Episode 505 - Missing Mom in Mexico

You're listening to kf I AM sixty on demand, KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. On any given day in southern California, hundreds of investigators are working more than ten thousand unsolved cases. That's thousands of friends and families who have lost loved ones, thousands of people who got away with a crime, and thousands of murderers who still walk the streets. Killers who may be your neighbor, go to your church, or could be dating a

close friend. For the next two hours, will highlight cases that have gone cold, baffled investigators, or just needs that one witness to speak up. This is Unsolved with Steve Gregory. In this episode, we highlight both an unsolved case and a missing person. In the late afternoon of Thursday, February ninth, Maria Dela crem and Lopez's family says their mother was watering the plants in the front yard of her home in Pueblo, Nuevo, Mexico, when

all of a sudden, a van pulled up. Men with masks jump out, grabbed their mother, and speed away. A short time later, a phone call would be made to the family back here in South La. Their mother, Maria, retired ten years ago and has lived in Pueblo, Nuevo, Zonia. Lopez is one of the daughters, Zoe for short. She recalls her phone ringing at six thirty that evening, and I received a phone call from my sister. She was crying and frantically saying, Mom, Mom

was kidnapped. I couldn't believe it. I just got up, shot up, and I was like, what just hearing the word kidnapped, it's like you going too. I literally felt like I was like inside of a tornado, and I couldn't really hear much. As a matter of fact, that's exactly what happened. I was like in the blur, and I was like, what are you talking about? What do you mean? What do you mean? Mom was kidnapped? She said they took her, they took her.

I hung up the phone with her, and I just remember walking through the hall and my ears literally plugged up. I couldn't hear anything, and I just fell to the floor and my son came out and I just remember just kind of looking at him seeing the kidnapped mom. Immediately it was we have to find out is this real? Because it just feels like, it's impossible, there's no way. So picked up the phone and you started.

I started making phone calls to whatever little family that I know, you know, lives in that town, and it was just one call um of no answers, basically because there is no reception there in the area. Is such a small town, there's no phone connections. Everyone communicates through either WhatsApp or messenger. And I finally did get someone on the phone that was happened to actually be at the house with an officer, and they said, I said,

where is this real? You know, is this really happening? Talk about the town? Where where are we talking? The town is called Italia, okay. And what's the nearest so people can understand, the nearest larger city or state would be Guadalajara. Okay, it's two hours from Guadalajara. Got me truck on area. So it's deep in the heart of Mexico. Yes, yeah, And um, your mother, I remember from the press conference. Your mother had been down there at least retired there ten years ago.

Yes, okay, and she moved down here by herself, both my dad and her. Oh okay, your parents had moved down there at the same time. Okay, and then just to put some context in there, So I'm sorry to go back to where you got a hold of someone in the house and what happened next. The agent got on the phone, he you know, asked who I was. I said, I'm her daughter. What's going on? He said, I remember him briefly saying, we have state police, we have Samad, which I believe is like the Marines and

soldiers are here. And I was thinking, I mean, it really quickly crossed my head, like how the town is so small and away from the city. It just seemed very odd to me that there was all this soldiers and Marina and everyone already there. It had just happened. And I remember asking, like when did this happen or how long ago? And I believe there had been a span of like maybe an hour and a half to two hours before you got the call, before we found out, before you found

out. Okay, so how did they find out? There was witnesses? So my mom's property, that her house is the only house that has Wi Fi. So the around the property, it's it's very there's kids or just the locals or anyone who they stand around the outside of the house to be able to connect to their social media. So it happens to be that towards the back of the house there was two there was two young men there could

just connected to their social media and they actually witnessed the kidnapping. What were they able to provide what kind of detail. The one street light that is there was broken, so it was later in the afternoon. So what they were able to capture was they weren't able to give exact details color of the car, but they were able to say what it was. It was a mini like a type minivan kind. They were just unsure of the color if it was between white, a tan color, or silver because it was later

in the afternoon. But what they said is my mom had my mom had been at a liquor store or like a store. It's like a ten minute walk from her house. My aunt, one of my aunt's owns at store. If she had been there, went home because she wanted to go water her plants. My mom always watering her plants, taking care of her house. And they said she was watering her plants when they seen a van drive in all the way into the property. It's a pretty large long driveway and

there was an exchange of words. He says, when he looked up, one of the witnesses says, when he looked up, he says, he's unsure if my mom was pushed down to the floor or if she crouched down. But she was saying back to them, I'm not leaving. I'm not leaving in Spanish, no my way at constatas I'm not leaving with you. And then they had their heads covered. They said they had hoods on. One other individual, a heavy set man also with the hood came out of

the van and they they picked up my mom. They he covered her mouth and they put her in the van and drove away. There was a the description of the van. The only thing that was unusual is the witness just say that the brake lights didn't break like just in one solid flash. There was something different about the way the lights went on. But they drove away and that was it. When you said that you spoke to an agent that was at the house down there, there were no US officials a vaults at

this point right now, it was all Mexican officials. Okay um. At this point, you're you see the witness to say your mom was put into a van against her will taken away. Then the time that from the time that she disappeared, at the time she was taken away to the time you got the call you said was a little over an hour, closer to two closer to two hours, okay, closer to two hours. Did it give you some reassurance that so much law enforcement presence was there at her house so

quickly, including the military. I think I just I didn't really think about that. But the reason I'm asking is that it seemed like that because any of these kind of missing person in cases or abductions, usually the first few hours are critical. So were you getting any reassurance from the Mexican authorities that they had a handle on this, no other than they had said that there was this presence there, but there was no follow up call. There was

nothing that said, this is what we're going to do. Streets are or the road's going to be blocked off, and this is why we have this presence here. More with Zoe, but first this is unsolved with Steve Gregory on kf I AM six forty. You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand kf I AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. I'm Steve

Gregory, and this is unsolved. We've been speaking with Zoe Lopez, the daughter of Maria Lopez, who was reported kidnapped on February ninth in Pueblo Nuevo, Mexico. Before the break, we were talking about the initial moments that you found out that your mother had been abducted in the town of Pueblo Nuevo in Mexico, just north of Guallajata. Mexican authority are on scene, so they're working the investiga, presumably working the investigation in that area. What were

you doing back here at home where you live. Everybody was on the phone trying to get either more family out there to see if they can go and search for her somewhere, start looking anywhere. A lot of us, myself I remember calling a friend and just because traveled a lot, and what do you do in a case like this? Who do you? Who gets involved?

Do I call the city police? Who do I call? I just need we need to get authorities involved immediately on this end, because she's a US citizen, and one of the answers was just quickly called the embassy. You need to get ahold of the Embassy. Now, getting ahold of the embassy was a challenge in itself because it was the after late in the afternoon.

You don't you don't actually have somebody pick up the phone. It's all auDA made a dial press too, and you know, even with the words kidnapping, it's like, well, I'm just going to transfer you and voicemail. And it was voicemail after voicemail. This was the embassy in Mexico here here called the US Embassy, the US Embassy here. Okay, yeah, at this point we weren't aware. We had no idea that we should be

contacting the Mexican embassy. There is no as the people. The one person that did pick up at here at the US Embassy, had no idea what steps to take. And I was like, we have a US citizen who is kidnapped. What do I do? And she just kind of just give me a moment. So does she have dual citizenship? By chance? She does? Okay, so she has to both Mexican and an American citizenship. Okay, So how far did you get with the US embassy voicemail after voicemail

for the next about I would say twenty almost twenty four hours. It was. We never even after those voicemails were sent, we never received a call back immediately, so we just kept trying the next day, we kept trying, and until we finally left. I believe it was one of the most frantic voicemails because I'm just scared out of my mind at this point, a whole day has almost gone by and we don't have any contact yet with anyone

here. And how much contact and how much trust can you can we put into the authorities in Mexico was my first thought, and I just said I knew we had to get someone here, and after leaving, like just pleading somebody please call, and I remember of being unable to contact anyone at the embassy. I did call the local authorities here because I said, I can't get anyone else, who can you need to help me, and they just said you need to call back. You need to call the embassy again.

At that point, someone did when they did reach out. Then things started moving quickly at that point. So for timeframe purposes, that February ninth when you got the call. So are we into February tenth now the next day, yes, okay, So then you said the ball got moving. What

exactly did they do or were they able to do at that point? The reason us side, I think I should mention that the reason why it started moving is because at this point the voicemail included we've already received a call for a ransom, so we had received February tenth, you the family had received it, correct, And at this point we are even more scared and more frantic, because what do you do now you have the bad guys calling? Who got that call? My brother? Your brother? And was it a

live call or was it a voicemail? It was a live call, a live call, do you recall what was specifically said or paraphrasing? He sounded like his voice was very extremely muffled, either he was this person was covering

their mouth or had something in their mouth or somehow covering the phone. He said my brother's name immediately, and he said I have your mom and you're gonna do what I say or it's over in Spanish and he cursed, I believe, but he didn't sound angry, which swere he was just kind of like on a like monotone, but firm, and so we said okay. My brother said, okay, I want to know, where is she okay? He said, she is. We're gonna do You're gonna give me this

money or it's over and hung up. Did they give you an amount of money they want? Yes, I can't discuss that just because it's still an open investigation, but it's it's a six figure six figures and we just knew immediately were in trouble. We don't have that type of money. So so you left the voicemails on the ninth that afternoon into the evening hours. By the tenth, you said, at what time of the day on the tenth did you get the ransom call? Or did you brother get the ransom call?

I believe it was around before nine am, so it was earlier in the morning. And then after that, then did you call others or by that time were they calling you? Now the US side, I called them, I believe one more time, one more time. Yeah, like this is going on now, like I've been leaving messages. But at that point there was no contact with anyone. It was just we were looking for help to see how what do we do next? You know, we know this

is in Mexico, so what do we do next? But then at this point, it was like, Okay, now we need help because now we have someone contacting us. And it was directly to my brother. The phone call was in through messenger, wasn't it was a direct call presumably your mom's phone or do you think it was your mom's phone and they got your brother's information from that? I believe my mom. It's it's it's hard to say, but I believe my mom probably has his number of memories because when she

does come and stay here, she stays with him. Got it? And then they asked her for them got it? Yeah? Okay, So was her phone ever recovered at her home? Yes, it was. So. They didn't take her phone or anything. No, nothing after her nothing, They didn't take anything else about it. They never stepped up inside of the home. It was outside of There's a large porch that they have and according to the witness, she was standing literally right in front of like the front.

There's a small gate leading into the porch. She was watering her plunts. They never they never entered the home. More on the case of the missing mom in Mexico. But first this is unsolved With Steve Gregory on kf I am six forty You're listening to kf I Am six forty on demand ken if I Am six forty heard everywhere live on the iHeartRadio app. I'm Steve Gregory and this is unsolved. If you're listening on the app, you can send us a tip about a case, a story, idea, or a

comminent about the show. Just tap the red microphone on the app and record your message. Back to the case of the missing mom in Mexico, Zoe. Before the break you were talking about the family had all received a ransom call from people in Mexico, and he said it was a muffled voice, very monotone or almost clinical sounding, demanded at least a six figure ransom. By now, you're calling the US authorities here in the Los Angeles area.

Are you having any success at all now or has anyone called you back from the US embassy or US government? No, not at all. I'm at this point reaching out to local authorities here in my city just because I you ever able to talk to anyone with a badge. No, So, what's going on at this point? Any more contact with the Mexican authorities. I believe I called, and I might. I'm not. I'm you know what I'm unsure if I made that call back to them. Okay, well,

I know it probably very fanatic in your mind. A lot of stuff going on. Then let me ask you when, at what point did you finally get a call from a US federal authorities or you got through to them they reached out at some point a few hours later, they reached out and said, you're going to have a FBI agent. We'll be contacting you, and

then we'll go ahead and proceed from there. I don't believe I received the call, but we did receive a knock on the door, and we had an agent here that afternoon of the tenth of the tenth the next day. Then, yes, okay, and what was that experience? Like I thought he would come in with, you know, flashing FBI logos everywhere. I was like, you're at the wrong house, you know. But he came in and just made the introduction, just said, okay, we're going to

be involved. She's a US citizen. We're gonna get her back. Um, it's going over the details, going over how did we find out, making you know, the point of contact, and then contacting the I believe we contacted the authorities are and they found out, Okay, we're going to be dealing with not only state level authority in Polima, but the anti kidnapping unit there in At this point, did you feel like you feel more relieved? Very yes. At that point I really thought, Okay, now we

have the US authorities and they know what to do. We're we don't know what the next step is. We don't know how. I don't know that there's a you know, step by step on how these things go. But I actually I felt that I felt that we have the right people here, we have the FBI involved, We're going to bring her. What happened next, I'm not it was a waiting game. It was a waiting game. No more calls for ransom. Not I don't believe it was that day.

It was the next day. The days leading you know after that, we're very uh long because it consisted of a lot of communication from them. The phone call started coming in quite often from the bad guys, bad guys, so they were calling quite a bit then, yes, not how many times. There was days where it was a few times a day starting there at this point there are Mexico or Colima had two hours, so we were receiving phone calls early six in the morning, five in the morning. What were

they saying, same, just finish money. You're gonna do what I say? Well, and it was a lot of explaining, Well, my all the phone calls, that has to be said, it's they all came into one phone, nobody else. So the explain was, we don't have it. It's the weekend. Now, it's impossible. You're asking for a figure that even if we did have it, how are we supposed to get this to you? If you don't want anyone to know, It's impossible. They

never told you about a drop point or a deadline or nothing. The phone calls were very weird. It was another thing that was very interesting about this person was it was extremely hard to understand what they were saying because again it was some kind of covering of the mouth, something in their mouth or covering of the phone or maybe a phone to phone. Was it always Spanish?

Yes, the accent, it wasn't anything. It didn't sound do you know everyone has picks up different accents different parts of Mexico sounded maybe they were local or native to Koalima or around that area. There was nothing weird about his tone or accent. At this point, did you or were you ever counseled

to ask for proof of life? Yes, and yes at that point it was I think that it was one of the points that the FBI made is this is, you know, they're making contact, but we need to know this is real, that she's okay, And there was that my brother pleaded, we need to know that she's okay. It was a lot of hanging up. It was a lot of It was a lot. Although there were a lot of calls, they were all very very short. It was almost like, okay, fine, tell us where we can what can we work

out? And he would hang up, and then hours would go by and then and it was yeah, it was a lot of calls. And then what did the FEDS counsel you to do at this point or what were they doing at this point? The meaning the FBI um proof of life was was the goal at that point? You know that's their demands are one thing, but then we need to know that she's okay. So every phone call was I need to hear her, I need to know that she's okay. Let

me talk to her. And as soon as any any of you know, question was asked where he asked back, well, let me hear her. It was a hang up and then it was hours or did the FBI give you an idea of what that meant to them, like the fact that they would never follow through. Did they ever give you any sense of what that could mean? No, it was it was actually I think that they had the same sense. That's weird because typically they're we know what they want.

They got a goal and then yeah, there's a goal and they want to get it done fast and out right right? Why hang up? And why prolong it? Right? Why? Again? Like why why we're saying, okay, tell us where? And it was hanging up. So you say you received the second ransom call on the eleventh, which had been two days after the abduction. Approximately how many calls? Just approximate how many calls you think you got from them the whole time? Yeah? More than twenty?

Really now over how many days? I believe it was two weeks? Two weeks. And they played the same game every time, every time, and it was just torture because you're waiting and you know you want, you want to hear her. And when we did, we finally received what proof of life? But you can tell it was a recording. It was my mom. It was her. You're listening to kf I AM sixty on demand, kf I AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. I'm Steve Gregory

and this is Unsolved. We're speaking with Zoe Lopez about the abduction of her mother Maria. Zoe recounts the fear of getting the phone call about her mom and the frustration of dealing with authorities both in the US and Mexico, and the toll this is taken on her family. So by now, you said, you've received at least twenty ransom calls from these people over a span of two weeks. It's wreaking havoc on your family. You kind of characterize the

fact that your home turned into a command post. It just, you know, it really upset the whole balance. I can understand that, I can't imagine what you'd be going through on this, But what happened next? I mean, where did the investigation go waiting? A lot of waiting. The communication was there was mistakes that were made on Mexican authority side, where we found out that there was leaks in communication or with the investigation out there.

It became you know, hectic and excel. Already, the whole situation was, you know, scary, and then you start that once the doubt of who's handling the case out there sets in, then it becomes that much greater,

that much more surreal. Everything becomes just now you really feel like you're in trouble, even if you do have the FBI on your side over here, because then you really understand it, really, you really understand that the Mexican authorities, because it happened on their turf, they're gonna leave this case. It's not the FBI or it's not us. You're not going to control

things from here. And that is I think when the days started passing and things didn't play out how you see and maybe in the movies, you know, oh, twenty four hours passed or forty eight hours, and we're gonna hear her, We're gonna get that comments come and get her. That's tough, you know, packing your bags and putting your getting your passport and just saying okay, we're just gonna wait now for that call, and then it never happens. February. Gosh, four months, what do we have?

Four months? One hundred and thirty eight days today as of this taping, one hundred thirty eight days. When did the calls stop? The ransom calls? Because apparently you're not getting them anymore? Right, Everything just went silent. It was, I believe a period of forty eight hours where it was a lot of what we're buy the phone, just waiting for it to ring

again, and then it just never did. Those numbers disappeared. There was no more communication whatsoever, And it was day thirty five when, at least for it was extremely scary. Where where are we at now? What do we do next? No one knows at this point we're dealing We're dealing with it with just authorities following their instructions or their guidance, doing everything their way. And then you just feel when do we tell the world that we need

help? Are Were you ever told not to go to the media, Yes, because it can compromise the investigation. In Mexico they do things differently than how the authorities here will here. You know, you go to the media, help people, help out. She's a US citizen, You're gonna there's

there's action over there. They don't want these things to get out. It's not good for them at this point, you have there was a really there was another kidnap broad day like kidnapping and and where four Americans were I believe two were killed. In the midst of all of this, you have the government here bashing the president there and there. I remember just catching bits and pieces thinking, horrible timing. We have my mother, she's a US citizen.

How are we going to get help for her. You're getting this attention for all this other stuff going around, and we're just waiting. And what are we waiting for? You had a press conference, your whole family were there, and you were calling on President Biden to intervene. Did you ever get any response from the White House? Not yet? None, none, none, We have State Department none. We have sent out emails. In the midst of of just dealing with the chaos of everything being turned upside down

and the waiting. We have sent emails to anyone that you can think of. How about your congressperson or your senator. We have tried, and we have gotten a response other than response now we got. I received one response which floored me that said, we are aware that the FBI and the Mexican authorities are working on the case. I know that, but what is happening? Why do you think everything's stalled? There's there's um we don't know. As as more days go by and I started, I mean, you do

your own investigation. You do what you can to try to understand what the situation over there is, what it's like, what the crime is, what you know, what's going on over there. There's a lot of corruption in Mexico. There's a lot of violence going on in that state. They have they're in the middle of their um of you know, getting a new president and the elections, and you know, you start thinking, is just have anything to do with that? Is there somebody that's gonna come in and rescue

her and come out looking like heroes, you know? Or is this what's going on? It's not a large state. It's a very small state. I believe it's one of the smallest states in Mexico. How do you not find a sixty three year old woman when you have this agency, you know, femdo is what we were told, like the equivalent of having the FBI here and they have found it just doesn't make sense. What do you think

happens? I At this point, I don't know. We're too far in for me to think that it is they're waiting to ask for a larger ransom. It wouldn't make sense if money is the If that's their goal, it would have been asked for already, or there should have been some kind of communication. They went completely silent on us. Do you think your mom's still alive? I do. I do. It's not like I've thought about it. Every scenario has played out in my head, but it's just that feeling.

It's not. I don't and I don't believe it's a false like a false hope. I just don't know what they're waiting for you. You're listening to kf I AM six forty on demand kf I AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. I'm Steve Gregory and this is Unsolved. For the last hour, we've been listening to Zoe Lopez as she maps out the journey she and her family been on since learning about the kidnapping of their mother,

Maria del Carmen Lopez on February ninth. Zoe tells us the current status of the investigation. It's almost like they've gone silent on us as well. The communication that they have with the authorities in Mexico, I think is very limited to what they want to say, the Mexican authorities to the FBI. I've had pushback from the Mexican authorities also when I've tried to get information. Where are the where have the searches been, What are your findings from these searches,

Where are your leads? What are you doing to follow up with these leads? How many leads are you receiving. It's another setback for us to you know, going into and listening to the number that we're asking people to call in and be one hundred percent sure that it's anonymous. But then you have the Mexican authorities that have a different approach. They want to sit there and talk to anybody giving information. Well, that's compromising being facilitating the people

to come and, you know, and feel safe to you. They don't trust you, right, It's tough. It's hard. So what are some of the things you and your family are doing now to just keep the momentum we are. We have sent emails to any congressman, states editor, the White House. We have a website it's a Justice for the Number four garment dot com or asking anyone to please sign a petition in order for us to

receive enough attention to get this to the White House. We at this point feel that you have the FBI, and we have these strong agencies that haven't been able to produce the biggest result, which is my mom finding her. But they're also not giving us any information, any leads. Then that means you need help yourself. Why not turn to our president? She is a US citizen, she has dual citizenship. There should be more aid here, much more. I didn't ask you this before, but I am curious.

Do you think it doesn't sound like to me, based on covering crazy crimes over the years, it doesn't sound like they're very professional. The selex is a very amateur operation in a sense, I think that a lot of you know, the tactic of the hanging up is someone that has a good understanding that if you stay on too long you might be trapped. Sure, but the fact that they didn't give you a drop off point or a deadline. There was a deadline, Oh there was Okay, that's where you know.

There was a deadline. There was a but everything again, everything was a lot of hanging up, a lot of not getting to ransom was asked, we obviously cannot come up with that number. Was there some negotiation at all? I mean, were you trying to negotiate the money or at least negotiate terms the money, since it's just letting them know if you think you have someone in your hands that has money, that's not the case. And this is where the question is why. I think because she's a US citizen and

they were looking for a big payday. Absolutely, But then what was the deadline? The first deadline was twenty four hours, twenty four hours, and then then they just kept calling and kept calling, and did they ever come up with another deadline? No, I just kept going. That's why I'm saying. It seemed very amateurs to me, and that's very by the seat of their pants kind of stuff. But you know, amateurs can also be more dangerous because they don't know what's going on. You say, in your

heart of hearts, you feel like your mother's alive. Yes, the effort to try to get information about the investigation, you're still not getting any callbacks from the Mexican authorities and the FBI you say has not been in touch with you. Have you been down there yourself, have you gone down at all. No, the state of Kalima here's it's super important for you know, we get asked that. One of our first thoughts was we need to get

down there. I mean, as a son, as a daughter, You're I gotta go down there, and I gotta look, you know, I gotta go and talk to whoever I possibly can. And then you look at the reality that that state is in and they are number one state not in Mexico, but in the world of places not to travel because their crime is from cartels to murders, you name it. It is absolutely through the roof. Was there any indication from the federal government or the Mexican government that there

was a nexus to the cartels. No. At the beginning you think you immediately you have to think about that, but then you rule everything out. There's no known, but the cartels do run the state. What is it you want from people? Tell us what you want. We need their support, We need people to This can happen to anyone. There's a lot of

tourists, there's a lot of people. She lived there and just like a lot of other families, they have their parents who go or come here and stay for you know, a few months and then go back home thinking it's home, it's their homeland, this is where they were born. They're fine. She is you, a citizen. Her goal, her life, her dream was to be here, raise us. But things are you know, they're not ideal here either. Things are very expensive. It was easier for

them. You know, we're retired. Now we can go back. We need everybody to stand behind her because it could be you. It could be on a simple vacation. We can get away that and is this happens to you, And this is a kind of backup that you have from the authorities. You're in trouble. We need to have action from the United States to show that your citizens matter, your citizens matter. We need the support, We need the news to keep going. We need her name to be out

there because it can be you. It cannot be another. It was the harder hearts in the beginning. Please don't let us be another unsolved kidnapping. There's too many. She is my mother. She deserves to be home. We deserve to have her home. Children deserve to have their grandmother here. This is not okay. So I know this has been difficult for you, and I appreciate your time and appreciate your letting us into your home and telling

us your story. And we're wishing you all the success and we'll certainly do our part. Thank you so much. Coming up, we speak with the FBI about the case and about how it handles kidnappings in a foreign country. But first, this is Unsolved with Steve Gregory on KFI AM six forty. You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand KFI AM six forty live everywhere

on the iHeartRadio app. I'm Steve Gregory and this is Unsolved. Sean Hayworth is the acting Special Agent in charge of the FBI's Criminal Division in the Los Angeles office, and before we get to him, a heads up. As with most cases we've highlighted on this show, investigators are not permitted to disclose every detail about a case because of the potential to ruin the prosecution's chance at a conviction. That said, Agent Hayworth tells us about the FBI's work on

the case of Maria Lopez, the missing Mom in Mexico. So, in February of this year, the Mexican's authorities and so she gave word that a US citizen had been abducted and Maria Carmen Lopez. They reached out to our office out down in Mexico. So we have as the FBI, we have what called legal attaches and every in sixty countries, sixty two countries when we would be in Mexico, so they reached out to us through our partnership that we have with let our office down to Mexico. Now, hey, we

have this kidnapping of a US citizen. They reached out to our office because she had family in the greater Los Angeles area, and then we began our investigation. So that's when we first heard the day after it happened. But the way the information ridiated was from authorities Mexico. Is that typical agent that that you find out about, uh, you know, a missing or a

kidnapped person, possible kidnapped person in a foreign country. Do you usually hear about it first from the foreign country or do you hear about it usually from the family in the home country. In my experience, the way we first hear about it in this area where at in Los Angeles is from an extortion call that someone in the Los Angeles area call got. So if if if someone in an La gets a phone call asking for money, I have a

family member kidnapped. They would then reach out to either nine one one or US one hundred call FBI, and then that information goes to our headquarters where they quickly put together the facts and push it out to the squads which handle it and then we handle it right away. So that's how we usually get it. Usually get it from the victim phone call for asking for for money.

And then, uh, do you have a special I guess a task force or do you have a special team or all of your agents sort of qualify to handle a transnational case like this, Well, all agents have the authority, but you're at we do have subject matter experts who are more able to handle this, So agents that work on our Violent Crime program um this

specifically falls and what's called the International Violent Crime program Um. We have certain agents that are more burst and have better connections into our counterparts in Mexico. Excuse which is where in this in this situation, this is exactly what happened. They for in Maria's case, they we because of where the family lived. They linked up with an agent who is one of our greatest subject matter experts that we have not just in LA but in the in the bureau.

And when you say subject matter experts, what particular skill does that agent have. So he has first of all, he has experience and he's had successes with literally saving lives in Mexico of hostage takers in the past. But also he has the connections. He knows the laws, he has the connections with the the use attorneys for prosecutions, he has connections with what we have on the border called borderly amison officers who have connections with the Mexican authorities, but

also with the our our League ad offices down in Mexico. So he knows immediately who who does get the information out too, so that it gets out much faster than it would otherwise. So it's it's it's a part of notifying our headquarters, who gets everybody rounded up um, including the border liaison officer, the League add office officer, the crisis negotiators, the everybody who might be involved. Our Victim Witness Services plays a heavy role in this as well,

so everybody gets notified immediately when the word gets out here. So it's it's a long email chain and then we just start sending updates of who's assigned and who's doing what you talk about. The agents have the authority to handle cases like this, these transnational cases across border cases. U. Do you have the authority to go across the border or do you always have to be escorted? Because you know, I think people get confused when they see on

the movies kind of how you operate in something like this. Do you have the authority to go into a country that we have a treaty with or any kind of a mutual agreement with. So we have our legal attache folks are FBI agents, so they are already down there and they are working with the locals. But in terms of like our authority to make arrest, subpoenas, or any legal action within that country that does we do not have that.

We work with our US attorney's offices who will put out what's called mutual mutual treaty where we can get information that we need for prosecution. But we're not going down there and kicking indoors. Sometimes we might be invited by a certain country to participate in an interview. But to your point, authority, I speak of this title eighteen twelve O two, which is if there's a ransom making rants made. We have the authority to investigate and prosecute in the United

States, got it? But then your counterparts in Mexico assume you've probably worked with him many times before on these very same cases, these types of cases, and probably some that are even worse in terms of you know, homicides or things like that. But um, do you guys have great success working with your counterparts down there? I mean, are they are they very forthcoming?

And when you say you got notified down in Mexico about this situation with miss Lopez, did you did you know right away that that that that agency is down there, that your counterparts in Mexico are pretty aggressive and they're working the case. I mean, did you know right away that you were going to be getting some intel from them or any kind of evidence from them that you could you could use as as as history showed me in other similar investigations.

Um, their units down there are very proactive, very willing to share and work with us to get the move these cases along. So much I've had I've had a case where at four o'clock I found out about the information. By six o'clock they were making arrest in the country on a hostage taker. So I can't speak highly enough about this relation. This particular relationship with the Mexican authorities has been fantastic and getting that contact from them, especially since

they pushed it to us. We already know that we have the League out office down there has a good relationship with them as well. But with that mean with your counterpart down there, that would be the federal Mexican government, right, What about the local police agencies down there? Do they share the same kind of um I guess fourth you know, the fourth coming nature of

sharing or or do they respond quickly down there? Because you also hear stereotypically about local cops down there being corrupt and being slow and things like that. So you're talking about the federal level of Mexican law enforcement or the local authorities. Sometimes it's federals, sometimes it's state. They have what's called specialized units we just for us up here. To make it easy, we call them AKUS at the Kidnapping units, so we work. They're specialized units that work

with us. Sometimes they are mixed with what we would do in the states, working with task force officers. They'll have something similar with them, but that does depend on which state in Mexico that it's obviously these units in certain areas of Mexico, typically along the border, are going to be more active than others. So this is our first time dealing with my first time dealing

with this particular unit in this part of Mexico. Down Kalima. Okay, when we come back, I'm gonna dig a little more on this, and I've got more questions about the case of miss Lopez than missing mom in Mexico. But first, this is Unsolved with Steve Gregory on kf I Am six forty. You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand k if I Am six forty heard everywhere live on the iHeartRadio app. I'm Steve Gregory and this

is Unsolved. If you're listening on the app, you can send us a tip about a case, a story, idea, or a comminent about the show. Just tap the red microphone on the app and record your message. Welcome back. We're speaking with Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Criminal Division,

Sean Hayworthy's with the FBI's LA Office. We're talking about the case of the missing mom in Mexico, Maria del Carmen Lopez and before the break Agent, We were just starting to dig a little bit about your counterparts in Mexico and how you work with them, the level of cooperation. A lot of the stereotyping that law enforcement in Mexico is corrupt. You're saying that all your experiences thus far and your subject matter experts have been that your counterparts down there

want to solve these crimes every bit as quickly as you do. Is that a fair assessment? Absolutely? Yes? And then does it make a difference Agent that it's so deep in Mexico, Because when you're talking about just right at the northern border Tijuana and wave a Laredo in those places where you know we're closest too, is there a logistical challenge with it being so deep down

there? I think it's, isn't it in the state of um It's near Watahara if memory starch right, Yeah, it's it's So that's not a I think the only difference that would make is maybe some of the other units in Mexico would be more experienced with these matters. So like when we heard about this case, this was an uncommon event in this part of Mexico, Whereas I get a lot of calls for these occurrences closer to the San Diego border, like down in Tijuana in that area. I don't know that would be

the biggest difference. Is this is just it was, It wasn't as common for for this. Does that rise a red flag for you? H? It does raise a lead flag for me? Can you how far can you go with that? I think that's about it? Okay, that's fine. UM. Yeah, And I know that there's a lot you can't tell me, UM, And I know that you're limited by it. And we don't want to be responsible for ruining an investigation. So it's it's incumbent upon you

to tell me how far we can go? Okay, UM, So, how many cases like this do you deal with on a on a monthly or quarterly or annual basis? I mean, how many missing or kidnapped Americans or in Mexico. It's it's not a lot, but some of the some of these organizations that we do deal with, UM, do do it prolifically. So it's you know, sometimes it's the coyotes, the the alien smugglers who

will kidnap all the folks that they're bringing across the border. Um, they'll kidnap them either in Tijuana or hold them sometimes in places up here in the United States. Um, it's it's not I see the cases that we get here in LA and because of where we are, it's gonna be more frequent than to say, if you were up in San Francisco or Washington State. UM, but we get we probably get about at least a half dozen prosecutable cases a year to a dozen a year. And so sometimes it's like this

case where we have we have a group that has kidnapped Marha. And again I can't talk about about where this what we believe this group to be, or any other things may be tied to it. But up here on the border, what we see is folks who are going to kidnap all ten people that were there were going to bring across the border. And then unfortunately those those events do lead to some potentially violent outcomes that they're not getting paid money. Then, I mean, the first thing, you know, our first

question on something that was always was to the cartel. Was this cartel related? I mean, the cartels in all kinds of different types of criminal enterprises. But um, can I can you at least answer whether or not you're looking at a cartel or is this cartel related? So I can't, and I can't because this particular investigation is ongoing. I'm not going to answer that

question. I will let you know that there has been an increase in cartel activity involved with kidnappings on other kidnappings that we've dealt with and prosecuted, more so than it was in the past where it was loosely related to other groups along the border. But there has been an up to uptick where there's money to be made, cartel activity will follow, and part of that has also been increasing kidnappings. Well, let me ask it to you this way too,

or let me ask you to a different way. And my assessment is the way the way I've been listening to what the family told me and what I've been reading about it. Does this? Does the actions of whomever is responsible for this do they seem like they're professionals or amateurs? Yeah? Yeah, that's uh. I don't think I can answer that for this, And again I appreciate asking the question, Steve. It isn't act of going on

investigation fair enough? Fair enough? Again, I don't know what you can't answer until I ask it fair enough, But So one of the challenges and the frustrations that not just this family that I spoke with, but many families that are going through something similar, whether it's someone that's missing or has been

kidnapped. Well, I think one of the largest complaints I get all of the times they feel like they get a lot of attention in the first couple few days of the incident and then it seems like radio silence after that. Can you address that a little bit, because I think a lot of these families feel like they've been ignored or they're being ignored. Well, absolutely, so let me kind of lay out a picture for you of how what happens. So we bring in all the resources that we can while this is going

on. So we're gonna have folks who are going to coach the family, coach families on crisis negotiations so they know how to properly get the information they need from the hostage takers. We're going to bring in victim witness specialists who are going to assist the families with what they need, and that could be um that could be a large category of topics. You know, if they need someone to um like social services take care of their kids, while they're

dealing with this or whatever topics they need. So those are the things we bring in right away. And so they are guing a lot of attention, a lot of coaching, um from the beginning, to make sure that they feel comfortable, UM with with with talking to the houshe takers, with getting the informasion they need, trying to get their their loved one home and save. So that's our that is our goal, and that is most of that heavy lifting is done in the beginning. So they are getting a tremendous amount

of attention. I met with this family, UM, I know, our agents worked with them quote quite frequently. They came into our office, We sat down with them, We tried to answer all the questions that we could in this investigation. So we are we are there to support the victim families and that's why I would recommend. I think it's something we do very well. And I recommend if anybody's in this situation, do come to us for anything, just for the support that you're going to get along with you know,

along with the cases. It starts well and then with that when we come back, we'll wrap this up with you. And I do want to get into a little bit about how families should respond and react and some steps they can take. But first, this is Unsolved with Steve Gregory on kfi AM six forty. You're listening to kf I AM sixty on demand kf I AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. I'm Steve Gregory and this is Unsolved. Welcome back. We're speaking with Special Agent Charges, the acting

SAC for the FBI's LA Office in the Criminal Division. It's Sean Hayworth, Agent Hayworth. Before the break, we talked a lot about, you know, sort of the timeline and what you do and how you deploy resources to a family who's going through something similar to what the Lopez family is going through. Uh, what in the event that it happens, Because you already said the cartail is started increasing its kidnapping behaviors. Are you seeing an increase overall

in kidnap for ransom? Are you seeing that all across the board. We're not. We it goes through hills and valleys, right, we do. There was a while there we had an increase in what we call praudulent kidnappings, which has taken place out of subjects English speaking subjects in a prison and

Spanish speaking subjects in prisons in Mexico. We're calling up here saying we had kidnapped for your loved one, and those were all fraudulent calls, but people didn't know that, so we had that was we've actually had successful case that has made that lower for these kind of kidnappings. I have seen no indication

that it's been an increase of it, okay. And the reason I ask is because how should a family respond if there's a loved one in foreign country and all of a sudden that loved one gets a phone call, a panicked phone call, or a call from a stranger that says we've got your mother, we've got your father, we've got your husband, and we want one hundred thousand dollars or we're going to kill your husband, something like that.

What's the first thing a family should do. They should call nine one one and the local police will Because of being a foreign country, you should reach out to us pretty quickly. They can be proactive about it and reach out to us and tips fbid or a call one one hundred, fbium one hundred, call a BI sorry, so that we get that information quicker and then when and what that will be. I know, I just briefly talked about

virtual kidnappings. The majority of the calls we get are fraudulent kidnappings, but the family doesn't know that, so they will go through everything like Maria's families did, except their their loved one will be on a vacation somewhere in Honolulu. UM, so we do want to call us. Our subject matter experts will be able to tell you, hey, this is this is off this phone call, off this information. We know whether this is a real kid

napping or not. UM. So they do want to get in touch with us as quick as possible again because then all the resources are going to come behind that, and then UM and then also all the publicity that we can

help as well. So I know, UM, in this case, with specific case, we're able to put things out on our on our web pages, on our Twitter pages, We're able to put out a reward for from Maria to hoping to get more and more information to come into us so that we can better UM, you know, hopefully go on and go down and have someone say Maria, and and do you do this same sort of campaign? Public publicity campaign in Mexico or wherever the country would be that they were

kidnapped or missing from. We certainly can, we certainly have. We found certain platforms like Facebook still work well down there, so we'll put out our reward banner look seeking information and well we can target it too, so where we think that information is best needed anywhere in the world. I'm want to ask you a couple of sensitive questions, and I only mean sensitive because of the of the topic itself. But how long on average does it take in

your experience when it's a legitimate kidnapping? How long before it's resolved? Boy? I have examples that are extremes on both ends anywhere from from the moment I get there when I gave you earlier, where I got the information up four and by six they were in the door, saving the person to several months of negotiation. I don't have an average. I haven't looked at the numbers on that's the longest, the longest this is one of these has gone

on before you resolve. The longest that I personally have been involved with it was about three months? Three months? Okay? And is that And when you say that's long, is that north of an average or is that was that pretty extreme? I felt that was I feel that was more extreme in this particular case. Then with Miss Lopez, she was abducted. The family says she was abducted on February ninth. Is that what you got to call?

In February ninth? The next day? And then, Um, so from February tenth to now, Um, what are the odds that if Miss Lopez was kidnapped? What are the odds that she can be saved? I am very optimistic that there's always we still have the opportunity to save her. I don't have any odds on that, Steve, like I can I give you that well, and I know that's kind of an unfair question. Let me let me ask you to you this week. UM, do you believe she's still alive? I do? I do, and I believe. We're

still working with that belief. We're still putting the resources into that belief, which is why we are, which is why we recently did increase the reward and increasing our media attention in order to hopefully get someone who maybe hasn't said something before, we'll say something. Now, have you explored at all any connection to her disappearance in that was it Uh, Pueblo Nuavo. Is it Publo Nuavo? Right? That's that's Is there any connection there to anyone here?

That I mean, is it possible that any that people that abducted are down there might be connected here on Los Angeles somehow? You're you're You're asking investigative questions, Steve, I'm not gonna answer that one. Sorry, that's fine. Uh, let's see here. I. UM, I guess we're as we wrap this up, Agent I, I just want to find out if um, you already kind of talked about people calling nine one one,

if they if they feel like they're the victim of something like this. Um, with the proximity to Mexico, and you say you have agents that what they live and work down in Mexico? Right? Correct? Okay, So, um, how busy is the FBI crimes committed in Mexico where an American is concerned? Look, Mexico has a border office with the United States, so it's just for so many reasons, it's going to be a busy office. So just like Canada is a busy office. I've worked up there before

as well. So just due to proximity, the amount of criminals on any criminal case, whether it's a white collar case a national security case. Because we share that border, we share a lot of leads with each other and

a lot of work, so busy is I'm sure they'll appreciate this. I appreciate the word efforts that are folks do down in Mexico because they are busy have and just to rectus and put a pin on it in Agent Hayworth with respect to Miss Lepez's case, at any time, are you in a position where you can go down and assist on any kind of recovery or rescue or will it all be handled by mexicanities or will your people in Mexico be a

part of any operation down there? Well, so they have the lead right, So if they require a technical they meaning Mexican authorities, Mexico will have to lead. This is their country. If they put in a request to

have an expert in evidence and expert in fingerprints and expert in DNA. So we often go around the world and on any cases and we'll bring our expertise to those countries so they can request them as the lead agency in this investigation, they can request for us to come down and provide subject outter guidance to them for sure, and then in that case, yes, we would absolutely

send somebody at their request. Excellent agents. Sean Hayworth from the Los Angeles Office of the FBI, thank you so much for your time, much appreciated eventacy for information provided by the Lopez family, go to the website Justice Forcarmen dot com. That's Justice the number four Carmen dot com and again, a reward of up to twenty five thousand dollars being offered by the f BI.

You can call them anonymously at one eight hundred call FBI. That's one eight hundred call FBI, or as always, you can just call the Unsolved team by pressing pound two fifty on your cell phone and say the keyword Unsolved, and that's going to do it. Unsolved with Steve Gregory, the radio show is a production of the KFI News Department for iHeartMedia, Los Angeles and is produced by Steve Gregory and Jacob Gonzalez. Our field engineer is Tony Sorrentino,

and our digital producer is An eight Ward. To hear this episode and others from past seasons, download Unsolved with Steve Gregory on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you listen KFI AM sixty on demand