Guatemalan police are searching for a Texan tourist who disappeared without trace after visiting Mayan ruins.
Raymond Ashcroft, 66, was last seen seven weeks ago, on February 3.
His wife of 40 years, Van Phung, who met Ashcroft when they both worked as pharmacists at a Houston cancer hospital, said he suffered from memory problems and mania, meaning he couldn’t be alone for periods of time.
She said that he also had trouble walking, which now makes her suspect that someone took him, because he couldn’t go very far on his own.
The couple had been on a wildlife tour with a group of other travelers, visiting the famous Tikal ruins, a UNESCO World Heritage site inhabited since the 6th century BCE. C. until the 10th century AD. c.
Raymond Ashcroft, who Guatemalan authorities identified as Ashcraft, was last seen on February 3.
Search and rescue teams are shown searching for the missing American.
They were traveling with the Canadian tour company Eagle-Eye, local media reported. Eagle-Eye Tours, which offers wildlife tours around the world, currently offers an 11-day trip to Belize and Tikal on its website for $4,075 per person.
Eagle-Eye Tours has yet to confirm that he was one of its tourists and has not responded to DailyMail.com’s request for comment.
phung said Free PressGuatemalan newspaper, who set out on foot on the morning of February 3 to try to spot birds.
“Around noon, our group was walking back to the Jungle Lodge for lunch when we saw a crocodile on the shore of a pond in front of the hotel entrance,” he told the newspaper.
“We went to the pond to take photos of the crocodile and a tiger heron.”
Ashcroft left the group and said that he would return to his hotel; Phung assumed that he wanted to use the bathroom or just wait for lunch.
Phung said she had problems with her left knee and moved slowly: she said she couldn’t walk more than 500 steps without sitting down.
“He walks slowly, so it’s strange that no one has seen him in the less than 30 minutes between when we last saw him, by the pond in front of the hotel entrance.”
She returned to the hotel shortly after him, but was unable to find him.
Ashcroft and his wife were visiting the Mayan ruins at Tikal as part of a birding vacation.
The couple was traveling with the Canadian company Eagle-Eye Tours, local media said.
The Mayan ruins of Tikal are one of the most popular tourist sites in Guatemala
“When I got to the hotel lobby I didn’t see him waiting for me, so I went to check on the bathrooms behind the restaurant,” she said.
“I couldn’t find it, so I went to our room, room 31, to see if it was there, but it wasn’t.”
At 12:30 he told two guides that he was not there.
Hotel guards and two members of the birding tour went looking for him, one of them on a motorcycle.
“When they didn’t find him outside the park, five men went into the park to look for him, they split up, so each one took a different path,” Phung told the newspaper.
At 5 in the afternoon the embassy of the United States was informed and they told the Ministry of the Interior of Guatemala.
Local officials arrived soon after and began interviewing her and others at the hotel.
A search and rescue team was dispatched, and as of 6:30 am on February 4, there were 97 people looking for him, Phung said.
A group of rescuers are seen preparing to begin the search for Ashcroft.
In the photo, a volunteer rescuer from the Guatemalan team searches for Ashcroft.
Rescuers are seen preparing search dogs.
Ashcroft has now been missing for seven weeks.
Teams in Guatemala combed the area looking for Ashcroft
Guatemalan authorities have notified Interpol, which facilitates police cooperation across borders.
Interpol has issued a yellow notice, which is designed to help locate missing people, often minors, or to help identify people who cannot identify themselves.
In 2022, 53-year-old German tourist Stephan Baitz was found dead in the park.
Her body was recovered two days after she went missing, and authorities said she died of heat stroke.
