The suspect led the police to a body in an advanced state of decomposition hidden under branches. “A person has been arrested and the search has been suspended for the moment. James Way, where he had buried Thiem’s body. Miguel Angel Munoz, 39, took investigators to his farm near the Camino de Santiago, also called St. On Saturday, the more than 200 people of 20 different nationalities hoping to locate Denise Pikka Thiem ended their search after the Spanish government announced that a body had been found, and an arrest had been made. “I really feel that she got into a bad situation.” On April 14, Cedric, who was taking care of his aging parents in Phoenix, flew to Spain to help search for his sister, in vain. According to Thiem’s brother, Cedric, after church, she was seen having breakfast with an Italian tourist.Ĭedric, who stayed in touch with his sister on a daily basis, contacted the authorities the day after she went missing. More about the El Camino de Santiago below:Įl Camino de Santiago, in English “The Way of Saint James,” is the pilgrimage to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain, where legend has it that the remains of Jesus’s apostle Saint James the Elder lie.Throughout pilgrimages-to Jerusalem, to Rome, and to Santiago de Compostela, a person could be freed from the penance due for sins.ĭenise Pikka Thiem, who had traveled to Singapore, the Philippines, Cambodia and Vietnam prior to her trip to Europe, vanished on Easter Sunday after attending mass in a church in the small town of Astorga. On April 5, Denise Pikka Thiem, a 40-year-old woman from Arizona flew to Spain to walk in the famous Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route, which has existed for 1,000 years.

Pikka in english