California woman vanishes while on yoga retreat in Guatemala

The search for a California woman who has been missing for over two weeks in Guatemala is becoming more complicated as key witnesses are allegedly refusing to cooperate with authorities.

Nancy Ng, 29, who assists students with disabilities in the Alhambra Unified School District, left the US on 14 October to go on a yoga retreat in Guatemala.

What was meant to be a peaceful getaway - her second year in a row - turned into a nightmare ordeal after Ms Ng disappeared on 19 October.

The family told ABC7 that the retreat organisers called them to say she had not been seen since a kayaking trip she took with others from the retreat.

However, witnesses have reportedly not been cooperating with search teams, leading some of the rescue professionals to believe this case could be criminal.

Days after she went missing, helicopter and boat teams went to search the area around Lake Atitlán, relatives wrote on a GoFundMe page.

After 72 hours, the naval team stopped the search, so the family hired professional boaters and asked locals to keep an eye out.

By 24 October, her family back in California had hired an extensive team of private helicopters, boats, divers and drones in the search for the missing woman.

The family also said they were in talks with a submarine sonar service but were told that without better details of where Ms Ng was last seen, searching the gigantic lake could prove difficult.

Jared Lopez, the partner of Ms Ng’s sister Nicky, said that lack of information has seriously hindered their search teams’ efforts.

Despite hiring their own professional search team to investigate, as well as the Bomberos Voluntarios Air Rescue Section, the Bomberos Dive Team, and an abundance of local volunteers all searching the lake, they have not been able to hone in on a particular area due to witnesses not coming forward with information.

It is unclear why witnesses of Ms Ng’s last locations have not come forward to help, but because of the lack of information, “the search is now subject to investigation by local Prosecution Authorities, the FBI, and the US Department of State,” according to the fundraising page.

Chris Sharpe, the leader of Black Wolf Helicopters, the Ng family’s hired search and rescue team, told ABC7  that he is requesting criminal authorities to step into this investigation.

He said that the team had searched most of the lake without any clues to Ms Ng’s location, making him sceptical that she was even out kayaking in the first place.

"For me, this is now becoming a criminal investigation because the witnesses who were there at a material time are not being forthcoming," Mr Sharpe told the outlet.

Many witnesses who would have been with Ms Ng on the retreat have reportedly gone home, some to Southern California.

“With every passing day, our family nightmare gets worse. Our fears of never finding her [are] more real,” Mr Lopez wrote on their fundraising page, getting more frustrated from the lack of information from the witnesses.

Ms Ng’s family are desperate for answers and are pleading with witnesses to come forward.

“My fear is that no one comes forward, and it becomes a cold case, and people stop caring, and we don’t find her,” Ms Ng’s sister, Nicky Ng, told the outlet.

The FBI and the State Department have been in contact with authorities in Guatemala about the case.

The FBI also confirmed to KTLA that they had contacted the Guatemalan government, which remains the lead agency on the investigation, but the FBI is working closely with them.