Mystery as a woman missing for TWO YEARS found alive floating in the sea by baffled fishermen

A WOMAN who had been missing from her family for two years was found floating alive in the sea by baffled fishermen.

Angélica Gaitán, 46, was found unconscious and hypothermic off the coast of Colombia.

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It was discovered by fisherman Rolando Visbal and a friend floating 1.2 miles from the city of Puerto Colombia on the Atlantic side of the country on Saturday.

Initially, the couple saw what they believed to be a log floating in the sea until Angélica raised her hands for help, according to the local newspaper La Libertad.

She reported that her first words after being rescued were “I was born again, God did not want me to die.”

They took her ashore where the locals treated her before she was taken to the hospital.

Angelica was reunited with her family as investigators began to piece together where she had been since she disappeared two years ago.

When she was finally able to speak, she revealed a heartbreaking story of running away from home after 20 years of violence at the hands of her partner, who she said tried to kill her.

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“For 20 years I had a toxic relationship, I was raped by my ex-partner,” Angélica told RCN radio.

“The abuse started in the first pregnancy, he hit me, he violently abused me.

“In my second pregnancy the abuse continued and I could not get away from it because the girls were small.

“Many times I reported him but the police took him away for 24 hours and when he was back in the house, the attacks returned.

“The day I decided to leave home was after a brutal assault. In September 2018 he broke my face and tried to kill me. Thank God I managed to escape. “

She lived in the city of Barranquilla for six months before seeking help and was housed in a shelter.

But she was reportedly forced to leave because her partner no longer lived in the city, which plunged her into a deep depression.

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“I didn’t want to go on with my life. A lady lent me the tickets and I took a direct bus to the sea,” he said.

“I wanted to end everything, I didn’t have help from anywhere, not even from my family, because this man kept me away from my social circle, that’s why I didn’t want to continue living.”

Angelica remembers “being by the seashore, I found myself in solitude and decided to jump into the sea”.

“I let him take me and I hope this nightmare is over soon,” he said.

Angelica said she doesn’t remember much else when she lost consciousness.

“The man who rescued me in the middle of the sea told me that I was unconscious, floating,” he said.

“Thank God I was alive and he threw a life preserver at me. They took me to a health center where I am receiving the necessary care ”.

According to La Libertad, his family heard from him for the last time in 2018, when he went to Ecuador to live with his brother.

The newspaper also reports that Angelica says she was abandoned by her family after suffering domestic violence.

The video shows the moment when Visbal and a friend simply identified as ‘Gustavo’ approach the floating woman, who hardly responds.

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Visbal is heard yelling at him in Spanish and then switching to English, apparently trying to make sure the victim understood.

She is dragged into the boat with a rope tied to a life preserver that the fishermen had thrown at her.

Visbal is then seen struggling to get the woman into the boat who remains unconscious but moves her torso enough to help her body come off the edge and onto the boat safely.

The fishermen then try to talk to her and give her water, but Angelica begins to cry when the video comes to an end.

Local media located the woman’s daughter, Alejandra Castiblanco, who said she did not know about her mother’s whereabouts for the past two years.

Castiblanco and his sister are raising money to transport their mother to the capital, Bogotá, where they live, and they hope that their mother will be “cared for by the family.”