According to a press release received Wednesday, Elizabeth “Ely” Gonzalez, 14, Ogden, disappeared June 30, 2024, while she was visiting her grandmother in Mexico City, Mexico.

A press conference on the disappearance featuring FBI Special Agent Special Agent Steven Hymas and Gonzalez’s mother Alma Soreque was held Wednesday afternoon and streamed on Facebook by KUTV.

“There’s surveillance video of (Gonzalez) getting into a taxi,” he said. “We believe she was manipulated by an adult to get into that taxi and we have not seen her since.”

He said that there was no other specific information he was able to release at this time, citing that this is an active investigation and adding that there are many challenges to this being an international case.

“It’s challenging, these types of investigations, when we are not there doing the investigation by ourselves,” he said. “Also, not having the authority in Mexico to conduct investigative activity, we have to rely on our partners. So it’s difficult not to be able to do that on our own, although we do have great partnerships and we do trust that they are working just as hard as we are to find her.”

Hymas said the FBI is working with multiple agencies in Mexico and the disappearance was reported to them July 1.

“We don’t have any reason to believe that she is not in the country of Mexico at this moment,” he said, explaining why the FBI is reaching out to people in her home region around Ogden.  “We do believe that there will be people here who know information. Maybe they have reached out to friends or acquaintances or other family members who might know something that could help us out.”

Soreque said that Gonzalez had previously traveled to Mexico City to visit family without incident. This trip had begun June 15 and she was set to return August 7.

Soreque noted that she last spoke with Gonzalez on the morning of June 30 and was notified later in the day by her mother that Elizabeth had ventured out to a nearby store for a soda and never returned.

Gonzalez is described as 140 lbs., brown hair, brown eyes, 5’1″ and was last seen wearing dark blue jeans, a black hoodie, and black and white Vans.

If you have any information concerning this person, contact the FBI’s Salt Lake City Field Office at 801-579-1400.

No further details were available as of press time.

Tips can also be submitted online at tips.fbi.gov.

For more information, visit fbi.gov/wanted/kidnap/elizabeth-gonzalez.