Did missing Spanish teen get into a car at 4am?

Spanish investigators working on the case of a missing teen are now trying to determine whether she may have gotten into a vehicle on the night of her disappearance.

Diana Quer, 18, has not been seen since she said goodbye to friends at the local fiestas in the Galician village of A Pobra do Caramiñal in the early hours of August 22.

The search for Diana Quer has extended beyond Spain, with an alert in Poland, Greece, Portugal, France, Switzerland and Belgium

She was originally thought to have disappeared somewhere along the path leading back to the family’s holiday home, in a residential estate located in the outskirts of town.

But an analysis of her cellphone’s positioning signals suggests that she may have walked back into the house, or at least come very close to it. The mobile device was turned off around 4am. Diana had mentioned to friends that her battery was dying out.

This possibility ties in with other clues found inside the home, where investigators found the clothes that she wore to the fiestas. This suggests that she may have walked in, changed, and left again for unknown reasons. Some witnesses had testified to seeing the teen back in the fiestas around 4am.

The girl’s mother, Diana López-Pinel, said that if her daughter walked in and out again, she was never aware of it. Her younger sister Valeria has issued numerous calls on the social media asking Diana to come back.

The case, which has been making national headlines since the disappearance, recently took a new turn when it emerged that a court is taking custody of the younger daughter away from the mother.

The father, Juan Carlos Quer, made public statements to the effect that the court’s decision “comes very late” and suggesting that his daughters “phoned me for help” on several occasions. He has also appeared on television shows, asking Diana to call home to let everyone know whether she is OK. “Whatever problems you may have, we can solve them; there are many people here who love you and support you.”

“Hopefully she just walked away. Hopefully it’s all just a childish prank. But I don’t think so,” he said on Antena 3, adding that Diana had “unsavory friends. I’m talking about people who might be practically outside the law.”

For her part, Diana Lopez-Pinel has refused to go into details regarding family disputes, and said that she has faith in God that her eldest child will return safe and sound. In a public letter, she wrote that Diana would not approve of having the family's dirty linen dragged out into the light.

The couple was divorced four years ago and both girls had been living with their mother in Pozuelo de Alarcón, a wealthy suburb outside Madrid. Local residents of A Pobra, where all three spent their summer holidays, reported hearing a loud family dispute shortly before Diana’s disappearance.

Her relatives have repeatedly claimed that she is being “illegally detained” although they refuse to use the term “kidnapping.”

The search has now extended beyond Spain. An international alert is out in Poland, Greece, Portugal, France, Switzerland and Belgium, the missing persons association SOS Desaparecidos told the news agency Europa Press.

English version by Susana Urra.