Missing American Children Located in Northern Mexico

Police officers patrol in Celaya, Guanajuato State, Mexico, on May 24, 2022. Mario Armas/AFP via Getty Images

Four U.S.-born children who were listed as missing in the Mexican state of Chihuahua have been found.

The Chihuahua state authorities described the situation as family-related, adding that the children went with their father, who has custody of them, according to an updated report by KRQE News on Monday night.

The children, aged 9 to 12, had been reported missing on Saturday, hours after leaving a house in the town of Meoqui, approximately 46 miles southeast of the state capital of Chihuahua City in northern Mexico and about 283 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border.

Ismael Gómez Herrara Luis Mendoza, 12; Isaac Gómez Herrara Mendoza, 12; Madahi Gómez Herrara Luis Mendoza, 12; and Elías Gómez Herrara Luis Mendoza, 9, are siblings who were born in South Dakota.

The Chihuahua Attorney General’s office had posted images and descriptions of the children on Facebook, which have since been taken down.

In a separate case, another child went missing from the same town a day earlier.

Jacqueline Pando Flores, 14, was reported missing when she did not return home from CBTA 147 school. The girl was later found safe with her father, who allegedly took her in what appeared to be a custody dispute, WGHP-TV reported.

Missing in Mexico

Kidnappings and disappearances are a major problem across Mexico, with only 1 percent of the more than 100,000 missing people being found, reports the Dallas Express.

Last month, the search for seven kidnapped boys—aged 14 and 18—in the north-central Mexico state of Zacatecas ended tragically when searchers discovered six bodies and one survivor in a remote area.

The survivor, an 18-year-old, was found with serious head wounds, according to state prosecutors.

Earlier this year, two American siblings went missing near the northern border state of Nuevo Leon, Reuters reported.

In August, five young men were kidnapped in the neighboring state of Jalisco.

A video circulated on social media recorded the last minutes of the kidnapped youth. A pair of bound, inert bodies were seen lying in the foreground of the video, while another youth, who was part of the kidnapped friends, was seen apparently decapitating another victim.

In the 2010s, gangs were known to sometimes force kidnap victims to kill each other.

In March, two children, 16 and 9, respectively, disappeared after they reportedly left home. They were later found safe following an Amber alert for the missing pair.

Earlier the same month, gunmen in Mexico kidnapped four Americans, killing two of them. On March 4, the four adults were in a minivan when they crossed the Texas border from Brownsville into Tamaulipas, Mexico, where they were abducted by armed men and forced into another vehicle. They had traveled from the Carolinas to Mexico for cosmetic surgery.

A Mexican police investigator inspects the minivan where four Americans were shot and taken at the Tamaulipas State Prosecutor´s headquarters in Matamoros, Mexico, on March 8, 2023. AP Photo

A week later, five suspects were arrested in connection with the crimes, according to Tamaulipas Attorney General Irving Barrios Mojica, who posted the information on X, formerly known as Twitter. Another person linked to the aggravated kidnappings and murders was also arrested.

Warning to American Travelers

Twice this year, in March and August, the U.S. government issued travel alerts and advisories for Americans traveling to Mexico.

“Crime, including violent crime, can occur anywhere in Mexico, including popular tourist destinations,” the March alert said.

The later advisory stated that “violent crime — such as homicide, kidnapping, carjacking, and robbery — is widespread and common in Mexico.”

The August advisory also warned Americans not to travel to six states, including Colima, Guerrero, Michoacan, Sinaloa, Tamaulipas, and Zacatecas, due to crime and kidnappings.

It also advised reconsidering travel to several more states and exercising increased caution in others.