An Ohio man has gone missing while visiting his fiancée in Mexico, and his family believes he has been kidnapped.

Jose Gutierrez, a 36-year-old architect from Cincinnati, Ohio, was last seen at the CVG Airport outside Cincinnati on December 22 when he traveled to Mexico's state of Zacatecas, Fox News reported.

The Ohio man was traveling to Mexico to visit his fiancée before their 2023 wedding date. His family noted that it was a trip that Gutierrez often makes.

Gutierrez's sister, Brandie Gutierrez, told WXIX-TV that her brother goes to Mexico about three times yearly. Brandie said the last time she spoke to her brother and his fiancée was days into the trip when the two went out to eat at a local bar.

Brandie claimed that local media reported an incident in the area that night. She said the bars "noticed screams," and something was "not right."

Since then, the couple has not been seen, causing the family to be scared that they may have been kidnapped.

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Ohio Man and His Fiancee Disappeared in Mexico

Jose Gutierrez was last seen with his 31-year-old fiancée, Daniela Marquez, her 26-year-old sister, Viviana Marquez, and the women's 27-year-old cousin, Irma Vargas, in Jerez de García, Zacatecas, on Sunday.

Marquez's mother, Rosa Pichardo, told TV Azteca that she had last spoken to her daughter around 10 p.m. before the group returned to her daughter's home in Colotlan.

Pichardo noted that she received an alert on her cellphone a couple of minutes later sharing Marquez's location in Vivoras, a neighborhood in the Zacatecas town of Tepetongo.

The couple's SUV was found abandoned in Vivoras, which borders the state of Jalisco. Pichardo said there were witnesses when the couple, Marquez's sister and their cousin, were kidnapped.

"There was a lot of panic, screams, but they didn't get them out, and they took the vehicle. They took the girls, my daughter's fiancé, Daniela. They took off, they went to Vivoras," Pichardo told the outlet.

However, Marquez's mother noted that she has yet to receive any updates from the Zacatecas State Attorney General's Office since the missing persons' report was filed.

A State Department spokesperson said the U.S. government is aware of the incident and working closely with local authorities.

Zacatecas in Mexico Travel Warning

In August, the U.S. State Department raised the alert level for traveling to some Mexican states, including Zacatecas.

The travel warning was issued due to the increasing violence and kidnappings in the area. Other states included in the travel warning list were Colima, Guerrero, Michoacan, Sinaloa, and Tamaulipas.

Zacatecas has become the center for violence, with powerful organized crime groups fighting over the region's strategic location.

The state has highways that head toward the northern border and the Pacific coast. Between 2015 and 2021, the number of murders in Zacatecas increased by 40%.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador responded to the growing violence in the area by sending around 4,000 members of the military last November.

Government figures showed that at least 666 kidnappings were reported from January to November this year in Mexico, compared with 625 in 2021. 

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This article is owned by Latin Post

Written by: Mary Webber

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