Jose Gutierrez: Ohio man, 36, disappears while visiting fiancee in Mexico, family fears kidnapping
CINCINNATI, OHIO: A 36-year-old architect from Cincinnati, Ohio has been missing since he was last seen at CVG airport outside the city on Thursday, December 22. Jose Gutierrez had arrived at the airport to travel to Zacatecas, Mexico, where he planned to visit his fiancee before their wedding next year, and was last seen there. His family says the trip to see his fiancée, Daniela Pichardo, is a regular occurrence, as the two have been in a long-distance relationship for some time.
Gutierrez family fears he was kidnapped, and Gutierrez's sister Brandie had spoken to the media about his disappearance. She said she last spoke with the two when they had gone out to eat at a local bar a few days after their trip, only to see later that local news in the area had begun reporting on an incident that had occurred at the same bar.
READ MORE
David Scarborough: Mississippi man missing among 4 others as helicopter crashes near Louisiana coast
Who was Robert Hoagland? CT man missing since 2013 found dead in NY after living under ANOTHER name
"The bars actually noticed screams," Brandie said. "There is something that is not right." The couple have off the radar ever since, which has been concerning. FOX News had also reported that the US Government has been informed and are working closely with the local authorities to contribute to the search effort.
"The Department of State has no higher priority than the welfare and safety of US citizens abroad. We stand ready to provide appropriate assistance to US citizens in need and to their families. We are aware of reports of a US citizen missing in Mexico. When a US citizen is missing, we work closely with local authorities as they carry out their search efforts, and we share information with families however we can,” the US Department of State had said, in a written statement.
Gutierrez is a project coordinator at Champlin Architecture in Cincinnati and his girlfriend had very recently agreed to marry him. In a report by WLWT, Brandie spoke about her brother’s excitement for the future as she said, ''He said to my mom and dad, 'I think I'm ready to get married.''' His fiancée Pichardo is a native of Guadalajara, Mexico. "I just know that they were there having dinner, enjoying their time together," she said.
The restaurant where they were last seen was Solana Resto Bar. Operators had looked at security footage and determined that the group (the two were accompanied by Pichardo's sister Viviana and her cousin Irma Montoya) had been at the restaurant for a little over two hours. Pichardo's mother stated that a few hours after the meal she had received a message from her daughter with location pinned as Zacatecas. "The mother did state, and her specific words were, 'I know something was not right. She sent this because they felt that they were in danger,'" Brandie Gutierrez said.
The Zacatecas government has issued a missing persons alert for all four of the members and local officers had stopped the family from searching the location that had come to them in the text as well, “They attempted to go on a search of that location, but they were stopped by two officers, two or three officers, and they were not allowed to enter that zone because it was too dangerous.” "We just want him back home. We want to know something," Brandie said. "We are all worried."
