UT Austin graduate student, wife disappear in Mexico on their way to Chile
The Brief
A UT Austin graduate student and his wife are missing
The two were on their way to Chile from Mexico, but lost contact with their family
AUSTIN, Texas – A UT Austin graduate student and his wife were on their way to Chile last summer, but they lost contact with their family in Mexico. What happened to them remains a mystery.
Who are Frank Guzman and Caroline Katba?
Frank Guzman and Caroline Katba
The backstory
Frank Guzman and his wife, Caroline Katba, love to travel.
“They’re very adventurous people,” Frank’s sister, Elizabeth Guzman, who lives in California, said.
Frank is a Ph.D. student at UT Austin, and last summer, they started a two-month road trip to Chile, where he was going to do research on the Palestinian diaspora.
“What brought them happiness the most was the fact that they had freedom to travel and to check out new places and learn about new people,” Elizabeth said.
When were they heard from last?
Timeline
They started the journey on July 15, 2024, going through Mexico, and there was constant communication.
A week later on July 22, they went offline, not necessarily unusual at first due to their travels. However, in September, Frank’s professor contacted the family saying he hadn’t shown up for class online. That’s when the worry started, plus the headache of figuring out which authorities could help.
“It felt like a lifetime’s worth of emotions because it was like borderline impossible to open a case there,” Elizabeth said.
She says their last known location was Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, Mexico.
What they’re saying
Elizabeth says she hit dead ends when trying to get help from the university, the FBI, and the U.S. Embassy, since there’s no indication they were involved in a drug trade.
After jumping through lots of hoops, they finally got an investigator on the case in Coatzacoalcos. Frank is also listed as missing by the Texas Department of Public Safety.
What’s next
Elizabeth says she’s now trying to get an attorney to coordinate with U.S. and Mexican agencies and help access Frank and Caroline’s phone and bank information.
“We’re trying to get legal help to access their information because that’s really like that’s the big thing that we need in order to accurately find them wherever they are,” she said.
The new year marks six months since their disappearance.
“It’s gotten easier, just not better. Ideally, it would be better if they came back,” she said.
She hopes the attention can stay on their case.
“I think they deserve that because they’re good people, and I think they should be home,” she said.
What you can do
There is a GoFundMe to support the search for Frank and Caroline.
The Source
Information from interviews conducted by FOX 7 Austin’s Angela Shen
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