- [Man] (speaking Spanish)
- [Narrator] The ocean is notoriously vast,
dark, and seemingly bottomless at times.
Its terrifying yet perplexing nature
has fascinated human beings of all ages, races,
and backgrounds since the dawn of time.
Some seek the solace of the beach for a vacation,
whereas others live and breathe the life at sea.
Any fisherman asked
about the sea would presumably say the same thing.
Waves are not measured by feet or inches.
They are measured by increments of fear.
You see, a person may have the strength
to survive most natural phenomenon like storms, winds,
and even fires.
Getting lost at sea is another thing entirely.
In fact, a fisherman's worst fear is being stuck
on their back, adrift in the open waters
as they wait impatiently for their body to succumb
to the will of the waves or worse,
whatever lurks beneath them.
This fear rears its ugly head from time to time
when fishermen are met with the remains
of some other unlucky soul who had gone toe-to-toe
with the sea and lost.
That is precisely what two unsuspecting fishermen thought
when they came across the body of Angelica Gaitan,
floating aimlessly off the coast of Puerto Colombia
- [Man] (speaking Spanish)
Hola? Hello?
- [Narrator] However, upon closer inspection,
they realized that there was so much more to the story
than they could have ever imagined.
- [Man] (speaking Spanish)
- [Narrator] What is up, EWU Crew?
The story we have in store for you today is a strange one.
If you enjoy true crime mysteries and true stories,
be sure to hit the Like button and Subscribe.
Now let's get into it.
In the early morning hours
of Saturday, September 26th, 2020,
local fishermen Rolando Visbal and his friend, Gustavo,
were going about their usual fishing routes
when they came across something peculiar.
In the distance, just ahead
of their relatively small fishing boat was what appeared
to be a log.
At first, the two men did not think much of it.
In fact, they intended to move right past it
before they suddenly realized that what they assumed
to be a log was moving.
Rolando remembers Gustavo warning him to be careful steering
around the log.
But when he aimed the boat away from the strange object
in the water, he was shocked to see it move.
He thought it might be something supernatural
but he would soon come to the realization
that this was far from the case.
More than that, it wasn't a log at all.
It was the arm of a woman and it was waving at them.
Once the two men realized
that they were discovering something
that they were potentially not supposed to find,
Gustavo pulled his cell phone out of his pocket
and started to record.
As they maneuvered the boat closer
to the woman in the water, they had no idea what to expect.
They then struggled to save the drifting woman
by tying a rope to a life preserver
and throwing it out to her.
After Rolando lifted the woman out of the sea
and into the boat, he repeatedly asked her for her name
in hopes to gain some kind of insight
into what had happened.
(woman crying)
- (speaking Spanish)
(woman crying)
- (speaking Spanish)
(woman crying)
- [Narrator] He can be heard in the video calling
out to the unknown woman in both English and Spanish.
For the most part, the woman was unresponsive
and it was evident to both of the fishermen
that she was suffering from a severe case of hypothermia.
All the same, the communication she was able
to get out came mostly in the form of hysterical tears.
(woman groaning)
- (speaking Spanish)
(woman groaning)
She was fully clothed, wearing a pair of sneakers
and several scarves.
All while filming the strange incident,
the men managed to bring the freezing woman to shore
as quickly as possible.
Once ashore, Rolando enlisted help
from the locals who had been populating the beach
at that very moment.
- [Man] (speaking Spanish)
- [Narrator] Some men brought the woman water
and helped her try to drink
while others held her head upright
in attempt to keep her conscious.
Periodically, Rolando would ask for the woman's name again
and feel disappointed
when his question received no response.
- [Rolando] (speaking Spanish)
- [Narrator] Some of the locals who stopped
to assist the woman with Rolando even attempted
to call an ambulance but were turned down.
Eventually the group of makeshift first responders
decided to load the woman
into the back seat of a car and drive her
to the nearest hospital themselves.
Once the group arrived at the hospital,
the mystery woman from the sea was admitted
and treated immediately for hypothermia and exhaustion.
After having her vitals checked
and being assured by doctors that she would be fine,
the woman spoke her first words since being rescued.
"I was born again. God did not want me to die."
Realizing the woman was both conscious
and willing to speak, doctors and medical staff
at the hospital took the opportunity
to gather her information.
The woman, whose name was Angelica Gaitan,
was a 46-year-old mother originally from Bogota, Colombia.
When doctors asked Angelica for the contact information
associated with her family
so that they could be notified of her accident,
she grew quiet.
It was evident that there had been far more to her story
than the woman had been letting on.
Angelica had been declared missing from her family
for two whole years.
The surreal video taken by Visbal received
over 163,000 views on his social media account,
and the public immediately latched onto this bizarre case.
When pressed for answers,
Angelica relinquished information
surrounding her mysterious disappearance
and explained why it had been imperative for her to leave
when she did.
According to Angelica, she had allegedly been
in an abusive relationship for 20 years.
Prior to the birth of their first child,
Angelica's husband had never laid a finger on her,
though he had been prone to displaying toxic traits
from time to time.
However, during her first pregnancy, Angelica felt the wrath
of her husband repeatedly.
By the time Angelica realized
that she had gotten pregnant again
with the couple's second child, she had hopes
that her husband's alleged horrifying behavior
would cease once and for all.
According to Angelica's claims, however,
her husband had no intention
of stopping his actions anytime soon.
At that point in their marriage,
Angelica's husband had done everything in his power
to disconnect his wife from her social circles.
He allegedly even went so far in his disgusting power trip
that he forbade her from using the bathroom
and made her use the garden instead.
Because of this Angelica was trapped
in a seemingly endless cycle with no clear way out of it.
More so than that, her daughters were so small
that she couldn't just abandon them
or they likely would not survive.
Throughout her tumultuous marriage, Angelica claims
to have reported her husband dozens of times.
Each attempt to keep her husband at bay only resulted
in local police taking him away for 24 hours at a time
and returning him to their shared home the next day.
Upon his return, Angelica would be met
with his anger all over again.
She had been trapped inside of what felt like a nightmare,
but it had been even worse.
It had been real.
There had been no waking up from it.
And so in September of 2018, Angelica Gaitan decided
that she had suffered for far too long.
On one particular autumn day,
Angelica's husband had been excessively aggressive
toward her.
When she had stared into his hollowed eyes,
she was positive that he was going to kill her.
But Angelica did not want to die, not like that, at least.
Without disclosing too much information
to the news outlets who interviewed her,
Angelica simply explained that she had managed to escape
from the situation she had been in.
Angelica left and fled
toward the city of Barranquilla, seeking refuge.
Once there, she was essentially forced to wander the streets
for around six months, with little money and resources
to help her get through.
Down on her luck, with a little to nothing to live off of,
Angelica sought help from a local woman's office
in Barranquilla.
There she was housed, fed, and listened to
for around a year and a half in hopes
that her husband would not come looking for her
at some point.
However, even then, she didn't find complete solace
in the shelter.
She reports being bullied during her time there
with other members turning off her water during showers
and pouring soap into her juice.
Angelica's stay at the woman's office
in Barranquilla ended abruptly in late September of 2020,
for a reason that remains unclear at the moment.
There are various theories regarding her sudden exit
from the facility
but none of them have been adequately confirmed by Angelica
except one.
According to a comment Angelica made in an interview
following her discovery in Puerto Colombia,
she had been forced to leave the shelter
because her husband had apparently left the city of Bogota,
making it safe for her to return home if she wished.
In reality, the notion of her husband leaving Bogota was not
as reassuring as the staff of the woman's facility
had made it seem.
Yet again, Angelica had found herself
in a compromised position with no obvious route to take.
Because of this, she felt more hopeless than ever before.
Angelica herself stated that she wanted to end everything.
She had no help from anywhere, not even from her family,
because her husband kept her away from her social circle.
That's why she didn't want to continue living.
Her explanation is heart-wrenching,
as it truly shows the extent of her loneliness
and lack of hope.
She once lamented, "If I had had an opportunity or help,
I would not make that decision."
So in the late hours of September 25th, 2020,
Angelica borrowed money from an acquaintance she had known
in Barranquilla and bought a one-way bus ticket
to the coast.
Once she walked down to the beach
and stared out at the reflection of the moon
on the sea before her,
she made a life-altering decision.
Being on the seashore, she found herself alone
and in solitude.
She decided to jump into the sea and let it take her.
She had just hoped that the nightmare would soon be over.
Angelica figured that it would not be long
before her body succumbed to the ocean's elements.
The water on the Atlantic side of Colombia was far too cold
for one to be immersed in all night and survive.
However, by some miracle, Angelica lived.
After eight hours of drifting aimlessly
in the ocean's currents,
Angelica's half-conscious body wound up 1.2 miles
off the coast of Puerto Colombia.
It was there that her body was discovered
by Rolando and Gustavo who had helped pull her body
from the sea and ensured she lived.
As aforementioned, Angelica's first words
after being rescued and revived in the hospital bed were,
"I was born again. God did not want me to die."
Angelica claims to have no real recollection of floating
in the ocean and nearly dying.
However, she does recall feeling something brush past her
in the water, something she assumed to have been sharks
checking out their potential prey.
Indeed, the Caribbean Sea that she was drifting in
contains many different types of dangerous sharks,
like tiger and bull sharks, and she later explained,
"I knew there are many sharks in the area.
And I don't know if in a hallucination, I felt
that a fin passed very close to me, but it didn't stop."
Despite the intense realness of that memory,
Angelica is not sure if the sharks were real
or just an evil figment of her imagination.
Regardless, Angelica received the ultimate reminder
that her life matters.
She lived.
Like many people whose attempts to end their lives fail,
it seems that Angelica immediately came
to regret her decision.
She said, "Thank God I was alive,
and he threw me a life preserver."
It turns out she was very lucky that day for another reason.
Rolando later told Colombia's Caracol Radio
that he and his partner came very close
to canceling their fishing trip that day
because of issues with the boat's engine
that had ended up delaying an earlier trip.
He said, "If we hadn't had the problem with the spark plug
on Friday, we would have gone fishing that day
and the woman would be dead at sea."
He has a good-natured outlook on the unexpected situation.
Spoken like a true good Samaritan.
Rolando shared, "So it turns out
that I didn't catch any fish that day either,
but I fished a life.
I think this was God's purpose."
Shortly after Angelica's rescue,
authorities could locate and contact one of her daughters,
Alejandra Castiblanco.
When informed of her mother's status and whereabouts,
Alejandra was shocked and confirmed with police
that she had not heard from her mother in nearly two years.
In fact, Alejandra noted that the last time
she had contact with her mother
was before Angelica had left home in 2018,
to presumably go to Ecuador with her brother.
When officials informed Alejandra
of Angelica's reason for leaving all those years prior,
Alejandra's response was rather unexpected.
In fact, it was not at all
what the police were expecting to hear.
Alejandra and Angelica's other daughter
both disputed their mother's claims.
Local officials were stunned at this assertion,
as they had just heard the 46-year-old woman
have a breakdown over the events of her past
that had led her to her darkest moment.
Alejandra informed the police that Angelica had suffered
from mental health issues for years,
and even had some kind of heart defect
that affected her way of life.
According to Alejandra,
her mother had frequent panic attacks
and even a phobia-like fear of high-end expensive cars.
Just the sight of a pricey vehicle would cause Angelica
to spin out in some kind of fit
that demonstrated her extreme concern with being taken
or harmed by someone or something.
Alejandra also claimed
that her mother had ongoing heart problems for a long time,
which she thinks are linked to the downfall
of her mental health.
Apparently, a particularly bad heart attack
proceeded the deterioration of Angelica's mind.
The other daughter, Paula Castiblanco,
also shared the sentiment
that Angelica was not mentally sound when she spoke
with a Colombian media outlet called El Geraldo.
"We think that during the period of time
that she was missing, perhaps something could have happened
to her that caused her psychological trauma."
Rather than escaping her father,
Alejandra claims that her mother simply walked away
from her home without any notice.
When it comes to Angelica Gaitan's initial disappearance
back in 2018, it is unclear exactly
who is telling the truth.
It is important to keep in mind that these events
of suffering often occur behind closed doors,
for no one else to see.
When our hearts and minds are strained,
it can often feel as though living is too hard to manage.
Angelica Gaitan has since been reunited
with some of her family members since her recent rescue.
Her daughters are raising money
to help their mother make the move back to Bogota.
Local Colombian investigators are still looking
into the conflicting circumstances
surrounding her original disappearance.
Regardless of why she disappeared,
Angelica Gaitan has asserted that if she had the chance
to revisit that night on the coast of Barranquilla,
she would not choose to jump into the water.
So today we will leave you with the words of the woman
who was found alive at sea, after having been missing
from her family for two long years.
"I'm extremely grateful,
because God gave me another chance to move forward."