The FBI is offering a $20,000 reward in the case of missing American woman Maria del Carmen Lopez, who was kidnapped from her home in Mexico.
CNN
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More than a month after a 63-year-old US citizen was kidnapped from her home in Mexico, the FBI has announced. $20,000 reward for information about her whereabouts.
Maria del Carmen Lopez was abducted on February 9 from Pueblo Nuevo, a municipality in the southwestern Mexican state of Colima, the local FBI office in Los Angeles said. release Thursday.
Lopez is also a Mexican citizen, according to a statement from Colima’s attorney general, which says it is working with the FBI on the investigation.
Although the FBI did not share the details of the case, it did describe Lopez as having blond hair, brown eyes, and tattooed eyeliner.
Federal authorities do not believe the drug cartels were involved in the kidnappings, Donald Olway, FBI assistant director in charge of the Los Angeles field office, told CNN. The agency has witness statements confirming Lopez’s kidnapping, Elway said, but did not share other details of the case.
“We are going to pursue it and we will look at every possibility and we will follow every lead and we will open every door we can find to ensure that our main goal is to get her back safe and sound,” he added. . . .
The FBI announcement came almost two weeks after forced kidnapping of four Americans in the Mexican border town of Matamoros, two of whom were killed, and three weeks after disappearance of three women who moved to Mexico to sell clothes at a flea market.
An investigation into Lopez’s disappearance was opened by the Colima Attorney General’s Office on the day of the alleged kidnapping, and the Mexican Attorney General’s Special Prosecutor for Organized Crime has since demanded to take over the case, Colima authorities said in a statement.
The Colima prosecutor’s office said it shared information with Mexican federal authorities and also cooperated with U.S. agencies “in an effort to clarify the facts and protect the victim’s integrity.”
The FBI urged anyone with information on Lopez’s whereabouts to contact the local FBI office. send tips online or contact your nearest US embassy or consulate.
CNN contacted the FBI for more information.
More than 100,000 Mexicans and migrants in total. absent throughout the countryleaving their families no explanation and little consolation. The Mexican government’s quick response to the recent disappearance of the Americans has left those who criticize officials for the lack of such a quick response in a number of internal affairs bewildered.
Lopez’s daughter begs for information on her mother’s whereabouts after being gone for over a month.
Lopez moved to Mexico after she retired and lived a “quiet life back home,” her daughter Zonia Lopez told CNN. She added that her mother never worried about her safety when she lived in Mexico.
When asked if a ransom was required, Zonia said she couldn’t share too much information because it was “still an open investigation.”
Zonia said she learned of her mother’s disappearance after she received a call from her sisters who said their father had been told over the phone that Lopez had been kidnapped. According to Zonia, her family contacted the embassy, which connected them to the FBI.
“It’s a terrible feeling not to know if she’s okay, not to know where she is and who has her,” Zonia said. “We are literally feeding on the strength we know she has and the love she has for us, and we are literally holding on to a thread of hope.”
Zonia said she remains hopeful and her mother’s “bright attitude and outlook on life” keeps her family going.
“We will not stop until we get answers and we will make sure that enough attention is given to this so that other families, along with ours, get some information, some completion of this,” Zonia said.
As the FBI and Mexican authorities try to find her mother, Lopez turned to the person or people responsible for her kidnapping: “Please bring her back. We need our mom.”