Joan Jubany: “The murder of my sister Helena was a femicide”

Who are these four men? They are members of the Excursionist Union of Sabadell (UES) and the National Police always knew that their murderers were in the UES [a la que Helena se apuntó al instalarse en Sabadell]. Sanllehí changed his statement to protect Jiménez and we suspect that Macià, who is the coordinator of the UES, has been part of the group’s ‘omertá’. Macià sent me an email in September 2002 and told me that we were acting with a spirit of revenge against the UES. I prefer not to say what I felt.

Everyone is still free, did the National Police do their job? I think so. I had been active in the independence movement since the 1980s. He had no sympathy for the National Police. However, there was trust between the two parties, which grew over the years. David – the policeman who appears in the two episodes of Crims – helped in 2020 with his words to generate a turning point in the case [se reabrió judicialmente tras la emisión de la serie].

By openly saying that he believed that Santi Laiglesia killed Helena? Yes. And after two years of that public accusation, [Laiglesia] he hasn’t done anything. If they accuse me of something I have not done, with names and surnames, I would file a complaint. The fact that he has not done so seems to confirm the suspicions. It is not the normal reaction of someone who is innocent.

Why were Laiglesia and Jiménez not investigated in 2001? The judge investigating the case decided that Helena’s death was a woman’s thing. And, despite the fact that Laiglesia and Jiménez had contradicted each other in their statements, ‘Don Horacio’ – that was the name of the investigating judge – only focused on Montse Careta [que se suicidó en la cárcel cuatro meses después del asesinato de Helena] and Ana Echigabel.

And it wasn’t a “girl thing”… It was a man thing. A femicide. They were some males who killed a woman because they were guys. So we didn’t even have that word: femicide.

Is Montse Careta also a victim? Surely Muntsa is a victim. But is she completely innocent? His family thinks he is. We have always believed that she was involved. The tests indicate it. Just clarifying how Helena died will tell us if Muntsa is completely innocent… whether she acted unintentionally, or under [por Santi Laiglesia].

This Friday Xavi Jiménez declares because he is considered the author of the anonymous letters that Helena received before the crime… We are in the good way. But for the last 20 years this has been a rollercoaster ride. We have been well on track on other occasions and they have barred our way. We don’t know how far they’ll let us go now. And notice that I use the expression “we don’t know how far they will let us go”. Has no sense. We shouldn’t be the ones who are pushing towards the resolution of the crime, the authorities should be the first interested in doing it. In the case of a femicide even more so.

Has justice been a wall against which they have been beating for years? In 2005, when the case was closed, we understood that if we kept insisting, we would hurt ourselves. My father took the initiative to turn this story around and focus on remembering Helena in a positive way. We created the Associació Helena Jubany and also a literary award with the aim of keeping her memory alive and growing her passion for literature. This is what has helped us.

But they have been waiting for 20 years, it must not have been easy to continue with your life without clarifying Helena’s death… It hasn’t been from the beginning: my sister was killed ten days before my daughter was born. And Helena really wanted to be an aunt. Everything was already mixed from the beginning: a very hard cocktail. On an emotional level, it is the wildest thing that can happen to you: life and death.

How do you digest that those who attacked your sister are still on the street? Whether they’re in jail or not isn’t going to bring Helena back to us. We live it like this. I guess we’ve sucked this way of being. My parents have instilled it in us: not to be vindictive. We just want justice, and to know what they did with Helena, to close the duel. I say this especially thinking of my parents. I don’t want them to die without knowing what happened to their daughter.

Is there no thirst for revenge? Years ago they came to offer us free assassins to settle accounts on the fringes of the law and we did not want to know anything about them. Because no, what we are pursuing is the truth, saying goodbye to Helena, feeling close to her in her last days.

Do you think that now those who know what happened will speak up? Those directly responsible for his death I think will not speak. The accomplices, by humanity, should. For Macià and Sanllehí the case has already prescribed, nothing will happen to them if they speak. I don’t know what loyalty they owe to Laiglesia and Jiménez. But for humanity, they should tell what they know.