Twenty-one months after Isak Andic‘s death, the investigation into what killed the Mango founder is still turning up new leads. Catalonia’s regional police force, the Mossos d’Esquadra, has obtained new information after expanding its analysis of Andic’s cell phone to cover the full twelve months before his death on December 14, 2024.
According to sources close to the investigation cited by El Periódico, the data supports the conclusion that Andic was in good health, and that a fall he suffered on February 20, 2024, at the Barcelona headquarters of Mutua Universal, was not caused by any physical ailment.
A second fall, ten months before his death
The legal defense of Jonathan Andic, who stands accused of his father’s homicide, has argued that the Mutua Universal incident and the fatal fall Isak Andic suffered into a ravine while hiking with his son on the Collbató trail in Montserrat share “similarities,” and that both could be explained by osteoarthritis their experts say the businessman had in both knees.
An expert report submitted by attorney Cristóbal Martell described “a fall pattern characterized by sudden loss of balance, progressive forward tilt, an ineffective stepping strategy, absence of the parachute reflex, and lateral drift to the right”. It argued that “the hypothesis that an identical fall on the mountain would have produced the same injuries Isak Andic suffered is empirically supported.”
Catalan police, however, see the two episodes as unrelated. A full extraction of the phone’s data, carried out by the Martorell Investigation Unit, reportedly found “no relevance whatsoever in the fall during the lunch at Mutua Universal in Barcelona” given that the businessman “was in perfect health.” Andic’s inner circle had reiterated this information, saying that the Mango founder was in “good health.”
To settle the question, the judge overseeing the case, Raquel Nieto, authorized an expanded extraction of the phone’s data in July, specifically to look for evidence such as conversations, messages, or other material related to Andic’s health that might help determine whether any physical problems he had played a role in either fall.
Until then, the Mossos had only reviewed the six months leading up to his death. At the same time, at the request of the public prosecutor’s office, the judge requested Andic’s “medical, treatment, and pharmacological history” from the Institut Català de la Salut, Catalonia’s public health institute, to verify whether he had a degree of osteoarthritis consistent with the accidental theory his son’s defense maintains.
Within that framework, the defense’s report technically reconstructed the February 20, 2024 fall, which happened during a lunch with business associates at Mutua Universal, drawing on security camera footage and a video of the moment. Experts concluded that both falls “shared similarities” and that neither had caused palm injuries — a detail they say reinforces the theory that Isak Andic’s death was a tragic accident rather than anything else.
© Anadolu via Getty ImagesWitnesses still to testify
Several loose ends remain. Some witnesses due to testify before the judge over the summer have yet to do so, including Toni Ruiz, Mango’s CEO, and the interpreter who formerly worked as an assistant to therapist Julia Lüderwaldt.
For now, investigators maintain that the new material pulled from the phone “would support the hypothesis that the Collbató fall was intentional” — information that’s directly at odds with the defense’s position, which continues to argue that Isak Andic’s death was a fatal accident brought on by his health.
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