Alhambra-Unified School District teacher and 29-year-old Monterey Park native Nancy Ng has been missing in Guatemala since Oct. 19. After search attempts were made by the rescue teams hired by Ng’s family, a key witness alleged that Ng drowned that day in a statement to the media on Nov. 15.
According to Ng’s family, Ng had a passion for traveling, hiking and yoga. She traveled to Guatemala for her second “Be the Change” week-long yoga retreat hosted by yoga instructor Eddy Rimada. She departed on Oct. 14 and was to return on Oct. 22. However, Ng was last seen in a video — recorded on Oct. 19 by a resort employee — kayaking on Lake Atitlan with nine of her fellow retreat participants, according to ABC7.
In a Fox News interview, Ng’s sister Nicky Ng detailed how Rimada called Ng’s father to inform him of her disappearance on Oct. 19. Ng’s family subsequently hired a private investigator group, Black Wolf Helicopters, as searches led by Guatemalan authorities resulted in no leads. The FBI and U.S. State Department are currently assisting with the investigation.
As of a Nov. 13 GoFundMe update, the private investigators were able to conduct a search on Nov. 9, “using dive and boat teams and two helicopters” along with “an extensive ground and coastal search” utilizing “K9 assets.” The detailed searches led to no signs of Ng, which Jared Lopez, partner of Ng’s sister Nicky, attributes to a lack of cooperation and refusal of communication between retreat witnesses and Ng’s family.
“Despite multiple attempts to contact the woman ourselves, our family has still not heard back from her,” Lopez wrote in the GoFundMe page. “In spite of this frustrating and significant setback, we’ve undertaken the effort to try and triangulate a more precise understanding of where Nancy disappeared using all available information. These accounts are naturally subjective and imperfect. But at the moment, it’s all we have.”
The woman in question is San Bernardino Public Defender Christina Blazek, who was the last person to see Ng. In a statement to ABC13 on Nov. 15, weeks after Ng’s disappearance, Blazek spoke to the media through her attorney, Gregory Christopher Gardner, who claimed that Blazek and Ng chatted while kayaking away from the shore. Ng allegedly exited her kayak to swim in the lake against Blazek’s advice and Blazek struggled to look for Ng and retrieve her kayak. When she noticed Ng disappeared, Blazek released a distress signal.
According to a Good Morning America interview with Lee and Elaine Beal — owners of the kayak company that serviced Ng and the retreat participants — ten kayaks set out on the morning of Oct. 19, but only eight returned; Ng and another woman remained in the distance until a distress signal was eventually sighted. The Beals followed up with the retreat group at their hotel to discover that the group left the country 12 hours after Nancy’s disappearance.
“I witnessed the survivor [Blazek] being ushered up the steps by the yoga instructor. She was clearly distressed,” Elaine Beal said to GMA. “I just don’t understand that part — leaving 12 hours after the incident.”
Gardner explained Blazek and the retreat participants’ departure from Guatemala following Ng’s disappearance and denied the allegation that Blazek refused to provide witness testimony.
“She was told she needed to talk to the police, and she went and gave a full statement to Guatemalan police,” Gardner said to ABC7 Eyewitness News. “They told her there was nothing that could be done. Apparently, that lake is known for having people drown on it.”
Ng’s family disputed this claim and maintained that the Guatemalan police report they received did not include a witness statement from Blazek, according to GMA.
“If it is like she says and it is an accident, I don’t understand how she could choose to leave my family in the dark for almost four weeks, and not just say that from the start,” Nicky Ng said to ABC7 Eyewitness News.
In a Nov. 20 GoFundMe update, Lopez emphasized the effects of Ng’s disappearance on her family.
“It has now been 32 days since Nancy went missing,” Lopez said. “Over a month since we’ve seen her smile, heard her laugh, or felt her warm, loving hugs that last just a little longer than you expect a hug to last. It’s painful to even think about the holidays without her here.”
Karen Wang is a City News Intern for the fall 2023 quarter. She can be reached at karenw14@uci.edu.