Jonathan Andic posted €1m (£865,000) in bail shortly after he was arrested in connection with his father Isak Andic's death, as Spanish investigators pressed ahead with a case that has moved from suspected accident to possible homicide.
Isak Andic, who created the Mango clothes brand, died at 71 on 14 December 2024 after falling around 500ft (150m) from a cliff in Montserrat natural park north of Barcelona. He and Jonathan were hiking together when the fall happened, and Jonathan called emergency services, who recovered the body. Police initially treated the death as a tragic accident.
The case changed course after a judge in Martorell near Barcelona decided there was enough evidence to consider the death non-accidental, with the active and premeditated participation of Jonathan Andic. Investigators later reopened the file, and in October 2025 Jonathan was formally placed under investigation. The move came after police questioned him again for three hours within weeks of the death, and after they also spoke to his two sisters and uncle as the inquiry widened.
Investigators now suspect the account Jonathan gave at the scene does not fit the physical evidence. He told police he had been walking ahead of his father when he heard rocks sliding and turned around to see Isak had fallen. But investigators believe the slip he described would have been unlikely where the fall happened, near some caves in the Collbató area on a relatively undemanding route common for families and schoolchildren. They also suspect a footmark at the spot did not match someone slipping and falling, and they say the body position and injuries were inconsistent with an accidental fall.
A forensic report added another detail that sharpened suspicion, saying it appeared as if Isak Andic had launched himself down a slide, feet first. Investigators also detected contradictions in Jonathan's testimony about where he was when his father fell. In one account he said he was ahead of his father; in another he said they were closer together. He initially told police his father had been taking photos with his phone moments before the fall, but Isak's phone was found in his pocket when the body was recovered.
The investigation has also taken in Jonathan's movements after the death. The judge said his visits to the site on 7 December, 8 December and 10 December 2025 signalled, in the judge's words, “a planning and study of the site.” Jonathan's phone later disappeared around the time the media reported that the case had been reopened. He told police the device had been stolen during a brief trip to Ecuador.
Executors of Isak Andic's will have publicly defended Jonathan, saying they had been “witnesses of how the pain of private grief has been aggravated by a public debate that causes greater suffering.” But investigators are still examining the broader circumstances surrounding the death and see a possible motive in the nature of the relationship between father and son. The arrest and bail payment have not ended the inquiry; they have made clear that the central question now is not whether Isak Andic fell, but whether the fall was caused.
Isak Andic built Mango into one of Europe's biggest clothing empires, and the company founder's death first looked like a mountain accident. What now sits before investigators is a far graver possibility, and their latest steps show they are treating it that way.
