A 24-year-old university student from Mallorca, Spain, Agostina Rubini Medina, is believed to have tragically died after accidentally falling into a garbage container and being crushed and incinerated, according to local authorities. Medina had been missing for two weeks after a night of partying in Palma, the capital of Mallorca.
His last known phone activity was on October 3, and authorities now have a new theory about his disappearance after human remains were found at a waste disposal plant. Investigators suspect Medina may have fallen into a dumpster while trying to retrieve something and subsequently passed out.
According to a witness, her bag was seen next to a trash can about 15 minutes before workers arrived to empty it. Shortly after, his phone went dead, just before the garbage truck arrived at the waste depot. Authorities believe Medina likely died in the garbage truck before reaching the plant, according to reports from The sun.
Medina, a social and natural integration student from Mallorca, disappeared after a night of partying, and once the authorities began to piece together the theory of his fate, an intensive search began in the island’s landfills. During this search, human remains were found inside one of the waste facility’s incineration tanks.
The remains have been sent to the Institute of Legal Medicine of Palma for analysis and DNA tests will be carried out to confirm if they belong to Medina. This tragic event has shaken the small Spanish island. Local authorities have expressed that if Medina had ended up inside the garbage truck, survival would have been “impossible” due to the crushing and incineration process that occurs once the garbage reaches the waste deposit.
The trucks dump around 12,000 tonnes of rubbish into sealed rooms at the facility, where the waste is compacted and then incinerated at temperatures above 1,200°C. The authorities told the daily mail that sorting through all the waste for additional remains could take months. Police initially searched the facility’s first incineration tank, but expanded their investigation to a second tank where the remains were eventually found.
Authorities continue to gather evidence, including reviewing CCTV footage from around the area where Medina disappeared. They believe alcohol and drugs may have influenced Medina’s decision to go into the dumpster, possibly looking for his phone, leading to the tragic accident.