NQL Case File

Circumstances

Date of Disappearance

July 30, 2021

Notes

Graciela was originally employed as an accountant in her hometown of Cuenca, Ecuador, but had lost her job and was struggling to find new employment in the post-Covid economy. She eventually made the choice to try joining her two sisters in New York in the United States. Without a legal visa, this meant hiring a trafficker to smuggle her illegally across the Mexico-US border. Graciela set off for the US-Mexico border on July 7, 2021. Leaving Ecuador, she passed into Lima, Peru and then moved to Mexico City, Mexico. She caught a bus in Mexico City and road it to Sonoyta, Sonora, a city on the border with Likeville, Arizona. According to the plan, she was supposed to be driven through the desert and then contact her family once the trafficker dropped them off in Phoenix, Arizona. Her family has not heard from her since July 30, 2021, the day she was supposed to start her journey across the border. Although she did not contact them again in the days that followed, they know her phone remained active because she was receiving her family’s messages. Then, one week later, her phone was turned off. One article does say that she was last seen in Gila Bend on Route 85, but it is not clear who reported the sighting or if it has been confirmed. It appears there is little evidence that she actually left Mexico. Graciela had mentioned to her family a woman that she met in the group intending to cross together. This woman would eventually contact Graciela’s son to tell him that Graciela had not been there the day they crossed and did not actually go with them. Although others contacted their families during the trip on the road, Graciela had never called her family nor did she contact emergency services. Searches of US detention centers have not revealed any new traces of the missing woman. The trafficker later told the family that Graciela had handed herself over to the immigration offices in Gila Bend; however, they do not believe this is true. Then in 2022, something happened that gave the family hope that Graciela may still be alive, if perhaps still in the hands of human traffickers. On March 4, 2022, an email arrived with an invoice attached for a soda (27 pesos) from a store in Cabo San Lucas, a city on the southernmost edge of Mexico. Graciela’s daughter received the email and confirmed that the payment account listed on the invoice was a business account Graciela had previously used for her work as an accountant.

Location of the Disappearance or Crime Scene

Potential Circumstances

During a Crime, Long-Distance Trip, Traveling Abroad

Vehicle

License Plate

Photo of Vehicle

Suspect

Suspect Description

Photo of Suspect