FBI Joins Search For California Yoga Enthusiast Nancy Ng

The FBI has joined the search for a California woman who went missing in a remote lake after a mystery witness claimed she drowned.

Nancy Ng, 29, vanished while kayaking on Guatemala's Lake Atitlán during a week long yoga retreat last month.

Her desperate family last heard from her on October 19, the same day the retreat's organizers say she vanished.

The FBI has since joined the search for the yoga practitioner, joining efforts by private search teams paid for by her family.

Video of the last time Ng was seen has now been released by her family, showing the missing woman waving to the camera as she paddles across the lake.





The FBI has joined the search for missing California woman Nancy Ng, 29, who disappeared during a yoga retreat in Guatemala 





The yoga practitioner was last seen heading out on a kayaking trip on Lake Atitlán 



"Please help us bring Nancy home."

The family of Nancy Ng speaks out after the California woman disappeared while on a yoga retreat in Guatemala in October. @evapilgrim has more. pic.twitter.com/9mYVXSgjeh

— Good Morning America (@GMA) November 7, 2023

 

Guatemalan authorities have since revealed that a woman who was on the kayaking excursion with Ng has come forward to say she drowned while swimming.

The two women 'advanced deeper into the lake' according to the witness, before Ng told the witness, 'she wants to swim and that is when she drowns', ABC News reports.

But questions remain over why it took the witness and the tour company 24 hours to report the incident to prosecutrs.

A privately hired search and rescue team said it has already used drones, helicopters and boats to scour 95 per cent of the lake, but still found no trace of the missing woman.

The terrain combined with a lack of information has been hampering the search, according to Black Wolf Helicopters owner Chris Sharpe who has been leading the mission.

Local fire and rescue teams said the missing woman was last seen about half a mile from the shore, with her kayak later recovered. 

Ng's family told how they have been through a 'living hell' since she disappeared.




Local fire and rescue teams were told that Ng was last spotted about half a mile from the shore





 Her kayak was later recovered but no trace has been found of Ng, who works at a local school district helping students with disabilities





Ng left her home in Monterey Park on October 14 to attend the week-long yoga retreat, her family says

Her sister said their father is even hopeful he might receive a ransom call about his daughter because this would at least be evidence she is alive.

'It sounds terrible but he keeps his phone next to him at night, like he is hoping for a ransom call,' Nicky told ABC News.

'Just something that will prove Nancy might still be alive, that she is out there and she just waiting for us to find her.'

Ng is an active yoga practitioner and had attended the same retreat the previous year. 

She works at a local school district helping students with disabilities and is active in both yoga and travel in her personal life. 

She left her home in Monterey Park on October 14 to attend the week-long yoga retreat.

Nicky said her sister found real healing and peace on the previous year's trip - held near a large body of water located within a volcanic crater - and was so excited to go again. 









Ng (bottom right) last spoken to her family on October 19 and has not been seen since





The FBI has now joined the search mission, along with local fire and rescue and a private company which has scoured 95 per cent of the lake and found no trace 

'She was saying it's so beautiful,' Nicky recalled. 

'Last year, she woke up every morning just to spend some time there by herself without the group and this year was going to be more exciting because they had planned activities on the lake.'

Nicky's partner, Jared Lopez, has launched a GoFundMe to help pay for all of the search and rescue missions. 

In an update on the page, the family said: 'With every passing day, cty xây dựng Huế our family nightmare gets worse. Our fears of never finding her more real.' 


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