REMAINS found on an estate belonging to the father of missing youngsters Ruth and Jose Breton, just two days after they vanished, have been confirmed as those of his children.

The grim discovery follows an independent forensic report commissioned by the children’s mother into the origin of the remains, found in a bonfire at finca Las Quemadillas in Cordoba, after police originally claimed they belonged to an animal.

But the findings have now been backed by a second report, commissioned by the government, confirming the teeth and bones are those of two young children aged two and six.

According to Francisco Etxeberria, who led the forensic investigation, the children were burned at a temperature of 800 degrees so that the remains were cremated and DNA would have been destroyed.

The children’s mother, Ruth Ortiz, who has campaigned tirelessly to find her children, is said to be ‘devastated’ by the news.

However Jose Breton, who has been in custody since October 2011 and will now face charges of murder, has dismissed the latest findings.

“It is totally false and impossible that the bones are those of my children,” he said via his lawyer.

More than 15 searches – involving dogs and radar – have been carried out at the Las Quemadillas estate since the youngsters disappeared nearly a year ago but no trace of them had been found.

Questions are now being asked as to why the police failed to correctly identify the remains in the early stages of the investigation.

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25 COMMENTS

  1. Yet again the inevitable tragic result. This brings the number of children “abducted” in Spain to Zero. All the others on the list with exception of Amy, are with the other parent. Yesterday 5 yr old Isabella Sarah Tennant in the USA was also found in a rubbish bin and a ‘friend of the family’, the last person to see her alive, is to be charged with her murder. She had been reported “abducted”. Tia, Shannon, Maria Sabatier, – there is a VERY long list. They all have in common harm within the family, and reported abduction.

  2. PM I am afraid I have to put you right here. There are a couple more that I can remember, one that comes directly to mind is Jeremy, I think he was from the Canary Islands, another the boy painter from Malaga, whose name escapes my memory now, it was so long ago, he boarded a bus to go to his painting lessons and disappeared, never to be heard of since, except that once every few years some newspaper reminds people that he is still missing. There are other cases whose trails have gone cold. Parents should never be too careful with their children, there are some very twisted minds out there in every part of the world unfortunately, and sometimes it only takes a minute to lose sight of them forever.

    I wholeheartedly agree that it is incomprehensible, to say the least, for a father or mother to kill their own children, but since the case has not yet been heard, there is still the element of doubt,however miniscule, until he is proven guilty. When and if he is, let all the powers at be fall on his head.

  3. Since all the children that are missing merit that their name should be remembered, the boy painter’s name was David and he was just 13.

    “http://www.diariosur.es/prensa/20070325/malaga/antonia-guevara-madre-david_20070325.html”

  4. Correct. I had forgotten Jeremi Vargas from Las Palmas, who is still missing. So that leaves one in the last ten years. Plus Amy whose story the OP discovered very early on by good investigative journalism, was not entirely as it had been related by the family.

  5. PM if you google ‘ninos desaparecidos en Espana’ you might find a few more, unfortunately. It is not the country’s fault or their police forces either, its to do with the darkest side of human nature of which no country is exempt. Some are fortunately found, others have been abducted by one parent or the other after divorces, some are found too late and others, much like in Marta from Sevilla’s case no body is found.

    And dont forget the thousands of babies whose mother’s claim were taken from them at birth well past the 1970’s. But that is quite another matter, though the same dark nature of some could still be pointed to here.

  6. The bonefire was found by the police in the garden the first day of the investigation when the father told the police he lost the children in the park and nobody believe him!!!! HOW THIS POLICE din´t do the forensic analysis!!! I have follow this history when I was in Spain last year and I can´t believe it!!! the police went to the house at least 7 times with radars, dogs to see if they were buried in the garden, they check between the walls everywhere, they spent a fortune and they make a lot of noise because the public want to know, HOW THEY DIN´T BOTHER TO ANALYSIS the bonefire? that it was done by the father the same afternoon the children disappear? totally useless, the problem in Spain people get the job because of who they know instead of how much they know!! the country is complete ruined!!!. they make a big mistake with other child Marta del Castillo the investigation was so bad from the beginning than the murders (4 boys) most of then are free or with very little sentence… and there are a lot of more cases than we don´t know, we only know the mistakes of this two cases because people were doing manifestation in the street and the press was following the news very closed!!

  7. It Ain’t Cricket. That may be correct. My point is that it falls short of the 20,000 per year we are always told by the charities who make money out of people’s phobias. The numbers actually missing are tiny, and the numbers taken by their other parent and brought up in complete safety make up the overwhelming majority of those. The numbers “abducted by strange foreign garlic smelling, muttering, greasy haired, limping bogeymen from their beds through broken or not broken shutters, or open patio doors and never seen again” is almost none. Even in Spain.

  8. Hi im from spain and right now im watching a documentary dedicated to ruth and jose and i can´t believe it…i cannot understand how a father can do that to their children . That kids were angels and now they are in the heaven caring for their poor mother…

  9. Our organization known as Action For Justice ( AXJ ) is investigating this case closely and we have created a group on Facebook if you are interested.

    “https://www.facebook.com/pages/Justicia-para-Jose-y-Ruth-Breton/312503665515439”

  10. AXJ. Stand by to be abused by people who will argue that the police are wrong, the forensic scientists useless, the pathologists don’t know what they are talking about, any confession must bave been obtained by torture, and any conviction obviously wrongful. These people always know better.

  11. PM, thank you for your comment. We have no DNA on the bones and teeth which mysteriously appeared. Apparently a third party was also involved. We have a copy of the video showing Breton driving to Las Quemadillas at 11:14:16 on October 8, 2011, and then when Jose Breton went to the park later that afternoon and lost the children. He also phoned his brother Raphael who came running. There are many comments to the recent chain of events and some are not pleasant. Nevertheless you are welcome to read them at: “www.axj.com/casobreton.htm”

  12. AXJ. Many thanks. I read the report in El Pais two days ago as well. I had not realised that he was once a veterinary student, and that he told the police he had been burning some old specimens, hence the animal remains and the reason why the police did not immediately suspect that some of the bones might be human. Very devious, very clever. What was good is that the police Did collect the samples and Did label them and store them correctly, which is part of the El Pais report.

  13. AXJ and PM. The chidren’s mother was the vet student not the father. My thoughts are that the forensics might have been done on some bones, not all, there seem to have been quite a few. What’s the unlucky likelihood of the tests being done on sporadic charred bones and splinters which might all have turned out to be animal? Flukes do occur. Maybe that was the intention for burning them together?. Won’t know till its heard in court, but surely nobody believes the police and forensics are ignoramuses.

  14. PM If I may. Quemadilla could be said in the context of something being a little bit burnt, or it could refer to little bonfires of sorts. No direct translation of word could be found. You will probably find the answer to the name of the finca in its history or the history of the terrain it encloses. Gruesome coincidence.

  15. Thanks for that. I have just looked it up again and it does say “‘efectos de su mujer, ropa y apuntes de cuando estudiaba Vererinaría.” Since Spanish cannot distinguish between ‘his’ and ‘hers’ we must go by context and look for the lack of the comma. And yes what a gruesome coincidence. And sadly, people are only too willing to think of forensic scientists, Police officers, detectives and dog handlers as incompetent fools, if the findings go against their own pre-judgment of a case.

  16. We have a right to know how the police could possibly commit such grave mistakes.One can only think that no profesional forensic scientist could be that stupid and therefore must have been paid off. If not, how could this happen? The people os Cordoba should be in the streets protesting how police are hired and on what bases, how are we supposed to sleep at night knowing that these are the so-called professionals who are there to protect us?

  17. If this man is to be found guilty with no unreasonable doubt, surely a prison sentence should only be put in place after he is beaten to within an inch of his life by the mother of the children and the family, then on random occasions removed from his prison cell and beaten again by the mother and the family
    when ever they see fit, for the rest of his life. I feel this and only this will be small percent of justice,as really there is no justice that can be dealt out for this human.

  18. I SO AGREE to you BLOPEZ.number 1. in my owm opinion and observation, people are hired accoring to WHO you know, and NOT what you know ..( if you are professional and a university graduate but NOT spanish , you will just work as helper of the superiors who JUST took formacion (vocational course) 2. what a responsible forensic..I am starting to wonder if it is also connected to case no. 1 ? HOW did that forensic landed on that job if he or she can not even identify human bone to animal bones? and so much more..now spain is in DEEP crisis, I have been to almost all side of the world God knows that , ONLY in spain that I have ever experience such notable crisis ..spain is a beautiful country itself..but there are so many ODD people around ..but ofcourse you will still find good people

  19. how about the forensic who said that the bones were animals should be punished? In my personal opinion , hmm Malpractice ? negligence resulting to obstruction of justice ? 40 years in prison for breton i think is a very light sentence for a heartless creature..

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