THE SECRET OF THE TUNNEL: THE TRUTH ABOUT THE MISSING TRIPLETS

In 2000, three baby girls disappeared without a trace from the Nossa Senhora do Mar Hospital in Barcelona. The case — Aitana, Lúcia, and Sofia García-Salom — became an open wound for the local police. They vanished within the first 24 hours of life. No traces. No witnesses. No answers.

For years, investigations were opened and closed, suspects were questioned, and theories emerged… only to lead nowhere. In 2008, the case was officially archived. And that seemed to be the end — until the truth resurfaced twenty-five years later.

I — THE CONFESSION

Retired nurse María de los Ángeles Ríos, who had worked at the hospital for forty years, was admitted with terminal lung cancer. She spent her last days alone, except for occasional visits from Inspector Elena Santamaría, a specialist in unsolved cases.

On a quiet Tuesday, María urgently requested to see her.

When Elena entered the room, the nurse was pale, breath shallow.

“Close the door… please,” she whispered.

Elena complied, noticing a dented tin box beside the bed.

“I’ve carried a sin for twenty-five years, Inspector,” María said. “It’s about the triplets.”

Elena’s heartbeat quickened. This was the first real lead in decades.

“You understand this can be recorded as a statement?” Elena asked.

María nodded weakly.

“That morning, I was on duty in neonatology. Around six, I saw two men wearing hospital coats — but not ours. Their IDs were fake. They said the babies needed urgent tests due to respiratory complications. I… believed them. I prepared the incubators.”

Elena felt a chill. Nothing in the official records mentioned any transfer.

“When I tried to notify the unit chief, they stopped me. They weren’t violent… but made it clear I should stay silent. ‘It’s for a greater good,’ they said. And they took the triplets down a corridor I had never seen before.”

With trembling hands, María opened the box.

Inside were three newborn bracelets — intact — and an old photograph of a hospital underground corridor.

“I kept this because I knew one day I’d have to pay for my silence. I don’t know who those men were… but someone from this hospital was involved. Someone powerful. Someone still alive.”

Elena studied the photo. The corridor seemed part of the basement officially sealed in 1998.

“Why didn’t you speak sooner?” the inspector asked.

María inhaled with difficulty.

“Fear. And because that tunnel… was never truly closed. Someone still goes in and out.”

II — THE SEARCH FOR THE TUNNEL

María died that same night — but only after whispering her final words:

“Look down there… before it’s too late.”

Determined, Elena obtained old hospital blueprints. They confirmed the existence of underground tunnels built during the Spanish Civil War, once used for patient transport and later for storage. Officially, they had been closed for over two decades.

But the photo said otherwise.

Before dawn, with a flashlight and two officers, Elena found the hidden entrance behind an abandoned wing. The air was heavy and stale. The descent was narrow and cracked.

At the bottom, they found recent footprints, medicine packaging, and a door with no markings.

When they forced it open, they found…

III — THE REVELATION

Two improvised dorm rooms. Women’s clothing. Fake IDs. Dozens of photographs of three girls at different ages — from around ten to their early twenties.

And on the table, a dossier marked with the emblem of the old Fundación San Aurelio, investigated in the 1990s for baby trafficking.

The triplets had not been taken out of the hospital that day.
They had been raised there, hidden, for years.

But why?

The reports revealed:

• long-term cognitive development experiments
• behavioral monitoring
• complete medical logs

An illegal project interrupted after the death of one of the financiers — and by the increasing risks of exposure.

The last entry, dated 2018, read:

“The girls now live separately. Identities fully operational.”

A shiver ran down Elena’s spine.

The triplets were alive.
Somewhere out there.

IV — EPILOGUE

The García-Salom case was reopened. The hospital collapsed under scandal. Former employees were summoned for questioning. Fundación San Aurelio became the focus of an international investigation.

As for the triplets…

They have not yet been found.
But for the first time in twenty-five years, there were clues — and a path to follow.

All because one dying nurse finally had the courage to tell the truth.