Nancy Ng is a Californian woman who went missing in Guatemala in October 2023. As of mid January 2024, she remains missing.
Nancy is a former Cal State L.A student and she was working with special needs children for the Alhambra Unified School District at the time she vanished.
Nancy’s family have been very vocal in the search for her, and as for her family members, she has three younger siblings. Her sister, Nicky who is 27, has been very vocal in the case. Nick’s partner, Jared Lopez started a GFM to aid in the search for Nancy, and almost $125k has been raised to date.
This is how Nancy’s family describe her.
She is 29 years old. She loves yoga, traveling, hiking with her family, and cuddling with her cat. She has a kind heart, a big smile, and can talk to anyone about anything (and often, everything). She’s a caring daughter, a loving sister, and a supportive friend.
“She will stop by the side of a road to pick up litter or to pick up a bottle to recycle. She cares so much about the environment. And she’s just an inner child on the outside. She will literally dance in the rain,” Nicky said.
In 2022, Nancy had visited Lake Atitlan in Guatemala for a yoga retreat. She enjoyed it so much that she rebooked the experience for 2023.
“She was saying it’s so beautiful,” Nicky recalled. “Last year, she woke up every morning just to spend some time there by herself without the group and this year was going to be more exciting because they had planned activities on the lake.”
Atitlan means between the waters. In the Nahuatl language, “atl” is the word for water, and “titlan” means between.
At it’s deepest point, the lake is around 1,120 feet or 340 metres deep. The average depth is around 505 feet or 154 metres. The lake is approximately 11 miles x 5 miles (18km x 8km).
Lake Atitlán is renowned as one of the most beautiful lakes in the world, and is one of Guatemala’s most important national and international tourist attractions.
Nancy had enrolled in the ‘Be the Change’ yoga retreat. I believe she had arrived in the area on October 14. The retreat was dure to last for a week and was being run by Eduardo (Eddy) Rimada.
You can view Eddy’s instagram here – https://www.instagram.com/eddyrimada/?hl=en
Nancy’s family have said that she texted them in a group chat after she arrived in Guatemala. She told one of her brothers happy birthday and told them she would be putting her phone in airplane mode. “I’ll be safe, don’t worry about me,” she wrote. It was the last time they ever heard from her.
We know that one other person on the retreat was Christina Blazek, a public defender from San Bernadino County in California.
I believe that the hotel for the retreat is called the Isla Verde.
Hotel Isla Verde is an eco-chic boutique hotel nestled in the hillside of a local village in the Guatemalan highlands. Choose between our cozy yet spacious cabins set on the hillside or one of our gorgeous suites. All accommodation options boast spectacular views of the great wonder that is Lake Atitlán.
Enjoy breakfast, lunch, and dinner in our open-air restaurant, serving locally sourced home-cooked meals, or sip a cocktail or smoothie on our spacious sun deck.
We are the perfect place for a romantic getaway or to bring a group for a retreat. No matter the occasion, our mission is to create a memorable experience for you.
There were possibly at least 8 other attendees at the retreat but most of them have not been publicly named.
Everything seemed to go as planned on the retreat, up until Thursday October 19. A group of ten people from the retreat went kayaking on Lake Atitlan.
Lee and Elaine Beal, who are the owners of Kayak Guatemala confirmed that ten people arrived to kayak. There is some video of Nancy smiling and waving from her kayak just before 11am.
The recount of what happened next varies according to different sources. Some reports say that Nancy was kayaking with Christina, while others say the two just happened upon each other on the lake.
Christina said that Nancy mentioned wanting to swim in the lake to her. Christina said she warned her that conditions were not good for swimming and that the current was strong.
Christina said that Nancy ignored the warnings and got out of her kayak and into the water. In the process, Nancy ended up pushing her kayak away from her.
According to NBC, Christina saw what was happening and attempted to retrieve Nancy’s kayak. “[Blazek] kept one leg in her kayak and one leg in [Nancy’s] kayak and tried to get back to her … and got close to her,” Christina’s attorney G. Christopher Gardner would later tell KABC. “And then apparently, [Blazek] lost the kayak again and she turned around to go back to get the kayak again, and when she turned back around, Ms. Ng was gone.”
Christina apparently then returned to shore and raised the alarm about Nancy being missing.
Lee and Elaine, the owners of the kayak company, spoke about the scenario.
“When the group returned, there were only eight that returned, but we could see in the distance, a distance of about 100 yards, two single kayaks,” recalled Lee.
Those two kayakers were Nancy and another woman, we assume Christina.
“We watched them as they continued paddling until we lost sight of them,” he said. That’s when a distress signal was called in.
“I witnessed the survivor being ushered up the steps with the yoga instructor. She was clearly distressed, and they didn’t say a word to us,” said Elaine.
I believe the survivor in this statement is Christina and the instructor is Eddy.
Lee mentioned no one in the remaining group appeared to be interested in speaking with anyone.
“It was almost like, immediately clamming up and like, ‘We’re not going to say anything,'” said Lee.
Lee and Elaine called the hotel the next morning as they had not been paid for the kayak use, and they were told the group had left.
“I just don’t understand that part of leaving within eight hours, 12 hours of the accident,” said Elaine.
“They were not scheduled to leave the next morning and, apparently, left at 5 a.m., and no one has been able to talk to them,” Lee added.
According to a report from the Sololá Prosecutor’s Office, excerpts of which have been seen by NBC News, Christina was unable to provide testimony at her summons on Oct. 20, as she had already left for the U.S.
The account comes after the family unsuccessfully attempt
When Nancy’s family found out about her being missing, they sprang into action straight away. This update is from them on October 21, two days after she went missing.
– A helicopter search and rescue team searched both sides of the lake and ran search patterns based on where Nancy was staying, where she was last seen, and wind and current patterns over the last few days.
– A boat team went out and searched the surface around where she was last seen. They deployed a diving team that was able to reach a depth of 40m. However, the area where Nancy went missing is up to about 300m deep.
Water searches for Nancy were stopped after 72 hours.
By early November, Nancy’s family had reached out to the State Department, the FBI and local representatives.
They were also working with a private search and rescue team in Guatemala which has scoured about 95 percent of the lake by air and land along with divers and drones.
“Time is of the essence, and we are racing against the clock to bring Nancy home,” her family said at this time in a statement to KTLA. “It has been an ongoing nightmare, not knowing what happened to Nancy or if we will ever get her back. All my family wants is to bring our sister/daughter home. Please help us do so.”
There is a November 14 article from ABC news that states that Eddy and Christina had not been interviewed by Guatemalan authorities.
ABC News has learned the Guatemala Attorney General’s Office hasn’t been able to interview the woman who was with Nancy or the tour guide because the group left the country. They’ve requested international assistance to speak with them, but are still waiting to hear back.
Around this time, the Guatemalan Prosecutors Office issued a statement saying they believed Nancy had drowned. Her family gave an update on their thoughts on the GFM:
We are aware of the statement from the Guatemalan prosecutor’s office. That according to a woman Nancy was with, Nancy wanted to swim and drowned. However, it’s difficult for us to accept that explanation for a few reasons:
1) None of the participants we have spoken with saw Nancy get out of her kayak and into the water.
2) We have tried to contact the woman who was with Nancy during the incident many times over the last three weeks but she will not speak with us.
3) The police report we received did not include a direct statement from the woman. We’re yet to have seen any official statement from her or any other retreat participant.
This woman’s silence has not only hindered our search efforts, it’s made an unbearable three weeks all the more agonizing.
On November 22, 2023, Nicky spoke to NBC and said that she had been unable to get in contact with Christina.
“I don’t know how much my family can accept that statement if it’s not backed up or confirmed by authorities,” Nicky said. “Whatever she’s sharing with her attorney, I don’t believe it’s something that’s under oath. And it’s maybe even his interpretation of what she told him.
She added: “At the end of the day, what we want is more information so that we can direct our search team.”
“Nancy’s a good swimmer. I don’t understand how this could have happened. Was she struggling for a long time? Did Christina hear her scream or yell for help?” Nicky said. “What was the scope? The circumstances? Did she just disappear? Was there a land nearby that she could have swam? I had no context or not enough context of what was going on. So those are the same questions we still have today.”
That same article also included a statement from Eddy.
“I am not ready to speak publicly yet but I have been in clear communication with Nancy’s family and the authorities in Guatemala since the very beginning,” he said. “The FBI conducted interviews to help bring closure to the Ng family that I was also completely forthcoming with.”
It was around this time that Christina released a statement through her attorney, outlining the events of the day.
This info is from the GFM and includes the family’s reaction to Christina’s version of events.
Gardner says Christina went for help, gave a full statement to Guatemalan police, and has spoken with the FBI. According to him, “to say my client hasn’t done all she can is not true.” As to why she didn’t respond to our requests for information, he says Christina was traumatized by the experience and needed time. Addressing an email we sent her on 10/31/23, he states:
“They tell her they understand she has been through a traumatic experience but then they tell her she needs to come forward to assist authorities… and they say in the same email if she doesn’t come forward they’ll make her come forward.”
In another statement, he says, ”the family got a hold of misinformation and put it out there. My client has now become a 100% absolute victim.”
First of all, we’d like to express our appreciation that we have these statements from Christina, through her attorney. When it comes to understanding what happened to Nancy and where to find her, every piece of information is invaluable. No detail too small.
For instance, as stated by our Head of Search and Rescue, the detail about Christina kayaking to where the lake changes color due to depth could have helped his team focus their initial search on the deepest part of the lake where the water is opaque. Given the urgent, time-sensitive nature of the search, we only wish we could have received such information sooner.
As for Christina’s account of the incident, we fully recognize the possibility that Nancy drowned. As heart wrenching as it is to consider, we know we must thoroughly explore it. What we do not understand are the inconsistencies between the direct statements provided by her lawyer and the varying secondhand accounts of her story we’ve heard from others. However, at the moment, our attention is focused on determining the precise location of the incident. Resolving these inconsistencies ultimately falls under the purview of the Guatemalan Public Prosecutor’s Office.
With regard to Gardner’s claim that we have put out misinformation, we’d like to point out that the information we have was provided by the Guatemalan Public Prosecutor’s Office. In the 100+ page report we received, there is no direct witness statement from Christina or any official record that the statement Gardner claims she provided to Guatemalan police exists. According to the report, the Prosecutor’s Office was unable to obtain Christina’s testimony, as the group left early in the morning the day after the incident. To our knowledge, they still haven’t been able to secure her testimony. While we are thankful to hear she has spoken with the FBI, we hope she will also speak with the Public Prosecutor’s Office, as they are leading the investigation.
As for Gardner’s statement that we wrote Christina “if she doesn’t come forward, [we’ll] make her come forward,” that is simply not true. To prove it, we’re sharing the emails we sent to her work and personal email addresses on 10/25 and 10/31. In addition to these, we passed along our contact information through the retreat organizer and other participants. Recognizing Christina might feel uncomfortable speaking directly to us, we requested she at least speak with our search team, as time is of the essence and her account is the most valuable in locating Nancy.
We waited 6 days after the incident to contact Christina directly. 6 more to follow up. When the media began to cover our situation on 11/3/23, we encouraged witnesses to step forward, not naming names. After 10 days passed and search efforts stalled, Black Wolf Helicopters released Christina’s name in the hopes that she might step forward to provide crucial information to help the search. The next day, 26 days after Nancy disappeared, Christina released statements to the media through her lawyer.
We understand that whatever Christina experienced on the water may have been traumatic and difficult to relive. We understand she is not legally obligated to speak with us.
What we do not understand is why she, or her lawyer, didn’t provide this information to us or our search team earlier. Why there is no record of the statement she allegedly provided to Guatemalan police. Why after our numerous attempts to privately appeal to the goodness of her heart, she is only now stepping forward publicly through her attorney.
Chris Sharpe, a member of the Guatemala-based Black Wolf Helicopters who was leading the search efforts for Nancy told KABC in November that he felt the circumstances of her disappearance may be suspicious.
“For me, this is now becoming a criminal investigation because the witnesses who were there at a material time are not being forthcoming,” he said.
The family gave an update on the GFM on December 15. “Because of conflicting information, data collection constraints, and the fact that no one we’ve spoken with actually saw Nancy get into the water, we are still left with a large area to cover,” Nancy’s family wrote in a GoFundMe update posted on 15 December.
“Attempts to narrow the search area by speaking with Christina Blazek have proved fruitless so far. As the one person who was with Nancy when she disappeared, Christina’s account of where they were on the water is invaluable to the search effort.
“Unfortunately, Keith’s (diving instructor and owner of Search and Recovery Consulting) attempts to speak with Christina have been unsuccessful. Despite a promising initial conversation with her lawyer, Christopher Gardner, Keith hasn’t been able to get into contact with Christina. His latest effort to collect critical information through a list of questions over email has also been met with silence.”
Eddy spoke to NBC in December and alleged that Kayak Guatemala did not offer the group life jackets. He also said they were given no safety instructions and that ‘no precautions were given’. Chrisina’s attorney agreed with these allegations.
Elaine and Lee — the owners of the kayak company — told Inside Edition that they “give people the opportunity to take a life jacket and, for this group, they all said no to taking life jackets.”
Eddy has also alleged that the Beals were not actually present at the lake when Nancy disappeared, despite them giving witness accounts of what happened. A police report seen by NBC News appears to corroborate this claim. It says Lee was overseas and Elaine was in her home.
On December 14, 2023, the family gave another update about the case status:
Guatemalan prosecutors still don’t have official statements from Christina Blazek (the only person with Nancy during the incident) or any of the retreat participants. The U.S. Embassy still hasn’t retrieved Nancy’s belongings. Despite being involved, the FBI unfortunately cannot share any information with us or the search teams about what they’ve done or learned. And as media coverage has died down, so has the momentum we hoped would lead us to the truth.
The family also travelled to Guatemala in December.
In December, we went to Guatemala in hopes of getting some clarity on what happened to Nancy and where to find her. While it brought us some comfort experiencing the beauties of Guatemala that Nancy loved so much (hand-woven goodies, vibrant paintings, homey meals, stunning volcano views, boat rides, kind strangers), it felt like we ultimately left Guatemala with more questions than we did answers.
Time and again, we’ve felt that the response to Nancy’s alleged drowning from some retreat participants have been odd, disconcerting, and difficult to grasp. We completely understand that poor choices can be made in a moment of crisis and panic, but in the days and months ensuing this tragedy, not much has been done to rectify these actions. We want to reiterate that it is not too late – we are not giving up on the search or the investigation – and it is never, ever, too late to step in and help.
As for the investigation in Guatemala, we were able to speak with the prosecutor in charge. Frankly speaking, we were quite disappointed with the progress of the investigation. At that time, the prosecutor had not yet confirmed with local police whether or not they ever took Christina’s witness statement, despite his office being in the same building as the police station. This information is critical, because while Mr. Gardner claims that Christina “went and gave a full statement to Guatemalan police,” there is no record of this on file according to the prosecutor. Even more, despite multiple assurances that an international request to obtain Christina’s statement was underway, the U.S. Embassy had not received any such request. It has been almost 3 months now and we still have no official witness statement from the one and only witness, continuing to leave us in the dark about what really happened to Nancy. While the lack of urgency from the prosecutor was very distressing, it made us all the more relieved that we went in person to advocate for Nancy. We were able to relay all our requests to the prosecutor and are waiting to get the latest updates from him.
Clips used in the podcast episode
https://youtu.be/YPuj525aIVU?si=n-Sn-0O26qM-GaJ_
https://youtu.be/ssT9aG29ZUQ?si=0NboDqNlWGKVLrSn
https://youtu.be/84DKyvmcDsA?si=hwBIe3jVctJOzKFZ
SOURCE LIST
https://vocal.media/families/the-sudden-disappearance-of-nancy-ng
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Atitl%C3%A1n
https://abc7news.com/nancy-ng-guatemala-yoga-retreat-missing-in-lake-atitlan/14053477/
https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-us-find-nancy-and-support-the-ng-family
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/nancy-ng-missing-witness-yoga-retreat-rcna126262
https://nz.finance.yahoo.com/news/kayak-owners-detail-unusual-behavior-153334126.html