Classmates' parents say mother and daughter seemed close before Coll de Nargó killing

Parents of classmates of the girl who was killed by her mother in a plot in Coll de Nargó told the judge that the mother and daughter had a very good relationship and that nothing had suggested a tragic outcome. About a dozen family members were summoned this Friday to the court in La Seu after having answered questions previously posed to them by Mossos d'Esquadra officers by telephone.

The summons caught those parents by surprise and caused discomfort; many said they did not understand why they had been called. The initial investigating judge had asked for inquiries into the girl's surroundings, and, through a rogatory request, Andorran judicial and police authorities were asked to identify people who were close to the victim at school and in some extracurricular activities. Andorran police provided a list of classmates' families and some educators. Following the judge's instructions, Catalan police contacted the people on that list and recorded their impressions.

Against expectations, the judge who later took over the case decided to have some of those people ratify their earlier statements in court. According to sources, the current magistrate heard around a dozen relatives of the minors on Friday. None of the declarants reported anything unusual; all confirmed that the mother and daughter always had a very good relationship and that their behaviour appeared normal up to the last moment. The only detail noted by several witnesses was that the woman, now 47 and held at the Ponent penitentiary in Lleida, had cut her hair very short a few days before the incident.

When she was arrested, the mother admitted she had caused her daughter's death and that she had also tried to take her own life by ingesting medication she used for her mental health conditions; her attempt did not succeed. Toxicology tests and forensic examinations on the child's body fully corroborated the mother's account, finding an abnormal amount of a toxic substance compatible with an overdose of those drugs and no signs of other violence.

The mother has explained that she wanted to end her own life and did not want to leave the child with her parents because she feared the child would suffer as she had. She is now in prison and is expected to serve perhaps a couple of decades behind bars as the criminal proceedings continue.