March 19 (UPI) — A great grandmother who splits her time between her home in Los Angeles and a home in Mexico has been kidnapped and the FBI is offering a $20,000 reward to track her down.
Maria del Carmen Lopez has been missing since Feb. 9, when she was allegedly kidnapped from her home in Pueblo Nuevo, Colima, Mexico. The 63-year-old is an American citizen of Hispanic descent.
She is 5-feet 2-inches tall and weighed approximately 160 pounds when she was last seen, according to the FBI. She also has eyeliner that is permanent or tattooed on.
The FBI’s reward is for information leading to Lopez’s physical location.
Lopez’s family says that they were contacted and told to pay a large sum for ransom in exchange for her. They believe she was kidnapped from her home by armed men wearing masks.
“We were able to hear what sound to us like a recording of her pleading for us to please help her,” Lopez’s daughter Zonia said, according to NBC News.
Lopez is a mother of seven and has lived in Mexico with her husband for about 10 years. She raised her children in Los Angeles. KTLA 5 reports that Lopez’s husband was at a doctor’s appointment at the time of her kidnapping.
“We don’t believe it’s drug related, and we don’t believe she was involved in criminal activity,” FBI spokesperson Laura Eimiller told KTLA 5. “We do believe she was the innocent victim of a kidnapping.”
