying to figure out what the fuck was going on.
I sent a friend request to Gabrielle Vega.
Gabrielle was talking about Discover Excursions
and was telling a story
that was very similar to the story I remembered.
When we got to Seville,
each group had an assigned "culture guide."
My culture guide
took us straight to a travel agency office.
This agency was called "Discover Excursions."
Welcome.
Here we are at the Discover Sevilla office.
We're open Monday through Friday, 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. No siestas for us.
Come by any time you'd like. Let's check it out right now.
Bro.
Their office had lots of flags from our universities.
The flag from my university, Penn State, was there.
And behind a desk
was Manuel White.
At the time, I thought he was about 40 years old.
He had dark hair and a super white smile.
He asked me where I went to school.
And I said, "I'm studying at Penn State."
And he said, "Oh, how exciting,
because I love Penn State girls."
"They're fun and know how to party."
I remember that at that moment, I felt like,
"What a weird thing to say." Because in my mind, he was like a teacher.
I thought, "Oh, okay, Discover Excursions and Manuel White
are associated with the university,
and this is where we go if we want to make another trip."
Well, I never would have imagined what was really going on.
Manuel says, "We do trips to Lagos and Morocco."
"We do everything for you."
"And we also have an activity every night."
He used to throw parties at the office.
Very informal.
Manu would host free sangria nights
for the study abroad students…
…where the office was open
and we would just go and drink as much sangria as we wanted.
It seemed like he was creating friendships with everyone.
I spent many nights there.
Manuel Blanco is very knowledgeable
about Seville's nightlife,
or at least the student area.
Alfalfa, Cuesta del Rosario,
Betis Street, Alameda de Hércules.
He went to those places with the American students.
On the travel agency's own blog, he even had…
a schedule of nights out in Seville
that not even the most hard-partying body could handle, because it was every day.
Monday on Betis Street.
Tuesday in Alfalfa.
I want one too.
-Wednesday, soccer. -Seville!
And Thursday at the Buddha nightclub.
I felt like I had an "in." I thought, "I can go to Buddha. I don't need to pay."
A lot of girls would always repeat this same schedule every week,
because if you didn't have anything else to do, you had this plan.
Whenever there was an event at a bar or a discoteca
that was geared towards study abroad students, he was there.
Manu was like a man-about-town.
He was handsome. He knew everyone.
And every bar we walked into, every restaurant we walked into,
he would clap the bartender on the back.
It was very clear that he knew everyone that we were interacting with.
Hey!
I don't remember if he used Manuel White or Manuel Blanco.
I think he put it in English, but I don't really know why.
I just remember at some point in the welcome party,
meeting him with some of my friends.
He just was, like,
fairly charismatic, talkative.
Kind of a playful sort of personality.
Manuel Blanco came to introduce himself
as the Prince of Seville.
That hints at what his personality was like,
or what he is like.
He had a lot of power and connections.
But I also felt something else. Like this man doesn't have a soul.
His vibe was a little off.
He also organized various activities, like travel raffles.
Manuel was giving away trips at the raffle party.
They handed out pieces of paper.
And I got mine, without thinking,
because I hadn't bought a raffle ticket or anything like that.
And like a few minutes later, about an hour later or so,
someone came, looked at my ticket number and said, "You won!"
And I was like, "Well, what did I win?"
And they told me, "You won a free trip to Lagos, Portugal."
It was always the really pretty girls who won.
A guy never won.
And my parents told me they didn't think it was a good idea.
Finding these women changed my fucking brain chemistry.
I felt a lot of responsibility for them.
And I felt a lot of,
"Don't worry about it. Thank you for telling me."
Like, "I'm going to figure this out. And just stay with me."
I just started building an investigation.
I was an art student. I didn't know anything.
And so my dad created this Excel sheet for me.
Added the dates.
How many were inappropriately touched? How many did he try to kiss?
How many did he try to corner in a bathroom?
How many did he rape?
All the different things I started to try to get organized.
I was the administrator.
The public kind of outreach.
Organizing everything.
I refused to let anyone help me.
Because I felt like that would be a breach of their trust.
So then I just had to work on all of it by myself.
It was very taxing for Gabrielle.
She would say, at least three or four times a week
for months and months, "I have to get on a call with somebody."
And she would go in the room, close the door,
and come back out and she would say,
"He raped that girl." Or, "He, you know, tried to rape her."
Or, "He did this to her, that to her." It was like, you know…
But always the same scenario.
I don't think I was the first.
I don't know that for sure. But the system was already in place.
I think that he had been doing this for a long time before I got there.
I think it was about the last week that I was in Spain
that he started texting me.
And they were very flirtatious.
Um, I mean, pretty direct
"let's get together" texts.
As far as I was concerned, this was a friend.
Manuel texted me, either on Facebook or WhatsApp,
and had basically said, like,
we could meet him and have some free drinks or have a night out.
And then me and my female roommate and our other friend,
we met Manuel.
It was really dead outside.
We were walking along the river,
kind of on the main Sevilla side towards the Torre de Oro.
It was pretty dark.
And this man on a motorcycle cuts in front of us.
And he's in all black. Black helmet.
He kept walking to us with his helmet on.
And he takes his helmet off, and he's like…
"Girls, it's Manu. I'm joking."
And we were, "Oh my God, Manu, you scared us."
And he was, "Why don't you come and have a drink with me at the Phoenix?"
And so we were there, and we had a few shots of tequila,
but they were baby shots, so it was fine.
He was flirting with my friend,
and I was kind of trying to be a good wingwoman.
He was like, "Let's go back to my apartment."
"We can play guitar and hang out for a bit."
And I was like, "All right, when in Spain."
I was nervous to meet him alone.
So I brought my best friend with me,
and he picked us up on his Vespa.
And he drove us to his apartment.
At some point, he invited me and my friends back to his apartment.
And then, yeah, that's where things get really blurry
and where I have a lot of trouble remembering.
From what I can remember, when you get into Manu's apartment,
you walk in, and there might have been a little living room to the left.
There was a balcony. So, like, sliding glass doors.
He opened two Coronas.
And he had us sit on his bed with him.
He and my friend were sitting together,
and so we, um…
He was playing guitar with this friend, and I was just sitting there.
He clearly wasn't interested in me, which was fine.
I know for the majority, it was only the three of us girls
and Manuel at his apartment.
My tooth!
I remember…
my roommate at the time, she was getting sick.
I think at a certain point,
Manuel got a taxi for my sick roommate to go home,
but I don't remember too much.
And he was like, "Let's play a game."
He was getting very touchy. I remember his hand on my thigh.
And he was encouraging, I can't remember whether it was directly or not,
to have a threesome.
I didn't feel comfortable. Like, I wasn't… I didn't really feel safe.
I just remember feeling really heavy.
Like, I couldn't really move with much confidence.
And kind of just fell into his bed and fell asleep.
I just remember little pieces.
I remember, like, a door slamming. And I remember…
my other friend and Manuel kissing.
And I think I remember Manuel kissing me, but I don't remember, like…
the sequence of events, really.
It's just, like, little flashes and little moments.
And I wake up to Manu saying,
"Your friend's left. Can you give me a hand job?"
We finished our beers,
and I was like, "I think we have to go."
And he was like, "No, no, no. Just stay for one more drink."
I gave him a hand job with my arm behind my back.
Not even looking at him.
I just kind of felt, like, let's get through this.
Like, I just need to have this happen, and then this will be over.
And I remember him trying to block the door.
And then he said, "Are you going to leave me with blue balls?"
Thank God,
I don't know how my phone ended up in bed with us, or how I heard it.
But I heard my phone, and I picked it up.
He moved enough for us to get out of the apartment.
And I just remember I felt like I flew down the stairs.
My friend was like, "Where are you?"
And I couldn't form words.
I gave the phone to Manu, and he was like, "Oh, she's fine."
And thankfully, my friend was like, "No, I'm coming to get her."
"Text me your address."
I remember afterwards, walking home,
trying to find something familiar, and just being like, "That was weird."
"But I guess it's a Spanish man thing."
I just literally left the house.
And my friend brings me back to my apartment.
I knew I was safe, and I was like, "I can go to bed."
And slept the rest of the day.
When I woke up,
no one else was there.
I was completely alone with Manuel.
And I was completely naked in the bed next to Manuel.
And Manuel was also naked in bed next to me.
I just remember spiraling,
because I didn't have any memory of taking off my clothes
or of him taking them off.
And I just remember being frozen.
And, like, "What the hell happened?" Basically.
My whole body felt heavy, and I couldn't move.
And then…
Manuel rolling over and assaulting me.
And I remember that…
really clearly.
Just laying there
and not being able to really move or get him off.
And then…
It was just him doing whatever he wanted.
I remember just not knowing what to do.
And so I got dressed really quickly.
And then I just went downstairs and…
went back to the residencia.
I never talked about it with anyone,
except the two girls that were implicated.
And also…
I just felt, I think, so…
nervous and ashamed and helpless at that point in time.
Um…
Yeah, there was definitely a pattern that was established.
Young women who are very vulnerable,
in a place where they don't speak the language,
in a place where they need someone to trust,
they need someone to kind of guide them.
I started to realize that it wasn't just rape. It was…
Anything this fucker could get from these girls, he did.
It was expanding and expanding. The story just kept getting bigger.
And I remember I got a direct message on Facebook.
And the second Carey came into the picture
and told me about Lauren,
it was one of those moments where I had no idea
what I was involved in.
I mean, at the time, I didn't know what happened.
All I heard was…
"He killed my daughter."
It's terrifying.
I was in my mom's apartment when…
I would get a message from Carey Bajorek.
"Sarah, it's Lauren Bajorek's mother. There's been a tragedy with Lauren."
"If you have a chance, please call me."
I can't remember exactly what she told me, but it was, whatever, the basics.
She had fallen from a man's apartment balcony.
That she had fallen and that she had died.
I was the person that she knew
because Lauren and I coordinated our trip to Spain for the summer.
And we went on the trip to Lagos, Portugal,
with Discover Excursions.
I remember that I arrived on the trip that I had won…
to Portugal, to Lagos,
and Lauren Bajorek was there.
And that was one of the last days of her life.
Lauren was my best friend, so…
Sorry.
That, like, she…
Lauren's mom, Carey, was so important to her.
So I had to, sorry, help out. And…
I wasn't there, but I was still in a position
to connect her with a lawyer.
I talked to my host family immediately after as well,
asking them if they knew someone or recommended someone
that can bring some light onto this.
Carey Bajorek is Lauren Bajorek's mother.
She contacted me as her lawyer
in a terrible state of mind.
One of absolute disorientation and absolute desperation.
All this, moreover, from thousands of kilometers away.
Her daughter was an only child.
She was 21 years old.
And she sent her to Spain with all the enthusiasm parents have
when they send a child abroad to learn, in this case, a language.
A few weeks later,
they call her to say her daughter has died after jumping from the 10th floor.
And without further explanation,
they give her the option to repatriate her body,
and that's the end of the story.
That's when she asked us to try to determine
the circumstances surrounding her daughter's death.
Beyond the obvious conclusions of the autopsy,
which was death due to multiple trauma.
Gabrielle Vega reports her rape by a Sevillian tour guide and businessman.
And it turns out that in 2015, two years earlier,
another young American woman had died
at the home of the same guide who had been reported.
Well, it's not a coincidence.
The police conducted an analysis
to determine whether there were any prints on the terrace wall.
It was very small, only 80 centimeters high,
which is extremely dangerous on a 10th floor.
At that height, when you get close, it only comes up to your knees.
If you lean forward even slightly, you fall.
And the wall obviously had a metal-and-wood barrier
running along the entire penthouse, except at one end
where the barrier had been removed.
That part was at the end of the penthouse, where there was a Jacuzzi without water.
And the police ruled out…
Rather, no prints were found there, which led police to rule out
that Lauren Bajorek had been sitting on the wall,
since there were no footprints or handprints.
In other words, she fell directly from inside the terrace outward.
That could be consistent with a push,
but also with an accidental fall,
given that the wall was only 80 cm high.
It's consistent with both theories.
In the transcription of the police report,
it states that Manuel says she jumped.
When you have someone who has fallen from the 10th floor,
it could be an accident,
it could be a homicide, but it could also be a suicide.
The police did a psychological autopsy
based on the WhatsApp messages the girl had sent minutes and hours earlier
to her mother and her partner in the United States.
Me and Lauren dated back in college.
She was just different, you know? She just always had a bubbly energy.
She was very warming to everyone around her.
-Beautiful. -I'm gonna… I'm gonna make a video.
July 19th was her birthday. I remember…
You know, I mean, it was tough in ways,
at least for me, you know, not being able to be there for her to celebrate.
But she was definitely excited, and I was excited for her.
It was gonna be a night of celebration.
She's turning 21, which is a big deal in the United States.
Yeah, it was just something that she was very much looking forward
to celebrating with friends and with dancing.
So Lauren went with her friends, Sarah, Ellie, and Lauren.
We didn't really have, like, a plan. We were just…
We went out to dinner in the centro, you know.
They were at the restaurant, and…
Manuel showed up.
I remember him further in the restaurant, up by the bar.
And then we sat at a table, and…
We saw him, or he saw us, and he came over to our table.
And then he asked if we all wanted to go to Bilindo.
He said, "Come with me. I'm going to show you guys."
"I'm going to take you to this discoteca."
And so we just went with him because we were like, "Why not?"
We went with him to Bilindo,
and we went into the VIP section.
He had a bunch of drinks, and there was hookah.
That was kind of the majority of the night.
We texted the whole time that night.
She just kept me updated with all the details while she was there.
She said, "I don't feel comfortable around him."
She definitely did not like him.
She wrote me a text saying that she was very drunk.
And I was like, "Ha-ha, great," like…
"Sounds good."
I think they had a couple of drinks.
And then I think it was Ellie, and then her friends
left to go home.
Ellie was sick. And it was 3:00 a.m.
Ellie was like, "I don't feel good."
It was not a normal feeling. I feel like, that night… I don't…
Looking back, I remember afterwards, I'm like, "Did…?"
"I wonder if there was something in the drinks."
Because he was giving us all the drinks,
and they were all up there in the VIP section.
And we talked to Lauren and Sarah, and they didn't want to leave yet.
I was like, "I'll go with Ellie. I'll walk her home."
"I'll make sure she gets home." And then I walked home.
But I do remember saying goodbye to Lauren.
She was, like, very intoxicated.
And Sarah was also intoxicated.
Obviously, looking back, I shouldn't have left her.
But I just, you know, made a mistake.
For some reason, they ended up going to his house.
I'm not sure what he said to get them there,
but it's a bit surprising that she would have done that
and that Sarah C. would have done that too,
given that neither of them was interested in Manu.
It didn't fit.
Her messages didn't make sense.
In terms of, like, gibberish.
I thought that was weird.
I was wondering if she herself got drugged or something.
At one point, she said that…
she missed me, and I answered back.
And I didn't get any response…
from there.
PSYCHOLOGICAL AUTOPSY
The police ruled out suicide.
That left only two options.
Either it was an accident, or it was a homicide.
What happened in that penthouse is known only to two people who are still alive.
Those are Manuel Blanco Vela and Sarah.
Sarah gave her testimony to the police while drunk at the scene,
not even at the police station.
Right there, the officer took her statement in one paragraph.
Which who knows how closely it matches reality, if at all.
She said they got to his house,
and she said they were standing around for a little while.
MANUEL BLANCO TOOK BOTH OF THEM
TO DRINK THE "PENULTIMATE"
They went out on the balcony.
They had all been on the balcony, but Lauren stayed inside
a Jacuzzi that was empty on the balcony.
PARTIALLY UNCLOTHED
Sarah and Manu had gone inside to get water.
THEY WENT INSIDE TO GET A GLASS OF WATER
LEAVING HER ON HER OWN
And then they heard a noise.
And so then they went out there, and she was on the ground.
Off the balcony.
I never have pushed more on Sarah to give me more details of that night
because it was so traumatic for her and awful.
And she probably doesn't even remember half of it because she was so wasted.
It was such a blur, and then the trauma on top of all of that.
Looking back, it just feels like a really weird story.
It feels like Sarah…
I want to say this without saying that Sarah…
Sarah did not have anything to do with this.
Like, Sarah is…
very much a victim.
But I think that she was also trying to protect herself
in telling a story that was kind of vague.
I believe the story.
I just think there were a lot more details that maybe weren't told.
Some of it is…
kind of a blur.
I think it was like three days I didn't sleep for a while.
It was like everything was keeping me up.
It was tough.
You know, so much of my life was taken away from me at once.
At the time, although it seemed an accidental fall,
they do not miss the opportunity to administer a breathalyzer test
to both Manuel Blanco and Sarah.
BREATHALYZER TESTS
This was two hours or so after the accident.
RESULT
Sarah's level was 0.48, if I remember correctly.
A fairly high blood-alcohol level.
Lauren Bajorek's test showed
2.99 grams of alcohol per liter of blood.
That blood-alcohol level was close to an alcohol-induced coma.
In the words of the forensic examiner, with 2.9 grams of alcohol in the blood,
one is either dead
or unconscious.
And Manuel tested at 0.0.
0.0.
That is, he took both of them out partying.
Both of them drank,
one of them to the point of reaching an alcohol-induced coma,
and he tested at 0.0.
He was in control of the situation at all times.
They didn't find any alcohol in Manu's,
which was weird because he was at the clubs with them.
I think Manuel is a predator.
He's a predator, a hunter.
I think that night he went hunting
and had the attitude predators have.
That is, a plan, a strategy, and the patience predators have.
It took him hours to end up where he wanted to end up,
and in the situation he wanted to be in, which was at 5:00 a.m.
in his penthouse, with two girls who were completely vulnerable
as a result of consuming, at the very least, alcohol.
And he tested 0.0.
Those are the facts.
One day later, I received an email
that said, "Terrible news
about a CIEE program participant."
I realized that it could have easily been me.
When I look at photos from that time,
I realize I was very vulnerable. All of us were very vulnerable.
And we didn't see that.
But Manuel did.
So when the new group of students arrived,
they all came in like, "We heard a girl died. What happened?"
And I told them,
"Don't go on a trip with Manuel White."
"Don't trust that guy."
"I don't know what happened there, but something's off."
When Carey Bajorek hires us for this case,
the criminal side of the case had already been dismissed.
The investigating judge in Seville,
without carrying out any further investigative steps,
closed the case
saying that there was not enough evidence to continue the investigation.
But in my opinion, it was absolutely premature and unjustified.
There were no grounds to rule out anything.
Without further eyewitness testimony, the proceedings were closed.
Hours later, she was flown back to the US.
And that also caught our attention.
SARAH LEFT THE COUNTRY AFTER THE EVENTS, MAKING AN EXTENSIVE INTERVIEW IMPOSSIBLE
We explained to her that the criminal route was closed
and that there was no way to reopen it.
But there was a possibility of civil proceedings.
COURTHOUSE
And that is what she hired us to do.
It's what we did, and that's the case we took to court in Seville.
A few days before the trial took place,
Lauren's mother, Carey Bajorek, told me she was dying,
and that she would hold on until the trial was over
and we had a ruling.
And that's what happened. The judge upheld our claim and ruled in our favor.
He found that there had been liability for negligence
on Manuel's part,
and set compensation at just over 70,000 euros.
I informed her of the ruling, and a few days later she died.
She felt relieved in the sense of at least knowing part of what happened.
But of course, a ruling couldn't give her what she truly wanted.
The empathy you feel for that mother is just horrendous.
And that mother was so alone in it, you know?
And that's what I just kept thinking of, how alone she was, and she was desperate.
She was desperate to…
to get this story on, to get justice for Lauren.
And I said, "Gabrielle…" Just today I said,
"Can you imagine being her mother and seeing you on The Megyn Kelly Show?"
"And the realization like this is a serious predator?"
This motherfucker was walking down the street,
getting his fucking tapas and copas,
and doing whatever the fuck he wanted, and you guys did nothing?
He's still outside. On the street this whole time.
I think I'd be really upset.
I had to face the fact that this person will never take accountability
for anything he's ever done.
If that was my community, I'd be like, "What the fuck?"
It makes me sick that he's on the streets,
that he's doing intercambios with these young girls.
Look at these little kids that are going out into the world.
Their parents are sending them away. They think they're safe.
I hate to think it,
but I'm pretty sure that he hasn't stopped what he's been doing all these years.
That he's laughing and smiling and going out with friends
and pretending to be a person who isn't dangerous,
and doing exactly the opposite.
Telling girls, "You'll be safe with me." And…
It just sickens me that he's still free.
Nothing is happening to Manuel.
And so there was almost like, "What can I do?"
"What can we do to make this stop?"
And so my role was to just figure out how to do it.
So it doesn't surprise me one iota
that she's determined to do this for the other girls.
When she was in elementary school, anybody that was being bothered,
Gabrielle was in the middle.
I remember saying to her, "Gabrielle, you're a rebel without a cause."
"You're like James Dean, and you need to just stop it."
And this is Gabrielle. I mean, it was who she is.
I didn't want to do this. I don't want to go to trial.
I don't want to deal with this fucking bullshit.
But if there are all these other women and this is a fucking…
Every semester there are new girls.
I felt like I needed to do something.
Suddenly it went from, "I don't want anything to do."
"I'm not prosecuting. I don't want to talk about it."
It went from that to, "We have to do something."
This is just the beginning.
It was the beginning for the both of us.
For him and me.
Do you swear to tell the truth?
Yes.
As defendant,
you have the right not to plead guilty, not to testify against yourself,
or not to testify at all.
Any words for the victims?
Hey, don't touch me.
I'm just talking to you.
If they don't know each other, how do all their statements match?
I had nothing to do with it.
I had no relationship with that person during that trip.
I didn't do anything. with that person during that trip.