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SALT LAKE CITY — After almost two weeks of searching, Mexican authorities found a 14-year-old Ogden girl and her two younger cousins, and have taken a suspect into custody.
At around 9:30 p.m. on Friday, the three girls were found in Veracruz, Mexico, with a family member Antonio Moreno, the FBI announced.
A federal arrest warrant had been issued for Moreno on charges related to Elizabeth's disappearance to include kidnapping. The extradition process is now underway "to bring Moreno back to the United States to answer for those charges," a press release says.
Elizabeth Gonzalez, a U.S. citizen who finished seventh grade in May, traveled to Mexico City to spend the summer at her grandmother's house. But she went missing along with two younger cousins from her grandmother's Mexico City neighborhood on June 30.
Alma Soreque, Gonzalez's mother, told KSL.com she had spoken with her daughter earlier in the day she went missing. "We just talked about how she slept and then she said, 'Grandma is getting breakfast ready for us,'" Soreque said.
Gonzalez went to a neighborhood store with her cousins Sofia Mailen Moreno Zamora, 6, and Regina Moreno Zamora, 4, in the Azcapotzalco section of Mexico City, where her grandma — Soreque's mother — lives, to get a soda. They did not return to the grandmother's house.
On Friday, the FBI identified Antonio Moreno, who had been living in Kaysville for the past three years, as a suspect in the girls' disappearance. Moreno is Gonzalez's uncle and the biological father of Sofia Mailen and Regina.
"On June 30, 2024, Moreno abruptly traveled to Mexico City, Mexico, and allegedly took the three girls without their mothers' permission. Relatives have not seen or heard from them since. We believe the girls are in danger and still in Mexico," the FBI said.
"Surveillance video shows (Elizabeth) walking with her two cousins, who are Mexican citizens, and all three getting into a taxi. The FBI believes Elizabeth was manipulated by an adult male, allegedly Moreno, to get into that taxi."
