The life of the Barrios family stopped on October 24, at the very moment Daniel, a quiet and beloved young man in his community, left home hoping to meet a girl. He was wearing a white sweater, jeans, and sky-blue sneakers, convinced he would return. Since then, his place in the house remains empty and his phone is silent. The next day, October 25, his sister, Emily Barrios, found the courage that desperation gives and filed the complaint that opened the criminal case at the Regional Prosecutor's Office of West Panama. From that instant, the family lives trapped in a mix of faith and premonitions that tighten the chest. The young woman who last saw Daniel testified on the same day the complaint was filed. She said she had met him on October 18 at her grandmother's and uncle's house, a man she only identifies as "Gordi". She also claimed not to remember his name, an omission too convenient for investigators and too suspicious for a family that already smells disaster. The case took a darker turn when, days after the disappearance, "Gordi" was arrested for possession of a firearm found in his residence. From his cell, he maintains a silence that hurts more than any words: he has not said what happened to Daniel or where his body might be. That silence weighs on the family like a premonition of homicide. The Prosecutor's Office has conducted proceedings, searches, and raids that, so far, have not provided the much-needed breakthrough. To worsen the frustration, the family reports that the case file has not yet been fully scanned or uploaded to the platform, preventing them from knowing every step of the process. In a life-or-death case, that lack of order seems like an additional cruelty. Almost a month later, the calendar keeps moving, but Daniel's family does not. They live each day as if it were an emotional countdown, clinging to a hope that already feels worn out. Nonetheless, they demand clarity, rigor, and speed: that the State not allow this case to be lost in silence, because already one silence, that of "Gordi", weighs too much.
