We present three different optical and near-infrared ( NIR ) data sets for evolved stars in the Galactic Globular Cluster \omega Centauri .
The comparison between observations and homogeneous sets of stellar isochrones and Zero-Age Horizontal Branches provides two reasonable fits .
Both of them suggest that the so-called anomalous branch has a metal-intermediate chemical composition ( -1.1 \leq [ { Fe / H } ] \leq - 0.8 ) and is located \sim 500 pc beyond the bulk of \omega Cen stars .
These findings are mainly supported by the shape of the subgiant branch in four different color-magnitude diagrams ( CMDs ) .
The most plausible fit requires a higher reddening , E ( B - V ) = 0.155 vs. 0.12 , and suggests that the anomalous branch is coeval , within empirical and theoretical uncertainties , to the bulk of \omega Cen stellar populations .
This result is supported by the identification of a sample of faint horizontal branch stars that might be connected with the anomalous branch .
Circumstantial empirical evidence seems to suggest that the stars in this branch form a clump of stars located beyond the cluster .