FBI arrests suspect after missing 14-year-old girl from Utah found safe in Mexico
A 14-year-old Utah girl has been found safe in Mexico after going missing more than two weeks ago, authorities said.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation issued an arrest warrant for 31-year-old Antonio Moreno, who allegedly took Elizabeth Gonzalez and her two cousins, 6-year-old Sofia Mailen Moreno Zamora and 4-year-old Regina Moreno Zamora, without their mothers' permission when he traveled from the United States to Mexico City on June 30, the agency said in a news release.
Moreno is Gonzalez's uncle and the father of the younger girls, according to the FBI. Mexican authorities found the three girls with him in Veracruz at around 9:30 p.m. local time on Friday. His charges in Gonzalez's disappearance include kidnapping.
Gonzalez, nicknamed Ely, is from Ogden, Utah, and was visiting family in Mexico when she vanished. She had been in the country for about two weeks at the time of her disappearance, the FBI said.
Moreno, who has been living in Kaysville, Utah, for the last three years, will be extradited back to the U.S.
"The FBI would like to thank our law enforcement partners in Mexico and the FBI's Legal Attaché Office in Mexico City for their valuable assistance in this case. We would also like to thank the public for their tips," the agency said in a statement.
Gonzalez was last seen on June 30, and was reported missing to the FBI on July 1. Surveillance footage shows Gonzalez getting into a taxi in Mexico City on June 30, according to CBS News affiliate KUTV.
Special agent Steve Hymas, who works with the FBI's violent crimes department in Salt Lake City, told KUTV that officials believe Gonzalez "was manipulated by an adult to get into the taxi."
Hymas said the search was not a kidnapping investigation, calling it "an investigation into a missing girl at this point."
Investigators believe Gonzalez is still in Mexico, the FBI said.
The agency described Gonzalez as 5"1' tall, 140 pounds, and White-Hispanic with brown hair and eyes. She was wearing dark blue jeans, a black hoodie, and black and white Van sneakers when she disappeared.
Anyone with information about the case has been asked to contact the FBI.