01x01 - The Journey

[bunniefuu]

[woman ] In the US, it's not
the culture to go abroad to study.

But my mom said,
"Oh, well, you can go to Spain."

[somber music playing]

And I was an -year-old kid, you know.

And it was just like this…
It was like an adventure.

I don't know exactly when things got so

f*cking bad.

When I moved to Spain,

I was the youngest kid in my program.

[woman ] American college students
who were studying abroad in Spain.

I studied abroad in Sevilla.

-Sevilla.
-Sevilla.

After I got to Spain, we were saying,
"Oh, let's go on a trip."

¡Hola!

[woman ] Discover Excursions
was recommended.

We were adults for the first time.

[in Spanish] Looking at the photos
from that time, we were so vulnerable.

[in English] Something bad happened.
I don't have the language for it.

She called me, hysterical crying.

Like, what the hell happened?

[in Spanish] I never would've imagined
what was happening.

[in English] It was happening for years.

I think it was
like people towards the end.

I was like, "Wow, this is wild."

You feel like you were in the room
with the devil.

[unsettling music playing]

[baby cooing]

My name's Gabrielle Vega.
I am years old.

I'm the oldest of three girls.

I grew up in a normal suburb in the US

[kids laughing]

We got bicycles,
and we were always outside.

It was just, like, a sweet childhood.

I'm a horsey, Mom.

My father is a first-generation American.

My mom's from New Jersey.

My family has no Spanish roots.

But my husband's side
has deep roots in Spain.

His grandparents were from Asturias.

[Gabrielle] My parents really loved
the idea of me going back to Spain

and reconnecting
with the origin story of the family.

That's it.

I remember the night before,
I was packing my bag,

and I was by myself, and I

was getting really sentimental.

I had started writing letters.

[Lynn] I think that's the only letter
she's maybe ever written to me.

It was meaningful.

We knew she was excited,
and she really wasn't afraid.

And so it was, you know…

It was a happy thing
for us to send her off.

[Gabrielle] I think my dad,
I don't wanna say regrets,

but wishes that he taught me…
taught us Spanish when we were younger.

He was looking at where
could I learn the purest form of Spanish.

And so he was like,
"Oh, it's in Salamanca."

So that's kind of why
I decided to go there.

[up-tempo music playing]

[church bells tolling]

I don't know. I just felt like
the world kind of just opened up,

and I was just gonna do whatever I could.

I knew nothing about Salamanca.

It's really, really beautiful,
and you learn the little things about…

You meet under the clock
when meeting your friends in the
plaza.

That's where you go to meet.

And you just set the time,
get there, whatever.

I didn't know how to drink.
I didn't know how to behave.

I was on my own for the first time.
I didn't speak the language.

It was so new.

But I remember living there and feeling

like it was the first time
I saw color in my life.

So I really loved it.

And tried to immerse myself
as much as I could.

[optimistic music ends]

[animated chatter on street]

UNIVERSITY OF SALAMANCA

I was with kids
who were probably , , .

We were thinking about all the trips
'cause Europe is packed.

And so I was like, "Oh, I could go
to France or Morocco, go to Africa."

And we're like,
"Well, Africa, I don't know."

But you could go, and that would be great.

I had always known that was one
of the trips that I really wanted to take,

just because it was so foreign.

Discover Excursions
was known across our group.

I knew they went to Morocco.
It seemed like tons of kids had done it.

[man]
Are you looking for a fun
and easy way to travel to Morocco?

Come with Discover Excursions
on a safe and eye-opening trip.

[bright music playing]

Ride on a camel.

Try delicious food.

And enjoy sun-filled days
in miles of endless desert.

Trust us. You'll be surprised
by what you'll experience in Africa.

Do more than travel. Discover.

[tense music rises]

We were just the market for it,
for that company.

It was like, "Oh, well, you wanna go
to Morocco? This is the company."

They had all the marketing.
They had pictures of all of us.

Little American kids going.

Yeah, I mean, it was…
Discover Excursions was a legit business.

[man] Welcome.

We're open Monday through Friday,
: a.m. to : p.m. No
siestas
for us.

[Gabrielle] It was very professional.
It was pretty affordable.

But it was also very much this kind of…

fun, sort of like young environment.

It was young tour guides.

And kids from my program,
we all kind of decided to go together.

They organized the trip.

The days were planned.
You had an itinerary, and it was like…

I think it was a group of .
It was a huge group of kids that went.

I think it was two buses or something.
It was a lot of us.

[Lynn] I remember telling us
she was gonna go to Morocco.

So we were like, "Oh, this is great."

And I know she was excited.

We basically went to Morocco.

And we went around
the northern part of the country.

[young woman] Wow!

[rhythmic strings and percussion]

Oh my God! [laughs]

I remember being really impressed
at how beautiful it was.

There were these mountains
that were really incredible.

The architecture
being extremely different.

The main tour guide,
my impression, was Manuel.

I remember Manuel

talking to all of us on the bus.

Standing up at the front and talking about

how we're gonna have a great time,
do X, Y, and Z.

He seemed friendly and warm
and kind of like an excitable person.

Probably in their early s, late s.

He seemed like a nice guy
who was gonna show us around

and was really excited we were there.

We went to the Blue City.

I went to the markets
that were really incredible.

I remember being almost overcome
by the aggression of these salesmen.

I was with my friends,
and we were excited by the whole thing.

Because it was like
we were in this different world.

And they spoke every language.

They spoke French, English, Spanish.
It was like… It was overwhelming.

The smells were overwhelming.
And not in a bad way. It was just like…

It was like I was
in this really new place.

[ominous music playing]

I think it was Saturday.
And that was the last night of the trip.

[young woman] Hello, little kitty.

-[meowing]
-It's so pretty.

They wanted us to feel comfortable
the whole time we were there, you know?

And they emphasized safety.

"Morocco's not super safe.
You guys should stay inside."

"There's a bar at the hotel on the…"

I think it was the top floor of the hotel.

"We can go up there
if you guys wanna drink."

"It's best if you don't go outside."

"At night here, it can be sketchy,
and there's a big group of us."

We were all encouraged
to stay in the hotel that night.

And we went to the bar.
Me, Ashley, and Nicole.

We were staying in a room together.
The three of us.

I had met them through my program.

I remember I smoked a cigarette
with my friends.

And Manuel popped up.

[sinister music]

He was like,
"Are you guys getting another drink?"

We were like, "Yeah, we were gonna…"

And he came up with this idea
where he was like,

"I can get champagne,
and we can all hang out in the room."

And, like, whatever.

"I'll get it. Don't even worry about it."

And we were like, "I mean, sure."

I didn't even think about it.
I was like, "Okay, that sounds good."

And we went to our hotel room,
the four of us.

He had ordered the champagne to the room.

And he was the one
that opened the door when it came.

We were sitting on the beds
and just hanging out.

The three of us girls.

And…

[girls laugh]

And yeah, he came over.

I'm pretty sure
there was a piece of furniture.

You know the piece of furniture
in front of the beds?

He had put the champagne there.
And we were behind him on the beds.

And he just started pouring it
with his back to us.

It was very casual.

It was a very friendly
kind of environment.

And I just remember

his whole f*cking, like…
vibe started to change.

He wanted to play games and stuff.

He basically started asking us,

"Well, how many people
have you slept with?"

And he would, um…

He started saying,

"Well, why don't we all switch shirts
or play truth or dare?"

And he was like, "Do you guys mind
if we get… if I get more comfortable?"

And he just takes his pants off.

He's in his underwear. He takes a pillow
and puts it over himself.

I don't f*cking…
I was just like, "What the f*ck is that?"

But then you rationalize it,
and you're like, well…

Maybe it's just a cultural difference,
you know?

Maybe it's just him being,
I don't know, different.

I don't know.

I remember I started getting really tired.
Like really, really tired, and…

There was a cot by the closet.

I got up from the bed,
and I went to the cot.

And I laid down, and I knocked out.

[menacing music rises]

[silence]

I don't know how long I was asleep.
I have no idea.

I just remember I woke up at some point.

And no one was in the room.

And I felt like sh*t.

I had never felt that way in my life.

I have not felt that way in my life since.

There was almost a disconnect
between my mind and my body,

where my brain
was working on such a slow level.

It was just exhaustion.
I don't know what that was.

When I got up, I just remember
leaning up against the wall

and dragging my feet,
one in front of the other,

to get to the bathroom.

I went to go open the bathroom door,
and when I opened it…

Nicole and Ashley and Manuel
were all in the shower, the three of them.

They were in their shirts and underwear.
He was in his underwear.

I remember I closed the door.

And I was like, "What the f*ck was that?"

And then, um…

They all came out, scurried out.

It almost looks like
they were all embarrassed, kind of.

And so I just went in,
and I sat on the toilet.

And I was facing the door.

And…

All I remember…

And it's the thing that's haunted me
for years.

It's that memory
of the door swinging open,

and seeing his crotch come towards me,
and then him putting himself in my mouth.

And then me getting hit in the head.

And then I just blacked out.

[unsettling music playing]

[sudden silence]

I woke up the next morning in the cot.

And I was in my clothes.

And my roommates, Nicole and Ashley,
were in the beds. They were sleeping.

He had just… He was not in the room.

He was gone.

And I was in a lot of pain.

I was very sore.

And I remember I moved the blanket,

and I looked at my legs, and I had…

I was wearing pants,
and I remember I looked at my knees,

and I had bruises on my knees.

It just felt like something
was really wrong. I was just in pain.

And I felt very out of control
and very slow.

And I remember getting up.

Got in the shower, cleaned myself off.

And they woke up,

and we had to get all our stuff ready

'cause we were leaving that morning
to go back to Spain.

And I just remember
feeling so f*cking exhausted.

I got all my stuff.

Went downstairs with my stuff.

And I sat on the couch that morning
when we were getting ready to leave.

And I remember I put my head back.

And I closed my eyes.

And I had that flashback of…

the door opening
and him putting himself in my mouth.

And I remember
I felt like I was gonna throw up.

It was, like, so vivid
and visual and just, like, horrifying.

That's when I… realized what had happened.

[melancholy music playing]

The craziest thing was…

I couldn't have a breakdown.

I couldn't freak out.

I was in a different country.

I had to just go through it.

I had to just be like,
"Just go. Just get on the bus."

"You'll be fine."

Manuel was at the door of the bus

when we were all going on the bus
to go to Salamanca.

I walked to get onto the bus,
and he just looked over my head.

I was not…

It was almost like I was
completely invisible, which I preferred.

But I didn't cry. I didn't…

I didn't do anything. I didn't react.

I just went completely into myself.

And I was just like… No one was home.

I think I went back to the US
maybe, like, May .

I remember crying on the plane.

'Cause I still wasn't really even
admitting to myself what had happened.

[Lynn] When she came back,

she was not herself.

She was just kind of withdrawn
and not herself.

And we would say,
"What's the matter? What's wrong?"

And she's like,
"I just don't wanna be here."

"I don't wanna be here.
I don't wanna, um…"

"I'm just not used
to being back in the States."

I remember researching it.

It was a common thing
for kids who had studied abroad.

It's called re-entry depression.

If they come back
and they're not themselves,

just know that it's normal.

That's what she kept telling us
was going on.

[Gabrielle] It was my biggest fear,
reaching out to my parents

and telling them 'cause I had so much…

So much, like…

that I didn't want them to know.

You know? Like…

I'm the first kid.
I'm their daughter. Like…

I don't know anyone
that this has happened to. Um…

And I just didn't want them to feel
like they failed me as parents

and let that happen.

[Lynn] She was only home
for maybe a month.

And then it was time
to start school at the university,

which was about
a seven-hour drive from our house.

Gabrielle showed no enthusiasm.
Like zero. She wasn't excited.

[Gabrielle] I was really,
really, really, really depressed.

I had never dealt with depression
like that before.

And, um…

It was…
Everything in my life became difficult.

Everything in my life
became very difficult.

I started having like these…
suicidal ideation

and just these intrusive thoughts
about k*lling myself.

I thought,
"You have to tell your parents."

"You have to tell your parents,
Gabby, what's going on."

[Lynn] I was outside. It was a Saturday.

[phone vibrating]

It was a beautiful day. And she called.

And she was like, "I'm coming home."

And I was like, "Why are you coming home?
What's going on?"

And I was like, "You know, I was r*ped."

"I was r*ped while I was in Spain,
and I need to come home."

And, um…

Honestly, it's kind of a blur after that.

I didn't say, "What happened?"
I said, "Come."

And it was like two and a half years
that I didn't tell my family.

They thought I was depressed.

[Lynn] Having no idea.

I think, "How could I, as a mother,
have no idea?" But I didn't.

And even my mother-in-law,
abuela
,

had said,
"Do you think something happened to her?"

"I think something
happened to her in Spain."

And I said,
"Nothing happened to her. This is normal."

You know? And I look back and I say,
"Ugh. I can't…" She knew.

She even recognized
that Gabrielle wasn't the same.

My parents opened the door, and they just…

They just gave me a hug and,
you know, we just tried to go from there.

I was just… I was desperate.

It was exactly what I needed.

I just needed my family.

And I had to face the fact that I was…

suppressing all…

I just had to face it all
and just tell them

and stop carrying it myself.

Yeah.

I said, "Did you know this person?"
She said, "Yes. It was the tour guide."

"It was the person
who owned the tour company."

And I feel like that's how she felt.

She didn't want
to say the words aloud even

or to even talk about details.

She just wanted to be in the security
of her own home and be with us.

[Gabrielle] They asked me, "Do you wanna
go to the police?" And I was like, "No."

"No, I don't wanna go to the police.
I don't want anything to do with that."

It was a time to recoup and just… heal.

[Lynn] Yeah, it was rough. It was rough.

A rough time.

[Elizabeth] Um, I am an artist
and graphic designer.

In , I was in my senior year
of college

at Florida State University
in Tallahassee, Florida.

[low rhythmic sound]

[woman ]
The worst moment of my life
was at Florida State University.

[indistinct chatter]

[woman ]
I remember
going outside and crying.

[Elizabeth] It was a project
that I was working on.

It was an installation
on people's experiences.

Their best and their worst experiences.

It was supposed to be about the idea

that we're shaped
by our best and worst experiences.

[woman ]
I felt like my world stopped.

I was just totally lost.

I reached out online to Facebook
and Instagram and social media in general,

trying to find people to do the interviews
and record themselves for it.

Gabrielle ended up being
one of the people who responded to it

and sent in her audio recording
of her best and her worst day.

When I heard her worst day,
there was just…

There was something
very familiar about it.

This is Gabrielle.
I'm gonna start answering your questions.

The saddest moment in my life?

Probably when I was r*ped.

I was in Morocco by myself.

Well, not by myself. With two friends.

And, um…

we went on a tour.

A tour guide took me
and did some f*cked-up sh*t.

Anyways, that was really hard
for a -year-old girl.

Yeah, and after that day,

everything… was just different.

I wasn't a kid anymore.

[Elizabeth] She didn't say the name
of the company.

She didn't say Manu's name.

It was just a gut feeling that I had.

And that was what prompted me
to reach out to her.

She sends me a message, and she's like,
"Hey, thank you for sending this."

"I really appreciate you doing that.
I'm so sorry this happened to you."

And I asked her if the company
that she had gone with

was Discover Excursions.

She said, "Yes."

She asked me if the person
I was talking about was Manu.

And I said, "Yes."

And so I just started panicking,
like, completely lost my mind.

I knew about something very similar
happening to somebody else.

I went to Spain to study abroad in .

[up-tempo music playing]

[in English] My older sister
had recommended

Discover Excursions to us.

Um, we wanted to go on the Morocco trip.

You know, and you wanna believe

that your tour guide will have
your best interests at heart

when you're out of the country with them.

[woman exclaims]

What?

I remember that…

there would be one night
during these trips

that would be a big party
that they would throw.

-[dance music playing]
-[excited chatter]

[tense music rises]

And that actually ended up
being the night where he, um…

He assaulted these other girls
on our trip.

I saw him acting weird around her.

He was just…

all over Catherine.

I felt like he was following her

and just was always around her,
always talking to her.

I asked Liz,
"Can you get me in contact with her?"

[line ringing]

So then I reach out to this girl.

She was like, "Yeah,
Manuel basically pushed me on the bed

and tried to put himself on me.
I got really freaked out."

"But I actually heard that something worse

happened to two other girls
on a different Discover Excursions trip."

So I said, "Okay.
Can you put me in contact with them?"

"I need to track them down
and talk to them."

And, um…

So I got in contact
with Hayley and Carly for the first time.

And they basically told me that he

cornered them in a room, both of them,

in a room in Portugal
on one of the Discover Excursions trips.

He very much was trying
to get us to just keep drinking.

He wanted to play a game of truth or dare.

And he wanted us
to kiss him and dance for him.

He was grabbing one of them by the wrist
and wouldn't let them go.

And he was trying to force them
to touch him.

He said, "One of you touch me.
One of you kiss me."

He told us that we could not leave

because we could not leave him
with blue ba*ls.

And they were freaked out. Freaked out.

Hayley was able
to kind of spin away from him.

And then when Hayley
told him to let me go,

he told her that he couldn't let me go
because someone had to finish the job.

She had to run out into the hallway
and basically open the door and say,

"If you don't f*cking get out of here,
we're gonna tell everyone."

[Carly]
He let me go.

And… and then the next day, he was gone.

And all the other tour guides
said that he had had a family emergency.

[door slams]

So once I found those three women,

I had like a complete switch in my mind.

She called me, hysterical crying.

"He's doing this to other girls!"

And I was like,
"What are you talking about?"

I was in the car, driving home,
on the phone with my mom

and immediately focusing
on what I was gonna do.

So I got home
and started posting on Facebook that day.

"My r*pist is still raping people."

"If you know anyone that's going to Spain,
you need to tell them

that Manuel Blanco Vela
at Discover Excursions is harming women."

"Please share this."

"Me too."

So I just started writing nonstop.

And I took it to a whole other level

where I just started…
I wrote the same message.

"Hey, haven't heard from you in a while."

"My r*pist is still raping people.
Can you please share my Facebook status?"

Insane stuff.

I sent it to probably people.

Just direct message on Facebook.
Just sending that out.

My dad had contacts in Miami

with the general consul at the embassy,
the Spanish embassy in Miami.

So I went down there,
told them what was going on,

told them I found these women.

And I remember
the general consul was very kind.

And was gonna help me but was hesitant.

He was like,
"You shouldn't go on the news about this."

"You shouldn't talk to anyone about this."

I wondered why he didn't want us
to go to the press, you know?

Because it's bad press for the country.

The second he told me "no,"
I was like, "That's what I'm gonna do."

We were in the green room,
and I was starting to get freaked out.

I was blacking out, you know?

-[woman] One minute!
-[man] One minute, guys.

Here we go. Let's have a good show.

[tense, pulsating music playing]

I remember
I was standing behind the stage.

And, um… I just started sobbing.

-[man]
Camera three…
-[voices in unison]
Four, three, two, one.

And we're live.

And I just started breaking down.
And she came up to me, and she was like,

"You're doing a really good thing."

"This is really gonna help you,
and you're gonna get him."

And I was like,

"Okay, if Megyn Kelly says it,
I guess, f*ck it."

"I gotta go and do this."

And so she goes out on the stage,
and then I go out.

And I remember just looking at her.

And she asked me a question,

and I literally
don't remember anything from it.

But apparently, it went really well.

My husband and I were in the green room
while they did the filming,

and we were very proud of her.

And I think at the time we knew
that this is gonna be something big.

I knew…

that I was going
into really unknown territory.

I had no idea what…

I was…

I had no idea that this was gonna turn out
the way it did.

When that show happened,

a lot of people
started reaching out to me.

My phone just started going off.

[in Spanish] During the interview,
they showed the image

of the man I knew as Manu White.

And I started screaming, "It's him!"

[Sarah in English] I was sitting there
and was like, "Wow, this is wild."

I don't think he was mentioned.
But I was like, "This is Manu."

It all came crashing together,
hearing Gabrielle's story.

[Zora] I never in a million years
would have thought it was Manu.

I felt a big sense of clarity.

But also…

[sighs] …like an insane amount of anger.

I guess when I learned
from Gabrielle, it felt so clearly

that he
is
a serial predator

and that he committed
these crimes and assaults.

That's when I knew
that what happened to me

was happening to women for years after.

And probably years before.

I was telling my parents,
"I found a girl here from Rhode Island."

"I found a girl here from Virginia."

"I found two girls from Florida.
Three girls."

"One's in New York."

Finding all these women, and my parents
were like, "Jesus f*cking Christ, kid."

[flamenco guitar playing]

[Aubrey] This is part of the story that I…

I messaged Gabrielle about.

That one day…

I believe this was early April.

I sat in the office, and Manu's not there.

My job was literally to go through…

There were different Facebook groups
of universities studying abroad.

And I was supposed to go through
each individual person

and send them a message
from the Discover Excursions account,

saying, "Come to Morocco.
Here's a discount code."

And then I see him kind of pacing,
on the phone.

And then he comes in,
and he grabs me like usual.

"Aubrey, it's time to go to lunch."

"I need to tell you,
you know, what's going on."

And I'm like, "Okay."

So we go to lunch.

He sits down. He orders. Like usual.

He always orders all the stuff for us.

And he goes outside, and he's just walking
and pacing on the phone,

like a little frantic.

Then finally he comes.
He sits down. He can't eat anything.

And he tries to explain to me, like,

"There are these girls

who are just trying
to ruin my reputation and hurt me,

and get my money."

"I don't know why they would do
something like this."

"This is horrible. And my poor family."

"This is ruining my reputation."

"This is gonna cause pain for my mom."

I was like, "Oh, wow. Yeah.
Like, that's crazy."

He was trying to twist it.

He was trying to get my sympathy.

And…

I… I went back to the office, and he left.

I knew that it was on
The Today Show.
And I watched
The Today Show.

And I saw just how bad it was.

And I left.

And then the next day,
I think, the office was shut down.

[in Spanish] We are following this case,
which has gone viral in recent weeks.

The police are investigating whether
a tourism entrepreneur from Seville

r*ped dozens of clients,
primarily from the United States.

A Florida student
has recently spoken about her case,

and this has triggered
a wave of similar reports.

We are at the offices
of this travel agency,

which, as you can see, we found closed.

We also tried to speak
with the agency's director,

who has so far not responded
to messages from the media.

I call the agency, Discover Excursions.
Nobody answers the phone.

I go there in person
because it's close to the newsroom.

It's closed. No one is inside.

I manage to get Manuel Blanco's number.

I call him.

He answers the phone.
I said I was from
Diario de Sevilla

and wanted to speak with him,
and he hung up.

Then I decided to send a WhatsApp message.

He sent a very brief reply.

"On behalf of our company, we can only say
that this is all slander and lies."

"There are no lawsuits and no evidence."

"Everything went viral without any basis."

"The company's lawyers are aware,
both in the United States and in Spain."

That was the message,

which I included in its entirety
in my news report.

"I WAS TERRIFIED."

[in English] People
started sending me stuff.

And I'm pretty sure somebody sent me

the screenshot of the Google
"permanently closed" location thing, and…

that was f*ck' awesome.

It was awesome.
It was amazing. It was like…

It was like, "Okay,
so now the access is cut off."

f*ck you. f*ck your friends.
f*ck everyone who supported you.

f*ck you.

I would say the majority of the messages
came that week.

And then they would slowly
start rolling in.

'Cause then I would have girls
come and be like,

"My friend was r*ped by him,
but she's too afraid to contact you."

"I was r*ped by him, but…

I don't wanna tell my family.
I don't know what to do."

A bunch of people
coming to me and trying to…

They would come to me
and tell me everything.

It was one of those moments

where I had no idea
what I was involved in.

And I remember
I got a direct message on Facebook.

She said,

"Manuel Blanco Vela k*lled my daughter."

[somber music playing]

[unsettling suspense music]