Med school grad vanishes after celebrating at a club in Mexico, family says
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Eliott C. McLaughlin, CNN
(CNN) — Family members are looking for an Arkansas man who disappeared in the western Mexican city of Guadalajara after a friend with whom he was last seen, they say, was found dead.
Jessy Pacheco of Van Buren, Arkansas, was in Guadalajara to graduate from medical school, relatives say.
According to CNN affiliate KSFM, Pacheco walked in his graduation before he and his pal went to a club, Strana, to celebrate Saturday night, his family says.
Pacheco’s buddy was found about a block from the club, shot in the head, Pacheco’s cousin, Francine Solis, told CNN affiliate KARK.
The 29-year-old was supposed to return home Tuesday from Mexico and take the next steps on his career path to becoming a pediatrician, his family told KSFM.
Francine and Jeffrey Solis suspect Pacheco was kidnapped, they told the station, but officials have not confirmed their suspicions. They’ve reached out to the US State Department and FBI, too, they say, to no avail.
“We’re just under the presumptions right now that he has been kidnapped because they haven’t found his body. They haven’t heard anything,” Francine Solis said.
She added, “If nobody’s gonna help us, we gotta help ourselves,” the station reported.
Other family members, including Pacheco’s mother, are in Mexico and have joined the search effort, Jeffrey Solis said, according to KSFM.
“They’ve been going to the police stations. They’ve been going to the hospitals, the morgues — you know, everywhere — and mainly the place he was last to see if there’s any clues or anybody that’s seen anything,” Jeffrey Solis said.
Pacheco, a graduate of the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith, counted many friends in the town where he studied as an undergrad and in nearby Van Buren, Francine Solis said, expressing hope that social media and those who know him might assist in the search.
“You couldn’t go anywhere without Jessy … knowing someone,” she told KSFM. “So I knew that we had to utilize everyone that we knew and all the family that they have in Mexico and just everyone else who has family in Mexico.”