Body of boy in well found TRAGIC END TO SEARCH FOR JULEN, 2
RESCUERS yesterday found the body of a toddler 250ft down a well he fell into in front of his horrified parents.
More than 300 police, firefighters and engineers had joined a mammoth 12-day search for two-year-old Julen Rosello in Malaga, Spain.
His parents Jose and Vicky, both 29, were too distraught to comment.
Officials have declared three days of mourning.
President Pedro Sanchez said: “All of Spain joins the infinite sadness of the Julen family. My support and affection for their parents and loved ones.”
A Spanish royal household spokesman sent con- dolences and praised rescuers who “without rest showed solidarity without limits”.
Julen tumbled down the 10in- wide, 350ft deep borehole on land owned by a family friend on January 13. But no one could reach down the tiny well, dug by prospectors in search of water in the remote village of Totalan.
Vicky said at the time: “I heard my son cry and his father was talking to him and he heard him and cried again and now we can’t hear him.”
A 4ft-wide rescue tunnel was dug parallel to the shaft, to reach the spot where cameras had found one of Julen’s hairs. Earlier attempts to dig horizontally from the side of the mountain were hampered by landslides.
Rescuers worked day and night in shifts trying to save Julen but he was dead when they reached him at 1.25am local time yesterday.
An ambulance rushed to the family’s BUNGLING police swooped on a woman munching Mini Cheddars and accused her of swallowing heroin.
Katherine Oliver was eating the treats as she pulled into her drive after a trip to Tesco when officers swarmed over her car.
The mum of three, 43, said: “An unmarked car blocked me. Four officers jumped out and my driver door was swung open. My mouth was bulging with Mini Cheddars and an officer was screaming, ‘What’s in your mouth?’, and I was struggling to say ‘Mini Cheddars’.
“He asked me to open my mouth and it’s just congealed cheddars and he said ‘Is that a bag of brown?’ and I said ‘no’. I had to spit the cheddars home on Friday night, after Jose reportedly suffered an anxiety attack.
Julen is the second child the tragic couple have lost after their eldest son Oliver died suddenly of a heart condition two years ago.
Investigators said it appeared Julen had fallen “fast and free” to where his body was found near a blockage nearly three quarters of the way down the 350ft shaft. A postmortem said he probably died soon after falling in.