Mossos reconstruct Montserrat route that may have prepared for death of Isak Andic
Investigators are determining whether the therapist and her collaborator walked the same path where the Mango founder died. Jonathan Andic remains in prison.
The route of Camí de les Feixades, key to the Andic case
The Mossos d'Esquadra are scientifically reconstructing the excursion that Isak Andic's family therapist, Maria Julia Lüderwaldt, and her collaborator, Johana—a British English teacher whose name alone has become known—carried out together on 1 December in Montserrat. According to La Vanguardia, investigators suspect that both women walked along the Camí de les Feixades that morning, the same path that Isak Andic and his son Jonathan travelled thirteen days later, and on which the businessman died after falling from a ravine approximately one hundred metres deep.
The judicial investigation into the alleged homicide of Isak Andic has not stopped during the summer, although the flow of public information about the case has notably declined in recent months.
Johana, the witness who came forward on her own initiative
In July, an unexpected witness emerged in the case: Johana. The woman had collaborated with the therapist when she attended English-speaking patients. Both have acknowledged in their circle that they maintained a relationship of friendship and trust that went beyond strictly professional boundaries.
Aware of the therapist's passion for mountaineering, Johana received a request to recommend a route to take with a patient—who was not Jonathan Andic—whose path was to include a ravine. On 1 December, Johana personally showed the path to Maria Julia. This is recorded in the messages that both exchanged during those days and also after Isak Andic's death, conversations that investigators obtained following a dump of the contents of the two women's phones—both iPhones—which they voluntarily handed over to police.
The circles around both women have denied that the path they walked that morning was the one leading to the Salnitre caves. However, the Mossos are working to determine whether the route was the same one that, just six days later, on 7 December, Johana showed to Jonathan Andic.
Faced with the burden of keeping such a significant secret, Johana decided to step forward. She presented herself with her lawyer at the Martorell Mossos police station to give a statement to the investigation unit, testimony which she expanded in a second appearance at the Les Corts police station. Subsequently she gave a third statement, in court, responding solely to questions from her lawyer.
Jonathan Andic did not mention his therapist's collaborator
Johana explained to investigators that she was the one who accompanied Jonathan Andic on the walk on 7 December at the direction of the therapist herself, as the outing was part of the emotional work that Maria Julia was undertaking with the son to repair the complex relationship he maintained with his father.
However, in his two statements to police and in a third statement before the court, Jonathan Andic maintained that he had learned of that route through friends. He made no mention of the English teacher who accompanied him on the 7th. His defence became aware of Johana's existence only when this information became public.
Neither the police, nor judge Raquel Nieto, nor prosecutor Teresa Yoldi have been able to question Jonathan Andic about that walk with the collaborator or about why he omitted her presence. The investigated person has spoken in his circle, downplaying the fact. He asserts that at no point during the walk did Johana show him a ravine or place him in a precarious position. This statement contrasts with what the teacher told the Mossos: that the therapist explicitly asked her to make Jonathan experience something extreme, at the edge of a precipice.
The defence considering requesting a new statement from Jonathan
Isak Andic died on 14 December 2024, aged 72. His sudden death generated extensive media coverage given the economic and social weight of the figure as founder of Mango. Months later, his son Jonathan's arrest on 19 May intensified the media follow-up of the case. The messages exchanged between the therapist and Johana include comments about news published in the press, which caused the teacher such distress that she sought legal advice more than a year ago.
The defence of Jonathan Andic, headed by lawyer Cristóbal Martell, is still awaiting the response from the ninth chamber of the Barcelona Provincial Court to the appeal filed on 28 May against the provisional prison order. Three months have passed with no sign that the ruling by the three judges is imminent.
In this context, the defence is considering, following the return from the August holiday period, the possibility of requesting a new statement from Jonathan Andic before the court to clarify points that the prosecution interprets as contradictions from the investigated person.
For Martell, the fact that Jonathan first learned of the route from a third party's suggestion—his therapist's collaborator—actually reinforces the thesis that there was no premeditation or preparation with murderous intent, a hypothesis that the judge and prosecutor have upheld in their briefs.
Johana, awaiting further court summonses
Despite having freed herself from the burden of keeping silent, Johana remains concerned. She knows that the judge and prosecutor will not be long in summoning her to testify before the court and that the defence will have numerous questions to put to her about her role in the months prior to Isak Andic's death.
Source: La Vanguardia