Investigating the only solid lead in the search for a missing Chinese-American woman has been held up by the beer company Grupo Modelo, which took more than a week to respond to a request for information about a Corona truck in Oaxaca, according to a news report.
The missing woman’s husband said Grupo Modelo even then provided no information of value, according to Mexico News Daily.
Jenny Chen, 26, is believed to have left the city of Oaxaca on April 11 with plans to meet her husband, Jonathan Reinhard, in Cancún on April 15. But she didn’t appear.
Reinhard, who lives in Seattle, Washington, has since hired a private investigator who tracked the missing woman to the city of Juchitán in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec region of Oaxaca state. Witnesses there told the investigator that Chen was seen climbing into a Corona delivery truck, a tractor-trailer unit, at 2:00pm April 12 on highway 185.
That highway is the quickest route from Oaxaca to Cancún. However, the witnesses said the truck was traveling in the opposite direction in order to avoid a blockade by teachers. They said the driver intended to take a different route and persuaded Chen to go with him.
Attempts to obtain information about the truck got nowhere until May 24, when Reinhard was advised that Grupo Modelo would soon have the information requested. On May 25, he said on the Facebook page Help Find Jenny that the only information the beer company would provide was that there were seven Corona trucks operating in the area at the time. It did not release the names of the drivers.
Reinhard asked friends and supporters to continue putting pressure on Grupo Modelo through a social media campaign on Facebook and Twitter.
One of the last photos of Jenny Chen taken in Mexico before she disappeared April 12. (PHOTO: courtesy Jonathan Reinhard)
He told Mexico News Daily that he and the investigators are demanding the Corona drivers’ names and photographs so they can identify the one whose truck Chen boarded. “Corona needs to take responsibility for this situation,” he said.
He also said a security official at Grupo Modelo was rude to Reinhard’s investigator and would not provide any information.
Reinhard’s experience with authorities has not been positive either. He told the Seattle Times that government agencies and police departments had abandoned him in his search. And dealing with the U.S. embassy in Mexico has been “completely frustrating.”
“They’ve ignored me, promised to help and then not returned my phone calls.”
He said the Chinese embassy and Oaxaca police were equally frustrating.
The most promising leads have been those obtained by his private investigator, Reinhard said, and learning about the Corona beer truck was the best information he has had so far.
A Chinese citizen who moved to the United States in 2013, Chen began a backpacking trip in Mexico in early March. Her husband describes her as a “curious, passionate woman who loves to experience new things.”
He wrote on a gofundme page, which is being used to solicit support to pay for the services of a Mexico City private investigator, that she had met many “wonderful, warm people, and had many adventures” on her Mexico journey.
Chen is described as 150 centimeters tall, has black hair and weighs about 50 kilograms.
Source: mexiconewsdaily.com
