Missing Ogden teen, cousins found in Mexico; FBI seeking uncle’s extradition to US
Photo supplied, FBI
Elizabeth "Ely" Gonzalez, 14, Ogden, disappeared — along with two of her cousins — Sunday, June 30, 2024, while she was visiting family in Mexico City, Mexico. She and her cousins were found safe Friday, July 12, 2024.A missing Ogden teen has been located safely nearly two weeks after she was reported missing, while her uncle is wanted in connection with the disappearance.
According to a press release from the FBI’s Salt Lake City office sent late Friday night, Elizabeth Gonzalez, 14, and her cousins Sofia Mailen Moreno Zamora, 6, and Regina Moreno Zamora, 4, were found safe in Veracruz, Mexico.
“At approximately 9:30 p.m. on July 12, 2024, Mexican authorities found the three girls with Antonio Moreno in Veracruz, Mexico,” the release said. “A federal arrest warrant has been issued for Moreno on charges related to Elizabeth’s disappearance to include kidnapping. The extradition process will be initiated to bring Moreno back to the United States to answer for those charges.”
Friday’s press release also went on to thank those who helped bring the search to a positive conclusion.
“The FBI would like to thank our law enforcement partners in Mexico and the FBI’s Legal Attaché Office in Mexico City for their valuable assistance in this case,” the release said. “We would also like to thank the public for their tips.”
The release concluded by saying no further details were available to share.
Gonzalez disappeared June 30 while visiting her grandmother in Mexico City. Her disappearance was first reported July 1, though it gained wider public attention during a press conference held by the FBI’s field office in Salt Lake City on Wednesday.
“There’s surveillance video of (Gonzalez) getting into a taxi,” FBI Special Agent Steven Hymas said during the press conference. “We believe she was manipulated by an adult to get into that taxi and we have not seen her since.”
At the press conference, an attendee asked Hymas if he could corroborate a report from a Mexican source that stated two other people got into the taxi alongside Gonzalez. He stated that wasn’t a detail he was able to discuss.
Antonio Moreno was first announced as a suspect in a separate FBI press release Friday afternoon. It also was the first public FBI acknowledgement of the cousins’ disappearance.
“Moreno is Elizabeth’s uncle and the biological father of the two young girls,” the Friday afternoon release said. “On June 30, 2024, Moreno abruptly traveled to Mexico City, Mexico and allegedly took the three girls without their mothers’ permission.”
Moreno also had reportedly lived in Kaysville for the last three years, according to the release.
