Manuela Torres was born in Aix-en-Provence, France, to a Parisian mother of Algerian origin, Karima Bougeffa, and José Torres, who was from Málaga of Romani descent. She and her mother had only recently moved to Spain after her parents' separation. In Spain, she became "inseparable" from Virginia Guerrero, a native of Aguilar de Campoo.
On the afternoon of April 23, 1992, Virginia Guerrero had asked her mother, Trinidad Espejo Muñoz, for money to buy a cake for a birthday party she was going to attend. Instead, the two girls apparently took a train to Reinosa (a small town located 32 kilometres (20 mi) north of Aguilar de Campoo) to go to a nightclub, without telling their families. When the party was over, it is believed that they decided to hitch-hike home because no trains were running at night. The last person known to have seen the girls was a woman from Aguilar de Campoo, who was leaving Reinosa in her car to return home when she saw the girls get into a white car on the main street in Reinosa.