July 2, 2023 • 65 mins
On February 9th Maria Del Carmen Lopez was taken from the front yard of her home in Pueblo Nuevo, Colima, Mexico. Lopez is a US Citizen and retired to Pueblo Nuevo ten years ago. Lopez’ daughter, Zonia ‘Zoe’ Lopez, tells us about the day her family got a ransom call, and the subsequent calls for money, only to be ignored and ghosted. She also speaks about her family's frustration with the FBI and Mexican authorities. We also speak with the FBI about the case and how the agency handles the abductions of US Citizens in foreign countries. After you hear both sides of this mystery, you’ll be left with way more questions than answers.
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You're listening to kf I AM sixtyon demand, KFI AM six forty live
everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. Onany given day in southern California, hundreds
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of investigators are working more than tenthousand 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 murdererswho still walk the streets. Killers who
may be your neighbor, go toyour church, or could be dating a
close friend. For the next twohours, will highlight cases that have gone
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cold, baffled investigators, or justneeds 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
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ninth, Maria Dela crem and Lopez'sfamily says their mother was watering the plants
in the front yard of her homein Pueblo, Nuevo, Mexico, when
all of a sudden, a vanpulled up. Men with masks jump out,
grabbed their mother, and speed away. A short time later, a
phone call would be made to thefamily back here in South La. Their
mother, Maria, retired ten yearsago and has lived in Pueblo, Nuevo,
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Zonia. Lopez is one of thedaughters, Zoe for short. She
recalls her phone ringing at six thirtythat evening, and I received a phone
call from my sister. She wascrying and frantically saying, Mom, Mom
was kidnapped. I couldn't believe it. I just got up, shot up,
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and I was like, what justhearing the word kidnapped, it's like
you going too. I literally feltlike 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 likein the blur, and I was like,
what are you talking about? Whatdo you mean? What do you
mean? Mom was kidnapped? Shesaid they took her, they took her.
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I hung up the phone with her, and I just remember walking through
the hall and my ears literally pluggedup. I couldn't hear anything, and
I just fell to the floor andmy son came out and I just remember
just kind of looking at him seeingthe kidnapped mom. Immediately it was we
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have to find out is this real? Because it just feels like, it's
impossible, there's no way. Sopicked up the phone and you started.
I started making phone calls to whateverlittle family that I know, you know,
lives in that town, and itwas just one call um of no
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answers, basically because there is noreception there in the area. Is such
a small town, there's no phoneconnections. Everyone communicates through either WhatsApp or
messenger. And I finally did getsomeone on the phone that was happened to
actually be at the house with anofficer, and they said, I said,
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where is this real? You know, is this really happening? Talk
about the town? Where where arewe talking? The town is called Italia,
okay. And what's the nearest sopeople can understand, the nearest larger
city or state would be Guadalajara.Okay, it's two hours from Guadalajara.
Got me truck on area. Soit's deep in the heart of Mexico.
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Yes, yeah, And um,your mother, I remember from the press
conference. Your mother had been downthere at least retired there ten years ago.
Yes, okay, and she moveddown here by herself, both my
dad and her. Oh okay,your parents had moved down there at the
same time. Okay, and thenjust to put some context in there,
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So I'm sorry to go back towhere 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
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soldiers are here. And I wasthinking, I mean, it really quickly
crossed my head, like how thetown is so small and away from the
city. It just seemed very oddto me that there was all this soldiers
and Marina and everyone already there.It had just happened. And I remember
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asking, like when did this happenor how long ago? And I believe
there had been a span of likemaybe an hour and a half to two
hours before you got the call,before we found out, before you found
out. Okay, so how didthey find out? There was witnesses?
So my mom's property, that herhouse is the only house that has Wi
Fi. So the around the property, it's it's very there's kids or just
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the locals or anyone who they standaround 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 wastwo there was two young men there could
just connected to their social media andthey actually witnessed the kidnapping. What were
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they able to provide what kind ofdetail. The one street light that is
there was broken, so it waslater in the afternoon. So what they
were able to capture was they weren'table to give exact details color of the
car, but they were able tosay what it was. It was a
mini like a type minivan kind.They were just unsure of the color if
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it was between white, a tancolor, or silver because it was later
in the afternoon. But what theysaid is my mom had my mom had
been at a liquor store or likea 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, wenthome because she wanted to go water
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her plants. My mom always wateringher plants, taking care of her house.
And they said she was watering herplants 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, whenhe looked up, he says, he's
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unsure if my mom was pushed downto 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 wayat 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 setman also with the hood came out of
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the van and they they picked upmy mom. They he covered her mouth
and they put her in the vanand drove away. There was a the
description of the van. The onlything that was unusual is the witness just
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say that the brake lights didn't breaklike just in one solid flash. There
was something different about the way thelights went on. But they drove away
and that was it. When yousaid that you spoke to an agent that
was at the house down there,there were no US officials a vaults at
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this point right now, it wasall Mexican officials. Okay um. At
this point, you're you see thewitness 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 timeshe was taken away to the time you
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got the call you said was alittle over an hour, closer to two
closer to two hours, okay,closer to two hours. Did it give
you some reassurance that so much lawenforcement presence was there at her house so
quickly, including the military. Ithink I just I didn't really think about
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that. But the reason I'm askingis that it seemed like that because any
of these kind of missing person incases or abductions, usually the first few
hours are critical. So were yougetting 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 therewas no follow up call. There was
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nothing that said, this is whatwe'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 liveeverywhere on the iHeartRadio app. I'm Steve
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Gregory, and this is unsolved.We've been speaking with Zoe Lopez, the
daughter of Maria Lopez, who wasreported kidnapped on February ninth in Pueblo Nuevo,
Mexico. Before the break, wewere talking about the initial moments that
you found out that your mother hadbeen abducted in the town of Pueblo Nuevo
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in Mexico, just north of Guallajata. Mexican authority are on scene, so
they're working the investiga, presumably workingthe investigation in that area. What were
you doing back here at home whereyou live. Everybody was on the phone
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trying to get either more family outthere to see if they can go and
search for her somewhere, start lookinganywhere. A lot of us, myself
I remember calling a friend and justbecause 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
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need we need to get authorities involvedimmediately on this end, because she's a
US citizen, and one of theanswers was just quickly called the embassy.
You need to get ahold of theEmbassy. Now, getting ahold of the
embassy was a challenge in itself becauseit was the after late in the afternoon.
You don't you don't actually have somebodypick up the phone. It's all
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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, theUS Embassy here. Okay, yeah,
at this point we weren't aware.We had no idea that we should be
contacting the Mexican embassy. There isno as the people. The one person
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that did pick up at here atthe US Embassy, had no idea what
steps to take. And I waslike, we have a US citizen who
is kidnapped. What do I do? And she just kind of just give
me a moment. So does shehave dual citizenship? By chance? She
does? Okay, so she hasto both Mexican and an American citizenship.
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Okay, So how far did youget with the US embassy voicemail after voicemail
for the next about I would saytwenty almost twenty four hours. It was.
We never even after those voicemails weresent, we never received a call
back immediately, so we just kepttrying the next day, we kept trying,
and until we finally left. Ibelieve it was one of the most
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frantic voicemails because I'm just scared outof my mind at this point, a
whole day has almost gone by andwe don't have any contact yet with anyone
here. And how much contact andhow much trust can you can we put
into the authorities in Mexico was myfirst thought, and I just said I
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knew we had to get someone here, and after leaving, like just pleading
somebody please call, and I rememberof being unable to contact anyone at the
embassy. I did call the localauthorities here because I said, I can't
get anyone else, who can youneed to help me, and they just
said you need to call back.You need to call the embassy again.
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At that point, someone did whenthey did reach out. Then things started
moving quickly at that point. Sofor timeframe purposes, that February ninth when
you got the call. So arewe into February tenth now the next day,
yes, okay, So then yousaid the ball got moving. What
exactly did they do or were theyable to do at that point? The
reason us side, I think Ishould mention that the reason why it started
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moving is because at this point thevoicemail included we've already received a call for
a ransom, so we had receivedFebruary tenth, you the family had received
it, correct, And at thispoint we are even more scared and more
frantic, because what do you donow you have the bad guys calling?
Who got that call? My brother? Your brother? And was it a
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live call or was it a voicemail? It was a live call, a
live call, do you recall whatwas 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 theirmouth or somehow covering the phone. He
said my brother's name immediately, andhe said I have your mom and you're
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gonna do what I say or it'sover 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, butfirm, and so we said okay.
My brother said, okay, Iwant to know, where is she okay?
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He said, she is. We'regonna 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, Ican't discuss that just because it's still an
open investigation, but it's it's asix figure six figures and we just knew
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immediately were in trouble. We don'thave that type of money. So so
you left the voicemails on the ninththat afternoon into the evening hours. By
the tenth, you said, atwhat 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 nineam, so it was earlier in
the morning. And then after that, then did you call others or by
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that time were they calling you?Now the US side, I called them,
I believe one more time, onemore time. Yeah, like this
is going on now, like I'vebeen 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 donext? You know, we know this
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is in Mexico, so what dowe do next? But then at this
point, it was like, Okay, now we need help because now we
have someone contacting us. And itwas directly to my brother. The phone
call was in through messenger, wasn'tit was a direct call presumably your mom's
phone or do you think it wasyour mom's phone and they got your brother's
information from that? I believe mymom. It's it's it's hard to say,
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but I believe my mom probably hashis number of memories because when she
does come and stay here, shestays with him. Got it? And
then they asked her for them gotit? 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,
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They didn't take anything else about it. They never stepped up inside of the
home. It was outside of There'sa large porch that they have and according
to the witness, she was standingliterally right in front of like the front.
There's a small gate leading into theporch. She was watering her plunts.
They never they never entered the home. More on the case of the
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missing mom in Mexico. But firstthis is unsolved With Steve Gregory on kf
I am six forty You're listening tokf I Am six forty on demand ken
if I Am six forty heard everywherelive on the iHeartRadio app. I'm Steve
Gregory and this is unsolved. Ifyou're listening on the app, you can
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send us a tip about a case, a story, idea, or a
comminent about the show. Just tapthe red microphone on the app and record
your message. Back to the caseof the missing mom in Mexico, Zoe.
Before the break you were talking aboutthe family had all received a ransom
call from people in Mexico, andhe said it was a muffled voice,
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very monotone or almost clinical sounding,demanded at least a six figure ransom.
By now, you're calling the USauthorities here in the Los Angeles area.
Are you having any success at allnow or has anyone called you back from
the US embassy or US government?No, not at all. I'm at
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this point reaching out to local authoritieshere in my city just because I you
ever able to talk to anyone witha badge. No, So, what's
going on at this point? Anymore contact with the Mexican authorities. I
believe I called, and I might. I'm not. I'm you know what
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I'm unsure if I made that callback to them. Okay, well,
I know it probably very fanatic inyour mind. A lot of stuff going
on. Then let me ask youwhen, at what point did you finally
get a call from a US federalauthorities or you got through to them they
reached out at some point a fewhours later, they reached out and said,
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you're going to have a FBI agent. We'll be contacting you, and
then we'll go ahead and proceed fromthere. I don't believe I received the
call, but we did receive aknock on the door, and we had
an agent here that afternoon of thetenth of the tenth the next day.
Then, yes, okay, andwhat was that experience? Like I thought
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he would come in with, youknow, flashing FBI logos everywhere. I
was like, you're at the wronghouse, 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, goingover how did we find out,
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making you know, the point ofcontact, and then contacting the I believe
we contacted the authorities are and theyfound out, Okay, we're going to
be dealing with not only state levelauthority in Polima, but the anti kidnapping
unit there in At this point,did you feel like you feel more relieved?
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Very yes. At that point Ireally thought, Okay, now we
have the US authorities and they knowwhat to do. We're we don't know
what the next step is. Wedon't know how. I don't know that
there's a you know, step bystep on how these things go. But
I actually I felt that I feltthat we have the right people here,
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we have the FBI involved, We'regoing to bring her. What happened next,
I'm not it was a waiting game. It was a waiting game.
No more calls for ransom. NotI don't believe it was that day.
It was the next day. Thedays leading you know after that, we're
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very uh long because it consisted ofa lot of communication from them. The
phone call started coming in quite oftenfrom the bad guys, bad guys,
so they were calling quite a bitthen, yes, not how many times.
There was days where it was afew times a day starting there at
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this point there are Mexico or Colimahad two hours, so we were receiving
phone calls early six in the morning, five in the morning. What were
they saying, same, just finishmoney. You're gonna do what I say?
Well, and it was a lotof explaining, Well, my all
the phone calls, that has tobe said, it's they all came into
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one phone, nobody else. Sothe explain was, we don't have it.
It's the weekend. Now, it'simpossible. 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 wantanyone to know, It's impossible. They
never told you about a drop pointor a deadline or nothing. The phone
calls were very weird. It wasanother thing that was very interesting about this
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person was it was extremely hard tounderstand what they were saying because again it
was some kind of covering of themouth, something in their mouth or covering
of the phone or maybe a phoneto phone. Was it always Spanish?
Yes, the accent, it wasn'tanything. It didn't sound do you know
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everyone has picks up different accents differentparts of Mexico sounded maybe they were local
or native to Koalima or around thatarea. 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
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was I think that it was oneof the points that the FBI made is
this is, you know, they'remaking 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 ofIt was a lot. Although there were
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a lot of calls, they wereall very very short. It was almost
like, okay, fine, tellus 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, itwas a lot of calls. And then
what did the FEDS counsel you todo at this point or what were they
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doing at this point? The meaningthe FBI um proof of life was was
the goal at that point? Youknow that's their demands are one thing,
but then we need to know thatshe's okay. So every phone call was
I need to hear her, Ineed to know that she's okay. Let
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me talk to her. And assoon as any any of you know,
question was asked where he asked back, well, let me hear her.
It was a hang up and thenit was hours or did the FBI give
you an idea of what that meantto them, like the fact that they
would never follow through. Did theyever give you any sense of what that
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could mean? No, it wasit was actually I think that they had
the same sense. That's weird becausetypically 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 rightright? Why hang up? And why
prolong it? Right? Why?Again? Like why why we're saying,
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okay, tell us where? Andit was hanging up. So you say
you received the second ransom call onthe eleventh, which had been two days
after the abduction. Approximately how manycalls? Just approximate how many calls you
think you got from them the wholetime? Yeah? More than twenty?
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Really now over how many days?I believe it was two weeks? Two
weeks. And they played the samegame every time, every time, and
it was just torture because you're waitingand you know you want, you want
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to hear her. And when wedid, we finally received what proof of
life? But you can tell itwas a recording. It was my mom.
It was her. You're listening tokf I AM sixty on demand,
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kf I AM six forty live everywhereon the iHeartRadio app. I'm Steve Gregory
and this is Unsolved. We're speakingwith Zoe Lopez about the abduction of her
mother Maria. Zoe recounts the fearof getting the phone call about her mom
and the frustration of dealing with authoritiesboth in the US and Mexico, and
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the toll this is taken on herfamily. So by now, you said,
you've received at least twenty ransom callsfrom these people over a span of
two weeks. It's wreaking havoc onyour family. You kind of characterize the
fact that your home turned into acommand post. It just, you know,
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it really upset the whole balance.I can understand that, I can't
imagine what you'd be going through onthis, But what happened next? I
mean, where did the investigation gowaiting? A lot of waiting. The
communication was there was mistakes that weremade on Mexican authority side, where we
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found out that there was leaks incommunication or with the investigation out there.
It became you know, hectic andexcel. Already, the whole situation was,
you know, scary, and thenyou start that once the doubt of
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who's handling the case out there setsin, then it becomes that much greater,
that much more surreal. Everything becomesjust now you really feel like you're
in trouble, even if you dohave the FBI on your side over here,
because then you really understand it,really, you really understand that the
Mexican authorities, because it happened ontheir turf, they're gonna leave this case.
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It's not the FBI or it's notus. You're not going to control
things from here. And that isI think when the days started passing and
things didn't play out how you seeand maybe in the movies, you know,
oh, twenty four hours passed orforty eight hours, and we're gonna
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hear her, We're gonna get thatcomments come and get her. That's tough,
you know, packing your bags andputting your getting your passport and just
saying okay, we're just gonna waitnow for that call, and then it
never happens. February. Gosh,four months, what do we have?
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Four months? One hundred and thirtyeight days today as of this taping,
one hundred thirty eight days. Whendid the calls stop? The ransom calls?
Because apparently you're not getting them anymore? Right, Everything just went silent.
It was, I believe a periodof forty eight hours where it was
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a lot of what we're buy thephone, just waiting for it to ring
again, and then it just neverdid. Those numbers disappeared. There was
no more communication whatsoever, And itwas day thirty five when, at least
for it was extremely scary. Wherewhere are we at now? What do
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we do next? No one knowsat this point we're dealing We're dealing with
it with just authorities following their instructionsor their guidance, doing everything their way.
And then you just feel when dowe tell the world that we need
help? Are Were you ever toldnot to go to the media, Yes,
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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'sa US citizen, You're gonna there's
there's action over there. They don'twant these things to get out. It's
(29:47):
not good for them at this point, you have there was a really there
was another kidnap broad day like kidnappingand and where four Americans were I believe
two were killed. In the midstof all of this, you have the
government here bashing the president there andthere. I remember just catching bits and
pieces thinking, horrible timing. Wehave my mother, she's a US citizen.
(30:11):
How are we going to get helpfor 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 hada press conference, your whole family were
there, and you were calling onPresident Biden to intervene. Did you ever
(30:32):
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 withthe chaos of everything being turned upside down
and the waiting. We have sentemails to anyone that you can think of.
(30:53):
How about your congressperson or your senator. We have tried, and we
have gotten a response other than responsenow we got. I received one response
which floored me that said, weare 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.
(31:21):
As as more days go by andI started, I mean, you do
your own investigation. You do whatyou can to try to understand what the
situation over there is, what it'slike, what the crime is, what
you know, what's going on overthere. There's a lot of corruption in
Mexico. There's a lot of violencegoing on in that state. They have
(31:45):
they're in the middle of their umof you know, getting a new president
and the elections, and you know, you start thinking, is just have
anything to do with that? Isthere 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 largestate. It's a very small state.
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I believe it's one of the smalleststates in Mexico. How do you not
find a sixty three year old womanwhen 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 justdoesn't make sense. What do you think
(32:30):
happens? I At this point,I don't know. We're too far in
for me to think that it isthey're waiting to ask for a larger ransom.
It wouldn't make sense if money isthe If that's their goal, it
would have been asked for already,or there should have been some kind of
(32:52):
communication. They went completely silent onus. 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 myhead, but it's just that feeling.
It's not. I don't and Idon't believe it's a false like a
false hope. I just don't knowwhat they're waiting for you. You're listening
(33:14):
to kf I AM six forty ondemand kf I AM six forty live everywhere
on the iHeartRadio app. I'm SteveGregory and this is Unsolved. For the
last hour, we've been listening toZoe Lopez as she maps out the journey
(33:34):
she and her family been on sincelearning 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'vegone silent on us as well. The
communication that they have with the authoritiesin Mexico, I think is very limited
to what they want to say,the Mexican authorities to the FBI. I've
(34:00):
had pushback from the Mexican authorities alsowhen 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 areyou doing to follow up with these
leads? How many leads are youreceiving. It's another setback for us to
(34:22):
you know, going into and listeningto the number that we're asking people to
call in and be one hundred percentsure that it's anonymous. But then you
have the Mexican authorities that have adifferent approach. They want to sit there
and talk to anybody giving information.Well, that's compromising being facilitating the people
(34:44):
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 familyare doing now to just keep the momentum
we are. We have sent emailsto any congressman, states editor, the
White House. We have a websiteit's a Justice for the Number four garment
(35:06):
dot com or asking anyone to pleasesign a petition in order for us to
receive enough attention to get this tothe 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 anyinformation, any leads. Then that means
(35:29):
you need help yourself. Why notturn to our president? She is a
US citizen, she has dual citizenship. There should be more aid here,
much more. I didn't ask youthis before, but I am curious.
Do you think it doesn't sound liketo me, based on covering crazy crimes
(35:51):
over the years, it doesn't soundlike 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 hangingup is someone that has a good understanding
that if you stay on too longyou might be trapped. Sure, but
the fact that they didn't give youa drop off point or a deadline.
(36:13):
There was a deadline, Oh therewas Okay, that's where you know.
There was a deadline. There wasa but everything again, everything was a
lot of hanging up, a lotof not getting to ransom was asked,
we obviously cannot come up with thatnumber. Was there some negotiation at all?
I mean, were you trying tonegotiate the money or at least negotiate
(36:37):
terms the money, since it's justletting 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
(36:58):
deadline? The first deadline was twentyfour hours, twenty four hours, and
then then they just kept calling andkept 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 tome, and that's very by the seat
of their pants kind of stuff.But you know, amateurs can also be
(37:23):
more dangerous because they don't know what'sgoing on. You say, in your
heart of hearts, you feel likeyour mother's alive. Yes, the effort
to try to get information about theinvestigation, you're still not getting any callbacks
from the Mexican authorities and the FBIyou say has not been in touch with
(37:44):
you. Have you been down thereyourself, have you gone down at all.
No, the state of Kalima here'sit's super important for you know,
we get asked that. One ofour first thoughts was we need to get
down there. I mean, asa son, as a daughter, You're
I gotta go down there, andI gotta look, you know, I
gotta go and talk to whoever Ipossibly can. And then you look at
(38:07):
the reality that that state is inand they are number one state not in
Mexico, but in the world ofplaces not to travel because their crime is
from cartels to murders, you nameit. It is absolutely through the roof.
Was there any indication from the federalgovernment or the Mexican government that there
was a nexus to the cartels.No. At the beginning you think you
(38:30):
immediately you have to think about that, but then you rule everything out.
There's no known, but the cartelsdo run the state. What is it
you want from people? Tell uswhat you want. We need their support,
We need people to This can happento anyone. There's a lot of
tourists, there's a lot of people. She lived there and just like a
(38:52):
lot of other families, they havetheir parents who go or come here and
stay for you know, a fewmonths and then go back home thinking it's
home, it's their homeland, thisis where they were born. They're fine.
She is you, a citizen.Her goal, her life, her
dream was to be here, raiseus. But things are you know,
they're not ideal here either. Thingsare very expensive. It was easier for
(39:15):
them. You know, we're retired. Now we can go back. We
need everybody to stand behind her becauseit could be you. It could be
on a simple vacation. We canget away that and is this happens to
you, And this is a kindof backup that you have from the authorities.
You're in trouble. We need tohave action from the United States to
show that your citizens matter, yourcitizens matter. We need the support,
(39:37):
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. Pleasedon't let us be another unsolved kidnapping.
There's too many. She is mymother. She deserves to be home.
We deserve to have her home.Children deserve to have their grandmother here.
(40:02):
This is not okay. So Iknow this has been difficult for you,
and I appreciate your time and appreciateyour letting us into your home and telling
us your story. And we're wishingyou 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 howit handles kidnappings in a foreign country.
But first, this is Unsolved withSteve Gregory on KFI AM six forty.
(40:27):
You're listening to KFI AM six fortyon demand KFI AM six forty live everywhere
on the iHeartRadio app. I'm SteveGregory and this is Unsolved. Sean Hayworth
is the acting Special Agent in chargeof the FBI's Criminal Division in the Los
(40:49):
Angeles office, and before we getto him, a heads up. As
with most cases we've highlighted on thisshow, investigators are not permitted to disclose
every detail about a case because ofthe potential to ruin the prosecution's chance at
a conviction. That said, AgentHayworth tells us about the FBI's work on
the case of Maria Lopez, themissing Mom in Mexico. So, in
(41:10):
February of this year, the Mexican'sauthorities and so she gave word that a
US citizen had been abducted and MariaCarmen Lopez. They reached out to our
office out down in Mexico. Sowe have as the FBI, we have
(41:30):
what called legal attaches and every insixty countries, sixty two countries when we
would be in Mexico, so theyreached out to us through our partnership that
we have with let our office downto Mexico. Now, hey, we
have this kidnapping of a US citizen. They reached out to our office because
she had family in the greater LosAngeles area, and then we began our
(41:52):
investigation. So that's when we firstheard the day after it happened. But
the way the information ridiated was fromauthorities Mexico. Is that typical agent that
that you find out about, uh, you know, a missing or a
kidnapped person, possible kidnapped person ina foreign country. Do you usually hear
about it first from the foreign countryor do you hear about it usually from
(42:14):
the family in the home country.In my experience, the way we first
hear about it in this area whereat in Los Angeles is from an extortion
call that someone in the Los Angelesarea call got. So if if if
someone in an La gets a phonecall asking for money, I have a
family member kidnapped. They would thenreach out to either nine one one or
(42:36):
US one hundred call FBI, andthen that information goes to our headquarters where
they quickly put together the facts andpush it out to the squads which handle
it and then we handle it rightaway. So that's how we usually get
it. Usually get it from thevictim phone call for asking for for money.
And then, uh, do youhave a special I guess a task
force or do you have a specialteam or all of your agents sort of
(42:59):
qualify to handle a transnational case likethis, Well, all agents have the
authority, but you're at we dohave subject matter experts who are more able
to handle this, So agents thatwork on our Violent Crime program um this
specifically falls and what's called the InternationalViolent Crime program Um. We have certain
agents that are more burst and havebetter connections into our counterparts in Mexico.
(43:23):
Excuse which is where in this inthis situation, this is exactly what happened.
They for in Maria's case, theywe because of where the family lived.
They linked up with an agent whois one of our greatest subject matter
experts that we have not just inLA but in the in the bureau.
And when you say subject matter experts, what particular skill does that agent have.
(43:45):
So he has first of all,he has experience and he's had successes
with literally saving lives in Mexico ofhostage takers in the past. But also
he has the connections. He knowsthe 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 whohave connections with the Mexican authorities, but
(44:08):
also with the our our League adoffices down in Mexico. So he knows
immediately who who does get the informationout 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 roundedup um, including the border liaison officer,
(44:30):
the League add office officer, thecrisis negotiators, the everybody who might
be involved. Our Victim Witness Servicesplays a heavy role in this as well,
so everybody gets notified immediately when theword gets out here. So it's
it's a long email chain and thenwe just start sending updates of who's assigned
(44:51):
and who's doing what you talk about. The agents have the authority to handle
cases like this, these transnational casesacross border cases. U. Do you
have the authority to go across theborder or do you always have to be
escorted? Because you know, Ithink people get confused when they see on
the movies kind of how you operatein something like this. Do you have
the authority to go into a countrythat we have a treaty with or any
(45:15):
kind of a mutual agreement with.So we have our legal attache folks are
FBI agents, so they are alreadydown there and they are working with the
locals. But in terms of likeour authority to make arrest, subpoenas,
or any legal action within that countrythat does we do not have that.
We work with our US attorney's officeswho will put out what's called mutual mutual
(45:42):
treaty where we can get information thatwe 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 Otwo, which is if there's a ransom
making rants made. We have theauthority to investigate and prosecute in the United
(46:05):
States, got it? But thenyour counterparts in Mexico assume you've probably worked
with him many times before on thesevery same cases, these types of cases,
and probably some that are even worsein terms of you know, homicides
or things like that. But um, do you guys have great success working
with your counterparts down there? Imean, are they are they very forthcoming?
(46:29):
And when you say you got notifieddown in Mexico about this situation with
miss Lopez, did you did youknow right away that that that that agency
is down there, that your counterpartsin Mexico are pretty aggressive and they're working
the case. I mean, didyou know right away that you were going
to be getting some intel from themor any kind of evidence from them that
(46:49):
you could you could use as asas history showed me in other similar investigations.
Um, their units down there arevery proactive, very willing to share
and work with us to get themove these cases along. So much I've
had I've had a case where atfour o'clock I found out about the information.
By six o'clock they were making arrestin the country on a hostage taker.
(47:12):
So I can't speak highly enough aboutthis relation. This particular relationship with
the Mexican authorities has been fantastic andgetting that contact from them, especially since
they pushed it to us. Wealready know that we have the League out
office down there has a good relationshipwith them as well. But with that
mean with your counterpart down there,that would be the federal Mexican government,
(47:36):
right, What about the local policeagencies down there? Do they share the
same kind of um I guess fourthyou know, the fourth coming nature of
sharing or or do they respond quicklydown there? Because you also hear stereotypically
about local cops down there being corruptand being slow and things like that.
So you're talking about the federal levelof Mexican law enforcement or the local authorities.
(48:00):
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, sowe work. They're specialized units that work
with us. Sometimes they are mixedwith what we would do in the states,
working with task force officers. They'llhave something similar with them, but
(48:21):
that does depend on which state inMexico that it's obviously these units in certain
areas of Mexico, typically along theborder, are going to be more active
than others. So this is ourfirst time dealing with my first time dealing
with this particular unit in this partof Mexico. Down Kalima. Okay,
when we come back, I'm gonnadig a little more on this, and
(48:43):
I've got more questions about the caseof miss Lopez than missing mom in Mexico.
But first, this is Unsolved withSteve Gregory on kf I Am six
forty. You're listening to KFI AMsix forty on demand k if I Am
six forty heard everywhere live on theiHeartRadio app. I'm Steve Gregory and this
is Unsolved. If you're listening onthe app, you can send us a
(49:05):
tip about a case, a story, idea, or a comminent about the
show. Just tap the red microphoneon the app and record your message.
Welcome back. We're speaking with ActingSpecial 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, Mariadel Carmen Lopez and before the break Agent,
(49:27):
We were just starting to dig alittle 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 Mexicois corrupt. You're saying that all your
experiences thus far and your subject matterexperts have been that your counterparts down there
want to solve these crimes every bitas quickly as you do. Is that
(49:49):
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 wavea Laredo in those places where you know
we're closest too, is there alogistical challenge with it being so deep down
there? I think it's, isn'tit in the state of um It's near
(50:10):
Watahara if memory starch right, Yeah, it's it's So that's not a I
think the only difference that would makeis maybe some of the other units in
Mexico would be more experienced with thesematters. So like when we heard about
this case, this was an uncommonevent in this part of Mexico, Whereas
(50:30):
I get a lot of calls forthese 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 isjust it was, It wasn't as common
for for this. Does that risea red flag for you? H?
It does raise a lead flag forme? Can you how far can you
(50:52):
go with that? I think that'sabout it? Okay, that's fine.
UM. Yeah, And I knowthat there's a lot you can't tell me,
UM, And I know that you'relimited by it. And we don't
want to be responsible for ruining aninvestigation. So it's it's incumbent upon you
to tell me how far we cango? Okay, UM, So,
how many cases like this do youdeal with on a on a monthly or
(51:14):
quarterly or annual basis? I mean, how many missing or kidnapped Americans or
in Mexico. It's it's not alot, 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'sthe coyotes, the the alien smugglers who
will kidnap all the folks that they'rebringing across the border. Um, they'll
(51:37):
kidnap them either in Tijuana or holdthem sometimes in places up here in the
United States. Um, it's it'snot I see the cases that we get
here in LA and because of wherewe are, it's gonna be more frequent
than to say, if you wereup in San Francisco or Washington State.
UM, but we get we probablyget about at least a half dozen prosecutable
(51:59):
cases a year to a dozen ayear. And so sometimes it's like this
case where we have we have agroup that has kidnapped Marha. And again
I can't talk about about where thiswhat we believe this group to be,
or any other things may be tiedto it. But up here on the
(52:20):
border, what we see is folkswho are going to kidnap all ten people
that were there were going to bringacross the border. And then unfortunately those
those events do lead to some potentiallyviolent outcomes that they're not getting paid money.
Then, I mean, the firstthing, you know, our first
question on something that was always wasto the cartel. Was this cartel related?
(52:42):
I mean, the cartels in allkinds of different types of criminal enterprises.
But um, can I can youat least answer whether or not you're
looking at a cartel or is thiscartel related? So I can't, and
I can't because this particular investigation isongoing. I'm not going to answer that
question. I will let you knowthat there has been an increase in cartel
(53:06):
activity involved with kidnappings on other kidnappingsthat we've dealt with and prosecuted, more
so than it was in the pastwhere it was loosely related to other groups
along the border. But there hasbeen an up to uptick where there's money
to be made, cartel activity willfollow, and part of that has also
been increasing kidnappings. Well, letme ask it to you this way too,
(53:27):
or let me ask you to adifferent way. And my assessment is
the way the way I've been listeningto what the family told me and what
I've been reading about it. Doesthis? Does the actions of whomever is
responsible for this do they seem likethey're professionals or amateurs? Yeah? Yeah,
(53:49):
that's uh. I don't think Ican 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
(54:12):
the frustrations that not just this familythat 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 oneof the largest complaints I get all of
the times they feel like they geta lot of attention in the first couple
few days of the incident and thenit 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 orthey're being ignored. Well, absolutely,
(54:37):
so let me kind of lay outa picture for you of how what happens.
So we bring in all the resourcesthat we can while this is going
on. So we're gonna have folkswho are going to coach the family,
coach families on crisis negotiations so theyknow how to properly get the information they
need from the hostage takers. We'regoing to bring in victim witness specialists who
(54:57):
are going to assist the families withwhat they need, and that could be
um that could be a large categoryof topics. You know, if they
need someone to um like social servicestake care of their kids, while they're
dealing with this or whatever topics theyneed. So those are the things we
bring in right away. And sothey are guing a lot of attention,
(55:19):
a lot of coaching, um fromthe beginning, to make sure that they
feel comfortable, UM with with withtalking to the houshe takers, with getting
the informasion they need, trying toget 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 thisfamily, UM, I know, our
(55:42):
agents worked with them quote quite frequently. They came into our office, We
sat down with them, We triedto answer all the questions that we could
in this investigation. So we arewe 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 thissituation, do come to us for
anything, just for the support thatyou're going to get along with you know,
(56:06):
along with the cases. It startswell and then with that when we
come back, we'll wrap this upwith you. And I do want to
get into a little bit about howfamilies 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 tokf I AM sixty on demand kf I
(56:30):
AM six forty live everywhere on theiHeartRadio app. I'm Steve Gregory and this
is Unsolved. Welcome back. We'respeaking with Special Agent Charges, the acting
SAC for the FBI's LA Office inthe Criminal Division. It's Sean Hayworth,
Agent Hayworth. Before the break,we talked a lot about, you know,
(56:55):
sort of the timeline and what youdo and how you deploy resources to
a family who's going through something similarto what the Lopez family is going through.
Uh, what in the event thatit happens, Because you already said
the cartail is started increasing its kidnappingbehaviors. Are you seeing an increase overall
in kidnap for ransom? Are youseeing that all across the board. We're
(57:19):
not. We it goes through hillsand valleys, right, we do.
There was a while there we hadan increase in what we call praudulent kidnappings,
which has taken place out of subjectsEnglish 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, andthose were all fraudulent calls, but people
(57:42):
didn't know that, so we hadthat was we've actually had successful case that
has made that lower for these kindof 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 respondif there's a loved one in foreign country
and all of a sudden that lovedone gets a phone call, a panicked
(58:06):
phone call, or a call froma stranger that says we've got your mother,
we've got your father, we've gotyour husband, and we want one
hundred thousand dollars or we're going tokill your husband, something like that.
What's the first thing a family shoulddo. They should call nine one one
and the local police will Because ofbeing a foreign country, you should reach
(58:29):
out to us pretty quickly. Theycan be proactive about it and reach out
to us and tips fbid or acall one one hundred, fbium one hundred,
call a BI sorry, so thatwe get that information quicker and then
when and what that will be.I know, I just briefly talked about
virtual kidnappings. The majority of thecalls we get are fraudulent kidnappings, but
(58:52):
the family doesn't know that, sothey will go through everything like Maria's families
did, except their their loved onewill be on a vacation somewhere in Honolulu.
UM, so we do want tocall 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
(59:14):
napping or not. UM. Sothey do want to get in touch with
us as quick as possible again becausethen all the resources are going to come
behind that, and then UM andthen also all the publicity that we can
help as well. So I know, UM, in this case, with
specific case, we're able to putthings out on our on our web pages,
on our Twitter pages, We're ableto put out a reward for from
Maria to hoping to get more andmore information to come into us so that
(59:37):
we can better UM, you know, hopefully go on and go down and
have someone say Maria, and anddo you do this same sort of campaign?
Public publicity campaign in Mexico or whereverthe country would be that they were
kidnapped or missing from. We certainlycan, we certainly have. We found
certain platforms like Facebook still work welldown there, so we'll put out our
(59:59):
reward banner look seeking information and wellwe can target it too, so where
we think that information is best neededanywhere 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. Buthow long on average does it take in
your experience when it's a legitimate kidnapping? How long before it's resolved? Boy?
(01:00:25):
I have examples that are extremes onboth ends anywhere from from the moment
I get there when I gave youearlier, where I got the information up
four and by six they were inthe door, saving the person to several
months of negotiation. I don't havean average. I haven't looked at the
numbers on that's the longest, thelongest this is one of these has gone
(01:00:45):
on before you resolve. The longestthat 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 thatnorth of an average or is that was
that pretty extreme? I felt thatwas I feel that was more extreme in
this particular case. Then with MissLopez, she was abducted. The family
(01:01:08):
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 theodds that she can be saved? I
(01:01:29):
am very optimistic that there's always westill 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 knowthat's kind of an unfair question. Let
me let me ask you to youthis week. UM, do you believe
she's still alive? I do?I do, and I believe. We're
still working with that belief. We'restill putting the resources into that belief,
(01:01:50):
which is why we are, whichis why we recently did increase the reward
and increasing our media attention in orderto 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 wasit Uh, Pueblo Nuavo. Is it
(01:02:12):
Publo Nuavo? Right? That's that'sIs there any connection there to anyone here?
That I mean, is it possiblethat any that people that abducted are
down there might be connected here onLos Angeles somehow? You're you're You're asking
investigative questions, Steve, I'm notgonna answer that one. Sorry, that's
fine. Uh, let's see here. I. UM, I guess we're
(01:02:35):
as we wrap this up, AgentI, I just want to find out
if um, you already kind oftalked about people calling nine one one,
if they if they feel like they'rethe victim of something like this. Um,
with the proximity to Mexico, andyou say you have agents that what
they live and work down in Mexico? Right? Correct? Okay, So,
(01:02:57):
um, how busy is the FBIcrimes committed in Mexico where an American
is concerned? Look, Mexico hasa 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 busyoffice. I've worked up there before
as well. So just due toproximity, the amount of criminals on any
(01:03:22):
criminal case, whether it's a whitecollar case a national security case. Because
we share that border, we sharea lot of leads with each other and
a lot of work, so busyis I'm sure they'll appreciate this. I
appreciate the word efforts that are folksdo down in Mexico because they are busy
have and just to rectus and puta pin on it in Agent Hayworth with
(01:03:45):
respect to Miss Lepez's case, atany time, are you in a position
where you can go down and assiston any kind of recovery or rescue or
will it all be handled by mexicanitiesor 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 theymeaning Mexican authorities, Mexico will have
(01:04:12):
to lead. This is their country. If they put in a request to
have an expert in evidence and expertin fingerprints and expert in DNA. So
we often go around the world andon any cases and we'll bring our expertise
to those countries so they can requestthem as the lead agency in this investigation,
they can request for us to comedown and provide subject outter guidance to
(01:04:36):
them for sure, and then inthat case, yes, we would absolutely
send somebody at their request. Excellentagents. Sean Hayworth from the Los Angeles
Office of the FBI, thank youso much for your time, much appreciated
eventacy for information provided by the Lopezfamily, go to the website Justice Forcarmen
dot com. That's Justice the numberfour Carmen dot com and again, a
(01:04:57):
reward of up to twenty five thousanddollars being offered by the f BI.
You can call them anonymously at oneeight 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 yourcell 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 NewsDepartment for iHeartMedia, Los Angeles and is
(01:05:20):
produced by Steve Gregory and Jacob Gonzalez. Our field engineer is Tony Sorrentino,
and our digital producer is An eightWard. To hear this episode and others
from past seasons, download Unsolved withSteve Gregory on the iHeartRadio app or wherever
you listen KFI AM sixty on demand
You're listening to kf I AM sixtyon demand, KFI AM six forty live
everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. Onany given day in southern California, hundreds
(00:26):
of investigators are working more than tenthousand 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 murdererswho still walk the streets. Killers who
may be your neighbor, go toyour church, or could be dating a
close friend. For the next twohours, will highlight cases that have gone
(00:52):
cold, baffled investigators, or justneeds 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
(01:15):
ninth, Maria Dela crem and Lopez'sfamily says their mother was watering the plants
in the front yard of her homein Pueblo, Nuevo, Mexico, when
all of a sudden, a vanpulled up. Men with masks jump out,
grabbed their mother, and speed away. A short time later, a
phone call would be made to thefamily back here in South La. Their
mother, Maria, retired ten yearsago and has lived in Pueblo, Nuevo,
(01:37):
Zonia. Lopez is one of thedaughters, Zoe for short. She
recalls her phone ringing at six thirtythat evening, and I received a phone
call from my sister. She wascrying and frantically saying, Mom, Mom
was kidnapped. I couldn't believe it. I just got up, shot up,
(01:59):
and I was like, what justhearing the word kidnapped, it's like
you going too. I literally feltlike 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 likein the blur, and I was like,
what are you talking about? Whatdo you mean? What do you
mean? Mom was kidnapped? Shesaid they took her, they took her.
(02:20):
I hung up the phone with her, and I just remember walking through
the hall and my ears literally pluggedup. I couldn't hear anything, and
I just fell to the floor andmy son came out and I just remember
just kind of looking at him seeingthe kidnapped mom. Immediately it was we
(02:44):
have to find out is this real? Because it just feels like, it's
impossible, there's no way. Sopicked up the phone and you started.
I started making phone calls to whateverlittle family that I know, you know,
lives in that town, and itwas just one call um of no
(03:05):
answers, basically because there is noreception there in the area. Is such
a small town, there's no phoneconnections. Everyone communicates through either WhatsApp or
messenger. And I finally did getsomeone on the phone that was happened to
actually be at the house with anofficer, and they said, I said,
(03:29):
where is this real? You know, is this really happening? Talk
about the town? Where where arewe talking? The town is called Italia,
okay. And what's the nearest sopeople can understand, the nearest larger
city or state would be Guadalajara.Okay, it's two hours from Guadalajara.
Got me truck on area. Soit's deep in the heart of Mexico.
(03:51):
Yes, yeah, And um,your mother, I remember from the press
conference. Your mother had been downthere at least retired there ten years ago.
Yes, okay, and she moveddown here by herself, both my
dad and her. Oh okay,your parents had moved down there at the
same time. Okay, and thenjust to put some context in there,
(04:11):
So I'm sorry to go back towhere 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
(04:31):
soldiers are here. And I wasthinking, I mean, it really quickly
crossed my head, like how thetown is so small and away from the
city. It just seemed very oddto me that there was all this soldiers
and Marina and everyone already there.It had just happened. And I remember
(04:53):
asking, like when did this happenor how long ago? And I believe
there had been a span of likemaybe an hour and a half to two
hours before you got the call,before we found out, before you found
out. Okay, so how didthey find out? There was witnesses?
So my mom's property, that herhouse is the only house that has Wi
Fi. So the around the property, it's it's very there's kids or just
(05:18):
the locals or anyone who they standaround 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 wastwo there was two young men there could
just connected to their social media andthey actually witnessed the kidnapping. What were
(05:40):
they able to provide what kind ofdetail. The one street light that is
there was broken, so it waslater in the afternoon. So what they
were able to capture was they weren'table to give exact details color of the
car, but they were able tosay what it was. It was a
mini like a type minivan kind.They were just unsure of the color if
(06:00):
it was between white, a tancolor, or silver because it was later
in the afternoon. But what theysaid is my mom had my mom had
been at a liquor store or likea 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, wenthome because she wanted to go water
(06:20):
her plants. My mom always wateringher plants, taking care of her house.
And they said she was watering herplants 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, whenhe looked up, he says, he's
(06:42):
unsure if my mom was pushed downto 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 wayat 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 setman also with the hood came out of
(07:06):
the van and they they picked upmy mom. They he covered her mouth
and they put her in the vanand drove away. There was a the
description of the van. The onlything that was unusual is the witness just
(07:27):
say that the brake lights didn't breaklike just in one solid flash. There
was something different about the way thelights went on. But they drove away
and that was it. When yousaid that you spoke to an agent that
was at the house down there,there were no US officials a vaults at
(07:51):
this point right now, it wasall Mexican officials. Okay um. At
this point, you're you see thewitness 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 timeshe was taken away to the time you
(08:11):
got the call you said was alittle over an hour, closer to two
closer to two hours, okay,closer to two hours. Did it give
you some reassurance that so much lawenforcement presence was there at her house so
quickly, including the military. Ithink I just I didn't really think about
(08:33):
that. But the reason I'm askingis that it seemed like that because any
of these kind of missing person incases or abductions, usually the first few
hours are critical. So were yougetting 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 therewas no follow up call. There was
(08:56):
nothing that said, this is whatwe'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 liveeverywhere on the iHeartRadio app. I'm Steve
(09:31):
Gregory, and this is unsolved.We've been speaking with Zoe Lopez, the
daughter of Maria Lopez, who wasreported kidnapped on February ninth in Pueblo Nuevo,
Mexico. Before the break, wewere talking about the initial moments that
you found out that your mother hadbeen abducted in the town of Pueblo Nuevo
(09:54):
in Mexico, just north of Guallajata. Mexican authority are on scene, so
they're working the investiga, presumably workingthe investigation in that area. What were
you doing back here at home whereyou live. Everybody was on the phone
(10:15):
trying to get either more family outthere to see if they can go and
search for her somewhere, start lookinganywhere. A lot of us, myself
I remember calling a friend and justbecause 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
(10:37):
need we need to get authorities involvedimmediately on this end, because she's a
US citizen, and one of theanswers was just quickly called the embassy.
You need to get ahold of theEmbassy. Now, getting ahold of the
embassy was a challenge in itself becauseit was the after late in the afternoon.
You don't you don't actually have somebodypick up the phone. It's all
(11:00):
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, theUS Embassy here. Okay, yeah,
at this point we weren't aware.We had no idea that we should be
contacting the Mexican embassy. There isno as the people. The one person
(11:26):
that did pick up at here atthe US Embassy, had no idea what
steps to take. And I waslike, we have a US citizen who
is kidnapped. What do I do? And she just kind of just give
me a moment. So does shehave dual citizenship? By chance? She
does? Okay, so she hasto both Mexican and an American citizenship.
(11:48):
Okay, So how far did youget with the US embassy voicemail after voicemail
for the next about I would saytwenty almost twenty four hours. It was.
We never even after those voicemails weresent, we never received a call
back immediately, so we just kepttrying the next day, we kept trying,
and until we finally left. Ibelieve it was one of the most
(12:11):
frantic voicemails because I'm just scared outof my mind at this point, a
whole day has almost gone by andwe don't have any contact yet with anyone
here. And how much contact andhow much trust can you can we put
into the authorities in Mexico was myfirst thought, and I just said I
(12:31):
knew we had to get someone here, and after leaving, like just pleading
somebody please call, and I rememberof being unable to contact anyone at the
embassy. I did call the localauthorities here because I said, I can't
get anyone else, who can youneed to help me, and they just
said you need to call back.You need to call the embassy again.
(12:56):
At that point, someone did whenthey did reach out. Then things started
moving quickly at that point. Sofor timeframe purposes, that February ninth when
you got the call. So arewe into February tenth now the next day,
yes, okay, So then yousaid the ball got moving. What
exactly did they do or were theyable to do at that point? The
reason us side, I think Ishould mention that the reason why it started
(13:22):
moving is because at this point thevoicemail included we've already received a call for
a ransom, so we had receivedFebruary tenth, you the family had received
it, correct, And at thispoint we are even more scared and more
frantic, because what do you donow you have the bad guys calling?
Who got that call? My brother? Your brother? And was it a
(13:48):
live call or was it a voicemail? It was a live call, a
live call, do you recall whatwas 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 theirmouth or somehow covering the phone. He
said my brother's name immediately, andhe said I have your mom and you're
(14:15):
gonna do what I say or it'sover 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, butfirm, and so we said okay.
My brother said, okay, Iwant to know, where is she okay?
(14:39):
He said, she is. We'regonna 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, Ican't discuss that just because it's still an
open investigation, but it's it's asix figure six figures and we just knew
(15:01):
immediately were in trouble. We don'thave that type of money. So so
you left the voicemails on the ninththat afternoon into the evening hours. By
the tenth, you said, atwhat 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 nineam, so it was earlier in
the morning. And then after that, then did you call others or by
(15:22):
that time were they calling you?Now the US side, I called them,
I believe one more time, onemore time. Yeah, like this
is going on now, like I'vebeen 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 donext? You know, we know this
(15:43):
is in Mexico, so what dowe do next? But then at this
point, it was like, Okay, now we need help because now we
have someone contacting us. And itwas directly to my brother. The phone
call was in through messenger, wasn'tit was a direct call presumably your mom's
phone or do you think it wasyour mom's phone and they got your brother's
information from that? I believe mymom. It's it's it's hard to say,
(16:06):
but I believe my mom probably hashis number of memories because when she
does come and stay here, shestays with him. Got it? And
then they asked her for them gotit? 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,
(16:26):
They didn't take anything else about it. They never stepped up inside of the
home. It was outside of There'sa large porch that they have and according
to the witness, she was standingliterally right in front of like the front.
There's a small gate leading into theporch. She was watering her plunts.
They never they never entered the home. More on the case of the
(16:48):
missing mom in Mexico. But firstthis is unsolved With Steve Gregory on kf
I am six forty You're listening tokf I Am six forty on demand ken
if I Am six forty heard everywherelive on the iHeartRadio app. I'm Steve
Gregory and this is unsolved. Ifyou're listening on the app, you can
(17:11):
send us a tip about a case, a story, idea, or a
comminent about the show. Just tapthe red microphone on the app and record
your message. Back to the caseof the missing mom in Mexico, Zoe.
Before the break you were talking aboutthe family had all received a ransom
call from people in Mexico, andhe said it was a muffled voice,
(17:37):
very monotone or almost clinical sounding,demanded at least a six figure ransom.
By now, you're calling the USauthorities here in the Los Angeles area.
Are you having any success at allnow or has anyone called you back from
the US embassy or US government?No, not at all. I'm at
(18:00):
this point reaching out to local authoritieshere in my city just because I you
ever able to talk to anyone witha badge. No, So, what's
going on at this point? Anymore contact with the Mexican authorities. I
believe I called, and I might. I'm not. I'm you know what
(18:21):
I'm unsure if I made that callback to them. Okay, well,
I know it probably very fanatic inyour mind. A lot of stuff going
on. Then let me ask youwhen, at what point did you finally
get a call from a US federalauthorities or you got through to them they
reached out at some point a fewhours later, they reached out and said,
(18:44):
you're going to have a FBI agent. We'll be contacting you, and
then we'll go ahead and proceed fromthere. I don't believe I received the
call, but we did receive aknock on the door, and we had
an agent here that afternoon of thetenth of the tenth the next day.
Then, yes, okay, andwhat was that experience? Like I thought
(19:07):
he would come in with, youknow, flashing FBI logos everywhere. I
was like, you're at the wronghouse, 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, goingover how did we find out,
(19:29):
making you know, the point ofcontact, and then contacting the I believe
we contacted the authorities are and theyfound out, Okay, we're going to
be dealing with not only state levelauthority in Polima, but the anti kidnapping
unit there in At this point,did you feel like you feel more relieved?
(19:55):
Very yes. At that point Ireally thought, Okay, now we
have the US authorities and they knowwhat to do. We're we don't know
what the next step is. Wedon't know how. I don't know that
there's a you know, step bystep on how these things go. But
I actually I felt that I feltthat we have the right people here,
(20:18):
we have the FBI involved, We'regoing to bring her. What happened next,
I'm not it was a waiting game. It was a waiting game.
No more calls for ransom. NotI don't believe it was that day.
It was the next day. Thedays leading you know after that, we're
(20:40):
very uh long because it consisted ofa lot of communication from them. The
phone call started coming in quite oftenfrom the bad guys, bad guys,
so they were calling quite a bitthen, yes, not how many times.
There was days where it was afew times a day starting there at
(21:06):
this point there are Mexico or Colimahad two hours, so we were receiving
phone calls early six in the morning, five in the morning. What were
they saying, same, just finishmoney. You're gonna do what I say?
Well, and it was a lotof explaining, Well, my all
the phone calls, that has tobe said, it's they all came into
(21:29):
one phone, nobody else. Sothe explain was, we don't have it.
It's the weekend. Now, it'simpossible. 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 wantanyone to know, It's impossible. They
never told you about a drop pointor a deadline or nothing. The phone
calls were very weird. It wasanother thing that was very interesting about this
(21:55):
person was it was extremely hard tounderstand what they were saying because again it
was some kind of covering of themouth, something in their mouth or covering
of the phone or maybe a phoneto phone. Was it always Spanish?
Yes, the accent, it wasn'tanything. It didn't sound do you know
(22:15):
everyone has picks up different accents differentparts of Mexico sounded maybe they were local
or native to Koalima or around thatarea. 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
(22:37):
was I think that it was oneof the points that the FBI made is
this is, you know, they'remaking 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 ofIt was a lot. Although there were
(23:00):
a lot of calls, they wereall very very short. It was almost
like, okay, fine, tellus 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, itwas a lot of calls. And then
what did the FEDS counsel you todo at this point or what were they
(23:23):
doing at this point? The meaningthe FBI um proof of life was was
the goal at that point? Youknow that's their demands are one thing,
but then we need to know thatshe's okay. So every phone call was
I need to hear her, Ineed to know that she's okay. Let
(23:45):
me talk to her. And assoon as any any of you know,
question was asked where he asked back, well, let me hear her.
It was a hang up and thenit was hours or did the FBI give
you an idea of what that meantto them, like the fact that they
would never follow through. Did theyever give you any sense of what that
(24:08):
could mean? No, it wasit was actually I think that they had
the same sense. That's weird becausetypically 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 rightright? Why hang up? And why
prolong it? Right? Why?Again? Like why why we're saying,
(24:30):
okay, tell us where? Andit was hanging up. So you say
you received the second ransom call onthe eleventh, which had been two days
after the abduction. Approximately how manycalls? Just approximate how many calls you
think you got from them the wholetime? Yeah? More than twenty?
(24:52):
Really now over how many days?I believe it was two weeks? Two
weeks. And they played the samegame every time, every time, and
it was just torture because you're waitingand you know you want, you want
(25:15):
to hear her. And when wedid, we finally received what proof of
life? But you can tell itwas a recording. It was my mom.
It was her. You're listening tokf I AM sixty on demand,
(25:37):
kf I AM six forty live everywhereon the iHeartRadio app. I'm Steve Gregory
and this is Unsolved. We're speakingwith Zoe Lopez about the abduction of her
mother Maria. Zoe recounts the fearof getting the phone call about her mom
and the frustration of dealing with authoritiesboth in the US and Mexico, and
(26:00):
the toll this is taken on herfamily. So by now, you said,
you've received at least twenty ransom callsfrom these people over a span of
two weeks. It's wreaking havoc onyour family. You kind of characterize the
fact that your home turned into acommand post. It just, you know,
(26:23):
it really upset the whole balance.I can understand that, I can't
imagine what you'd be going through onthis, But what happened next? I
mean, where did the investigation gowaiting? A lot of waiting. The
communication was there was mistakes that weremade on Mexican authority side, where we
(26:48):
found out that there was leaks incommunication or with the investigation out there.
It became you know, hectic andexcel. Already, the whole situation was,
you know, scary, and thenyou start that once the doubt of
(27:10):
who's handling the case out there setsin, then it becomes that much greater,
that much more surreal. Everything becomesjust now you really feel like you're
in trouble, even if you dohave the FBI on your side over here,
because then you really understand it,really, you really understand that the
Mexican authorities, because it happened ontheir turf, they're gonna leave this case.
(27:33):
It's not the FBI or it's notus. You're not going to control
things from here. And that isI think when the days started passing and
things didn't play out how you seeand maybe in the movies, you know,
oh, twenty four hours passed orforty eight hours, and we're gonna
(27:55):
hear her, We're gonna get thatcomments come and get her. That's tough,
you know, packing your bags andputting your getting your passport and just
saying okay, we're just gonna waitnow for that call, and then it
never happens. February. Gosh,four months, what do we have?
(28:19):
Four months? One hundred and thirtyeight days today as of this taping,
one hundred thirty eight days. Whendid the calls stop? The ransom calls?
Because apparently you're not getting them anymore? Right, Everything just went silent.
It was, I believe a periodof forty eight hours where it was
(28:44):
a lot of what we're buy thephone, just waiting for it to ring
again, and then it just neverdid. Those numbers disappeared. There was
no more communication whatsoever, And itwas day thirty five when, at least
for it was extremely scary. Wherewhere are we at now? What do
(29:06):
we do next? No one knowsat this point we're dealing We're dealing with
it with just authorities following their instructionsor their guidance, doing everything their way.
And then you just feel when dowe tell the world that we need
help? Are Were you ever toldnot to go to the media, Yes,
(29:26):
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'sa US citizen, You're gonna there's
there's action over there. They don'twant these things to get out. It's
(29:47):
not good for them at this point, you have there was a really there
was another kidnap broad day like kidnappingand and where four Americans were I believe
two were killed. In the midstof all of this, you have the
government here bashing the president there andthere. I remember just catching bits and
pieces thinking, horrible timing. Wehave my mother, she's a US citizen.
(30:11):
How are we going to get helpfor 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 hada press conference, your whole family were
there, and you were calling onPresident Biden to intervene. Did you ever
(30:32):
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 withthe chaos of everything being turned upside down
and the waiting. We have sentemails to anyone that you can think of.
(30:53):
How about your congressperson or your senator. We have tried, and we
have gotten a response other than responsenow we got. I received one response
which floored me that said, weare 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.
(31:21):
As as more days go by andI started, I mean, you do
your own investigation. You do whatyou can to try to understand what the
situation over there is, what it'slike, what the crime is, what
you know, what's going on overthere. There's a lot of corruption in
Mexico. There's a lot of violencegoing on in that state. They have
(31:45):
they're in the middle of their umof you know, getting a new president
and the elections, and you know, you start thinking, is just have
anything to do with that? Isthere 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 largestate. It's a very small state.
(32:07):
I believe it's one of the smalleststates in Mexico. How do you not
find a sixty three year old womanwhen 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 justdoesn't make sense. What do you think
(32:30):
happens? I At this point,I don't know. We're too far in
for me to think that it isthey're waiting to ask for a larger ransom.
It wouldn't make sense if money isthe If that's their goal, it
would have been asked for already,or there should have been some kind of
(32:52):
communication. They went completely silent onus. 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 myhead, but it's just that feeling.
It's not. I don't and Idon't believe it's a false like a
false hope. I just don't knowwhat they're waiting for you. You're listening
(33:14):
to kf I AM six forty ondemand kf I AM six forty live everywhere
on the iHeartRadio app. I'm SteveGregory and this is Unsolved. For the
last hour, we've been listening toZoe Lopez as she maps out the journey
(33:34):
she and her family been on sincelearning 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'vegone silent on us as well. The
communication that they have with the authoritiesin Mexico, I think is very limited
to what they want to say,the Mexican authorities to the FBI. I've
(34:00):
had pushback from the Mexican authorities alsowhen 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 areyou doing to follow up with these
leads? How many leads are youreceiving. It's another setback for us to
(34:22):
you know, going into and listeningto the number that we're asking people to
call in and be one hundred percentsure that it's anonymous. But then you
have the Mexican authorities that have adifferent approach. They want to sit there
and talk to anybody giving information.Well, that's compromising being facilitating the people
(34:44):
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 familyare doing now to just keep the momentum
we are. We have sent emailsto any congressman, states editor, the
White House. We have a websiteit's a Justice for the Number four garment
(35:06):
dot com or asking anyone to pleasesign a petition in order for us to
receive enough attention to get this tothe 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 anyinformation, any leads. Then that means
(35:29):
you need help yourself. Why notturn to our president? She is a
US citizen, she has dual citizenship. There should be more aid here,
much more. I didn't ask youthis before, but I am curious.
Do you think it doesn't sound liketo me, based on covering crazy crimes
(35:51):
over the years, it doesn't soundlike 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 hangingup is someone that has a good understanding
that if you stay on too longyou might be trapped. Sure, but
the fact that they didn't give youa drop off point or a deadline.
(36:13):
There was a deadline, Oh therewas Okay, that's where you know.
There was a deadline. There wasa but everything again, everything was a
lot of hanging up, a lotof not getting to ransom was asked,
we obviously cannot come up with thatnumber. Was there some negotiation at all?
I mean, were you trying tonegotiate the money or at least negotiate
(36:37):
terms the money, since it's justletting 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
(36:58):
deadline? The first deadline was twentyfour hours, twenty four hours, and
then then they just kept calling andkept 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 tome, and that's very by the seat
of their pants kind of stuff.But you know, amateurs can also be
(37:23):
more dangerous because they don't know what'sgoing on. You say, in your
heart of hearts, you feel likeyour mother's alive. Yes, the effort
to try to get information about theinvestigation, you're still not getting any callbacks
from the Mexican authorities and the FBIyou say has not been in touch with
(37:44):
you. Have you been down thereyourself, have you gone down at all.
No, the state of Kalima here'sit's super important for you know,
we get asked that. One ofour first thoughts was we need to get
down there. I mean, asa son, as a daughter, You're
I gotta go down there, andI gotta look, you know, I
gotta go and talk to whoever Ipossibly can. And then you look at
(38:07):
the reality that that state is inand they are number one state not in
Mexico, but in the world ofplaces not to travel because their crime is
from cartels to murders, you nameit. It is absolutely through the roof.
Was there any indication from the federalgovernment or the Mexican government that there
was a nexus to the cartels.No. At the beginning you think you
(38:30):
immediately you have to think about that, but then you rule everything out.
There's no known, but the cartelsdo run the state. What is it
you want from people? Tell uswhat you want. We need their support,
We need people to This can happento anyone. There's a lot of
tourists, there's a lot of people. She lived there and just like a
(38:52):
lot of other families, they havetheir parents who go or come here and
stay for you know, a fewmonths and then go back home thinking it's
home, it's their homeland, thisis where they were born. They're fine.
She is you, a citizen.Her goal, her life, her
dream was to be here, raiseus. But things are you know,
they're not ideal here either. Thingsare very expensive. It was easier for
(39:15):
them. You know, we're retired. Now we can go back. We
need everybody to stand behind her becauseit could be you. It could be
on a simple vacation. We canget away that and is this happens to
you, And this is a kindof backup that you have from the authorities.
You're in trouble. We need tohave action from the United States to
show that your citizens matter, yourcitizens matter. We need the support,
(39:37):
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. Pleasedon't let us be another unsolved kidnapping.
There's too many. She is mymother. She deserves to be home.
We deserve to have her home.Children deserve to have their grandmother here.
(40:02):
This is not okay. So Iknow this has been difficult for you,
and I appreciate your time and appreciateyour letting us into your home and telling
us your story. And we're wishingyou 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 howit handles kidnappings in a foreign country.
But first, this is Unsolved withSteve Gregory on KFI AM six forty.
(40:27):
You're listening to KFI AM six fortyon demand KFI AM six forty live everywhere
on the iHeartRadio app. I'm SteveGregory and this is Unsolved. Sean Hayworth
is the acting Special Agent in chargeof the FBI's Criminal Division in the Los
(40:49):
Angeles office, and before we getto him, a heads up. As
with most cases we've highlighted on thisshow, investigators are not permitted to disclose
every detail about a case because ofthe potential to ruin the prosecution's chance at
a conviction. That said, AgentHayworth tells us about the FBI's work on
the case of Maria Lopez, themissing Mom in Mexico. So, in
(41:10):
February of this year, the Mexican'sauthorities and so she gave word that a
US citizen had been abducted and MariaCarmen Lopez. They reached out to our
office out down in Mexico. Sowe have as the FBI, we have
(41:30):
what called legal attaches and every insixty countries, sixty two countries when we
would be in Mexico, so theyreached out to us through our partnership that
we have with let our office downto Mexico. Now, hey, we
have this kidnapping of a US citizen. They reached out to our office because
she had family in the greater LosAngeles area, and then we began our
(41:52):
investigation. So that's when we firstheard the day after it happened. But
the way the information ridiated was fromauthorities Mexico. Is that typical agent that
that you find out about, uh, you know, a missing or a
kidnapped person, possible kidnapped person ina foreign country. Do you usually hear
about it first from the foreign countryor do you hear about it usually from
(42:14):
the family in the home country.In my experience, the way we first
hear about it in this area whereat in Los Angeles is from an extortion
call that someone in the Los Angelesarea call got. So if if if
someone in an La gets a phonecall asking for money, I have a
family member kidnapped. They would thenreach out to either nine one one or
(42:36):
US one hundred call FBI, andthen that information goes to our headquarters where
they quickly put together the facts andpush it out to the squads which handle
it and then we handle it rightaway. So that's how we usually get
it. Usually get it from thevictim phone call for asking for for money.
And then, uh, do youhave a special I guess a task
force or do you have a specialteam or all of your agents sort of
(42:59):
qualify to handle a transnational case likethis, Well, all agents have the
authority, but you're at we dohave subject matter experts who are more able
to handle this, So agents thatwork on our Violent Crime program um this
specifically falls and what's called the InternationalViolent Crime program Um. We have certain
agents that are more burst and havebetter connections into our counterparts in Mexico.
(43:23):
Excuse which is where in this inthis situation, this is exactly what happened.
They for in Maria's case, theywe because of where the family lived.
They linked up with an agent whois one of our greatest subject matter
experts that we have not just inLA but in the in the bureau.
And when you say subject matter experts, what particular skill does that agent have.
(43:45):
So he has first of all,he has experience and he's had successes
with literally saving lives in Mexico ofhostage takers in the past. But also
he has the connections. He knowsthe 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 whohave connections with the Mexican authorities, but
(44:08):
also with the our our League adoffices down in Mexico. So he knows
immediately who who does get the informationout 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 roundedup um, including the border liaison officer,
(44:30):
the League add office officer, thecrisis negotiators, the everybody who might
be involved. Our Victim Witness Servicesplays a heavy role in this as well,
so everybody gets notified immediately when theword gets out here. So it's
it's a long email chain and thenwe just start sending updates of who's assigned
(44:51):
and who's doing what you talk about. The agents have the authority to handle
cases like this, these transnational casesacross border cases. U. Do you
have the authority to go across theborder or do you always have to be
escorted? Because you know, Ithink people get confused when they see on
the movies kind of how you operatein something like this. Do you have
the authority to go into a countrythat we have a treaty with or any
(45:15):
kind of a mutual agreement with.So we have our legal attache folks are
FBI agents, so they are alreadydown there and they are working with the
locals. But in terms of likeour authority to make arrest, subpoenas,
or any legal action within that countrythat does we do not have that.
We work with our US attorney's officeswho will put out what's called mutual mutual
(45:42):
treaty where we can get information thatwe 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 Otwo, which is if there's a ransom
making rants made. We have theauthority to investigate and prosecute in the United
(46:05):
States, got it? But thenyour counterparts in Mexico assume you've probably worked
with him many times before on thesevery same cases, these types of cases,
and probably some that are even worsein terms of you know, homicides
or things like that. But um, do you guys have great success working
with your counterparts down there? Imean, are they are they very forthcoming?
(46:29):
And when you say you got notifieddown in Mexico about this situation with
miss Lopez, did you did youknow right away that that that that agency
is down there, that your counterpartsin Mexico are pretty aggressive and they're working
the case. I mean, didyou know right away that you were going
to be getting some intel from themor any kind of evidence from them that
(46:49):
you could you could use as asas history showed me in other similar investigations.
Um, their units down there arevery proactive, very willing to share
and work with us to get themove these cases along. So much I've
had I've had a case where atfour o'clock I found out about the information.
By six o'clock they were making arrestin the country on a hostage taker.
(47:12):
So I can't speak highly enough aboutthis relation. This particular relationship with
the Mexican authorities has been fantastic andgetting that contact from them, especially since
they pushed it to us. Wealready know that we have the League out
office down there has a good relationshipwith them as well. But with that
mean with your counterpart down there,that would be the federal Mexican government,
(47:36):
right, What about the local policeagencies down there? Do they share the
same kind of um I guess fourthyou know, the fourth coming nature of
sharing or or do they respond quicklydown there? Because you also hear stereotypically
about local cops down there being corruptand being slow and things like that.
So you're talking about the federal levelof Mexican law enforcement or the local authorities.
(48:00):
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, sowe work. They're specialized units that work
with us. Sometimes they are mixedwith what we would do in the states,
working with task force officers. They'llhave something similar with them, but
(48:21):
that does depend on which state inMexico that it's obviously these units in certain
areas of Mexico, typically along theborder, are going to be more active
than others. So this is ourfirst time dealing with my first time dealing
with this particular unit in this partof Mexico. Down Kalima. Okay,
when we come back, I'm gonnadig a little more on this, and
(48:43):
I've got more questions about the caseof miss Lopez than missing mom in Mexico.
But first, this is Unsolved withSteve Gregory on kf I Am six
forty. You're listening to KFI AMsix forty on demand k if I Am
six forty heard everywhere live on theiHeartRadio app. I'm Steve Gregory and this
is Unsolved. If you're listening onthe app, you can send us a
(49:05):
tip about a case, a story, idea, or a comminent about the
show. Just tap the red microphoneon the app and record your message.
Welcome back. We're speaking with ActingSpecial 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, Mariadel Carmen Lopez and before the break Agent,
(49:27):
We were just starting to dig alittle 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 Mexicois corrupt. You're saying that all your
experiences thus far and your subject matterexperts have been that your counterparts down there
want to solve these crimes every bitas quickly as you do. Is that
(49:49):
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 wavea Laredo in those places where you know
we're closest too, is there alogistical challenge with it being so deep down
there? I think it's, isn'tit in the state of um It's near
(50:10):
Watahara if memory starch right, Yeah, it's it's So that's not a I
think the only difference that would makeis maybe some of the other units in
Mexico would be more experienced with thesematters. So like when we heard about
this case, this was an uncommonevent in this part of Mexico, Whereas
(50:30):
I get a lot of calls forthese 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 isjust it was, It wasn't as common
for for this. Does that risea red flag for you? H?
It does raise a lead flag forme? Can you how far can you
(50:52):
go with that? I think that'sabout it? Okay, that's fine.
UM. Yeah, And I knowthat there's a lot you can't tell me,
UM, And I know that you'relimited by it. And we don't
want to be responsible for ruining aninvestigation. So it's it's incumbent upon you
to tell me how far we cango? Okay, UM, So,
how many cases like this do youdeal with on a on a monthly or
(51:14):
quarterly or annual basis? I mean, how many missing or kidnapped Americans or
in Mexico. It's it's not alot, 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'sthe coyotes, the the alien smugglers who
will kidnap all the folks that they'rebringing across the border. Um, they'll
(51:37):
kidnap them either in Tijuana or holdthem sometimes in places up here in the
United States. Um, it's it'snot I see the cases that we get
here in LA and because of wherewe are, it's gonna be more frequent
than to say, if you wereup in San Francisco or Washington State.
UM, but we get we probablyget about at least a half dozen prosecutable
(51:59):
cases a year to a dozen ayear. And so sometimes it's like this
case where we have we have agroup that has kidnapped Marha. And again
I can't talk about about where thiswhat we believe this group to be,
or any other things may be tiedto it. But up here on the
(52:20):
border, what we see is folkswho are going to kidnap all ten people
that were there were going to bringacross the border. And then unfortunately those
those events do lead to some potentiallyviolent outcomes that they're not getting paid money.
Then, I mean, the firstthing, you know, our first
question on something that was always wasto the cartel. Was this cartel related?
(52:42):
I mean, the cartels in allkinds of different types of criminal enterprises.
But um, can I can youat least answer whether or not you're
looking at a cartel or is thiscartel related? So I can't, and
I can't because this particular investigation isongoing. I'm not going to answer that
question. I will let you knowthat there has been an increase in cartel
(53:06):
activity involved with kidnappings on other kidnappingsthat we've dealt with and prosecuted, more
so than it was in the pastwhere it was loosely related to other groups
along the border. But there hasbeen an up to uptick where there's money
to be made, cartel activity willfollow, and part of that has also
been increasing kidnappings. Well, letme ask it to you this way too,
(53:27):
or let me ask you to adifferent way. And my assessment is
the way the way I've been listeningto what the family told me and what
I've been reading about it. Doesthis? Does the actions of whomever is
responsible for this do they seem likethey're professionals or amateurs? Yeah? Yeah,
(53:49):
that's uh. I don't think Ican 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
(54:12):
the frustrations that not just this familythat 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 oneof the largest complaints I get all of
the times they feel like they geta lot of attention in the first couple
few days of the incident and thenit 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 orthey're being ignored. Well, absolutely,
(54:37):
so let me kind of lay outa picture for you of how what happens.
So we bring in all the resourcesthat we can while this is going
on. So we're gonna have folkswho are going to coach the family,
coach families on crisis negotiations so theyknow how to properly get the information they
need from the hostage takers. We'regoing to bring in victim witness specialists who
(54:57):
are going to assist the families withwhat they need, and that could be
um that could be a large categoryof topics. You know, if they
need someone to um like social servicestake care of their kids, while they're
dealing with this or whatever topics theyneed. So those are the things we
bring in right away. And sothey are guing a lot of attention,
(55:19):
a lot of coaching, um fromthe beginning, to make sure that they
feel comfortable, UM with with withtalking to the houshe takers, with getting
the informasion they need, trying toget 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 thisfamily, UM, I know, our
(55:42):
agents worked with them quote quite frequently. They came into our office, We
sat down with them, We triedto answer all the questions that we could
in this investigation. So we arewe 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 thissituation, do come to us for
anything, just for the support thatyou're going to get along with you know,
(56:06):
along with the cases. It startswell and then with that when we
come back, we'll wrap this upwith you. And I do want to
get into a little bit about howfamilies 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 tokf I AM sixty on demand kf I
(56:30):
AM six forty live everywhere on theiHeartRadio app. I'm Steve Gregory and this
is Unsolved. Welcome back. We'respeaking with Special Agent Charges, the acting
SAC for the FBI's LA Office inthe Criminal Division. It's Sean Hayworth,
Agent Hayworth. Before the break,we talked a lot about, you know,
(56:55):
sort of the timeline and what youdo and how you deploy resources to
a family who's going through something similarto what the Lopez family is going through.
Uh, what in the event thatit happens, Because you already said
the cartail is started increasing its kidnappingbehaviors. Are you seeing an increase overall
in kidnap for ransom? Are youseeing that all across the board. We're
(57:19):
not. We it goes through hillsand valleys, right, we do.
There was a while there we hadan increase in what we call praudulent kidnappings,
which has taken place out of subjectsEnglish 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, andthose were all fraudulent calls, but people
(57:42):
didn't know that, so we hadthat was we've actually had successful case that
has made that lower for these kindof 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 respondif there's a loved one in foreign country
and all of a sudden that lovedone gets a phone call, a panicked
(58:06):
phone call, or a call froma stranger that says we've got your mother,
we've got your father, we've gotyour husband, and we want one
hundred thousand dollars or we're going tokill your husband, something like that.
What's the first thing a family shoulddo. They should call nine one one
and the local police will Because ofbeing a foreign country, you should reach
(58:29):
out to us pretty quickly. Theycan be proactive about it and reach out
to us and tips fbid or acall one one hundred, fbium one hundred,
call a BI sorry, so thatwe get that information quicker and then
when and what that will be.I know, I just briefly talked about
virtual kidnappings. The majority of thecalls we get are fraudulent kidnappings, but
(58:52):
the family doesn't know that, sothey will go through everything like Maria's families
did, except their their loved onewill be on a vacation somewhere in Honolulu.
UM, so we do want tocall 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
(59:14):
napping or not. UM. Sothey do want to get in touch with
us as quick as possible again becausethen all the resources are going to come
behind that, and then UM andthen also all the publicity that we can
help as well. So I know, UM, in this case, with
specific case, we're able to putthings out on our on our web pages,
on our Twitter pages, We're ableto put out a reward for from
Maria to hoping to get more andmore information to come into us so that
(59:37):
we can better UM, you know, hopefully go on and go down and
have someone say Maria, and anddo you do this same sort of campaign?
Public publicity campaign in Mexico or whereverthe country would be that they were
kidnapped or missing from. We certainlycan, we certainly have. We found
certain platforms like Facebook still work welldown there, so we'll put out our
(59:59):
reward banner look seeking information and wellwe can target it too, so where
we think that information is best neededanywhere 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. Buthow long on average does it take in
your experience when it's a legitimate kidnapping? How long before it's resolved? Boy?
(01:00:25):
I have examples that are extremes onboth ends anywhere from from the moment
I get there when I gave youearlier, where I got the information up
four and by six they were inthe door, saving the person to several
months of negotiation. I don't havean average. I haven't looked at the
numbers on that's the longest, thelongest this is one of these has gone
(01:00:45):
on before you resolve. The longestthat 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 thatnorth of an average or is that was
that pretty extreme? I felt thatwas I feel that was more extreme in
this particular case. Then with MissLopez, she was abducted. The family
(01:01:08):
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 theodds that she can be saved? I
(01:01:29):
am very optimistic that there's always westill 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 knowthat's kind of an unfair question. Let
me let me ask you to youthis week. UM, do you believe
she's still alive? I do?I do, and I believe. We're
still working with that belief. We'restill putting the resources into that belief,
(01:01:50):
which is why we are, whichis why we recently did increase the reward
and increasing our media attention in orderto 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 wasit Uh, Pueblo Nuavo. Is it
(01:02:12):
Publo Nuavo? Right? That's that'sIs there any connection there to anyone here?
That I mean, is it possiblethat any that people that abducted are
down there might be connected here onLos Angeles somehow? You're you're You're asking
investigative questions, Steve, I'm notgonna answer that one. Sorry, that's
fine. Uh, let's see here. I. UM, I guess we're
(01:02:35):
as we wrap this up, AgentI, I just want to find out
if um, you already kind oftalked about people calling nine one one,
if they if they feel like they'rethe victim of something like this. Um,
with the proximity to Mexico, andyou say you have agents that what
they live and work down in Mexico? Right? Correct? Okay, So,
(01:02:57):
um, how busy is the FBIcrimes committed in Mexico where an American
is concerned? Look, Mexico hasa 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 busyoffice. I've worked up there before
as well. So just due toproximity, the amount of criminals on any
(01:03:22):
criminal case, whether it's a whitecollar case a national security case. Because
we share that border, we sharea lot of leads with each other and
a lot of work, so busyis I'm sure they'll appreciate this. I
appreciate the word efforts that are folksdo down in Mexico because they are busy
have and just to rectus and puta pin on it in Agent Hayworth with
(01:03:45):
respect to Miss Lepez's case, atany time, are you in a position
where you can go down and assiston any kind of recovery or rescue or
will it all be handled by mexicanitiesor 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 theymeaning Mexican authorities, Mexico will have
(01:04:12):
to lead. This is their country. If they put in a request to
have an expert in evidence and expertin fingerprints and expert in DNA. So
we often go around the world andon any cases and we'll bring our expertise
to those countries so they can requestthem as the lead agency in this investigation,
they can request for us to comedown and provide subject outter guidance to
(01:04:36):
them for sure, and then inthat case, yes, we would absolutely
send somebody at their request. Excellentagents. Sean Hayworth from the Los Angeles
Office of the FBI, thank youso much for your time, much appreciated
eventacy for information provided by the Lopezfamily, go to the website Justice Forcarmen
dot com. That's Justice the numberfour Carmen dot com and again, a
(01:04:57):
reward of up to twenty five thousanddollars being offered by the f BI.
You can call them anonymously at oneeight 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 yourcell 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 NewsDepartment for iHeartMedia, Los Angeles and is
(01:05:20):
produced by Steve Gregory and Jacob Gonzalez. Our field engineer is Tony Sorrentino,
and our digital producer is An eightWard. To hear this episode and others
from past seasons, download Unsolved withSteve Gregory on the iHeartRadio app or wherever
you listen KFI AM sixty on demand
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