The FBI is now offering a $20,000 reward for the abduction of an American woman who has been living in Mexico and has been missing for more than a month.
The FBI said in a statement last week that 63-year-old Maria del Carmen Lopez was abducted from her home in Pueblo Nuevo, Colima, Mexico, on February 9. An American citizen, Lopez splits time between Southern California and Mexico.
Her family says her abductors demanded a large ransom from them, who they believe abducted her from her home while armed and masked.
“We were able to hear what sounded like a recording of her pleading for help,” Lopez’s daughter, Zonia, told NBC Nightly News on Friday.
The prosecutor’s office in Colima said the case was initially kept out of the public spotlight in an effort to keep López safe. Colima officials are working with the FBI and have said the case is now taken over by the special prosecutor for organized crime.
An FBI spokeswoman told NBC Nightly News that they believe Lopez was a targeted kidnapping. The Los Angeles Area Office is offering $20,000 for information leading to Lopez’s location.
Interest in missing person cases in Mexico has increased after four Americans were abducted earlier this month while crossing the border in Matamoros, Mexico, for a medical procedure. Two people were killed in this case, while two others were returned safely to American soil.
Gulf cartel Grupo Escorpiones issued an apology over the kidnapping, which a senior law enforcement official told NBC News officials believed was legitimate.
Three women are also missing for nearly a month after crossing the border from Mexico to sell clothes at a flea market in the city of Montemorelos in Nuevo Leon state. The woman, two sisters, and a friend are missing since February 24.
Authorities have released a few details on his case.