Following the identification of the student’s remains on Thursday, the investigation into the disappearance of Elizabeth Salgado has been transformed into a homicide investigation. According to a press release issued by the Utah County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday, officers were “dispatched to a report from a man who said he found what he believed to be human remains in Hobble Creek Canyon.” The report was received soon after 9:00 a.m. on Friday, May 18, 2018. Investigators do not know “exactly how or why she ended up in Hobble Creek Canyon,” according to Utah County Sheriff Jim Tracy, who stated this information during a press conference on Thursday.
Sheriff Tracy refused to provide the precise location of the remains that were discovered, but he did say that they were “off the road and it was in an area that you would not find by being on a trail.”According to the press release, “[The individual who reported the remains] described seeing a skull and clothing.” The remains were sent to the office of the Medical Examiner in Taylorsville, Utah after the investigators who rushed to the scene provided confirmation that the bones were those of a human being.
The remains were determined to be those of Elizabeth Elena Laguna-Salgado by the utilization of dental historical records. At this point, neither the reason nor the method of death cannot be determined. Chief Rich Ferguson of the Provo Police Department stated on Thursday that the investigation into this matter has been conducted numerous times over the previous three years to provide the Salgado family with answers. To discover the truth regarding her abduction, the members of the criminal investigation division of the Provo Police Department have spent thousands of hours, exhausted hundreds of leads, and even traveled to Mexico with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
According to the authorities, the Utah County Sheriff’s Office will now take over the investigation from the Provo Police Department, which had been investigating the case of the missing person. This is due to the location where Elizabeth’s remains were discovered. “This is just terrible,” Rosemberg Salgado, one of Elizabeth’s uncles, stated during the news conference that took place on Thursday. That there are so many nasty people in this world who would do anything like that to another human being is something that I simply cannot fathom. Regardless of who you are, we will locate you. We are going to locate you.
In addition to the individuals of interest that we have already questioned, we will continue to conduct interviews with them. In a statement to the media on Thursday, Sheriff Tracy stated that at this moment, no one is being considered a suspect. In our ‘Missing in America’ series, Dateline has previously reported that Elizabeth, who was 26 years old at the time, was last seen on April 16, 2015 in Provo, Utah. This was less than one month after she relocated from Mexico to join the Nomen Global Language Center in Utah to attend classes there.
After class, that afternoon, Elizabeth, who spoke very little English, was reportedly seen by her classmates for the last time while she was making her way home to her flat, which was around 18 blocks away from the school. There was no further action on her mobile phone or in her bank accounts after that happened. After Elizabeth had been missing for a year, her family revealed to Dateline that they suspected she was being held against her will in some location.
“We can’t help thinking about what she is going through right now,” Rosemberg Salgado, Elizabeth’s uncle, said in an interview with Dateline in May of 2016. Due to the fact that the bulk of Elizabeth’s relatives, including her parents, reside in Mexico, the situation was particularly distressing. None of them are fluent in English. In his words, “Stress is at an all-time high.” It is possible that she is currently located anywhere. Despite the fact that Elizabeth’s parents do not speak English, a family spokesman named Sylvia Haro told Dateline in 2015 that Elizabeth’s mother had remarked, “I forgive the person that has her, if he has done something to her.” All the same, let her go free.
The case of the young woman received more attention on a national level as a result of the efforts of Elizabeth Smart and Ed Smart, the young woman’s father. Smart, who is now 30 years old, was taken from her home in Salt Lake City, Utah, when she was a teenager in the year 2002. She was held captive for a period of nine months before she was finally rescued.
On Thursday, the Provo Police Department expressed their gratitude to members of the media for taking the time to report on the latest developments in the Salgado case yesterday. In addition to expressing his condolences to the Salgado family, Chief Ferguson has reaffirmed that the inquiry will continue.
In a message that was published on Facebook on Thursday, the Provo Police Department stated that “Elizabeth’s family has suffered with the pain of uncertainty for that entire three years.” Today, they are struggling to cope with the anguish of loss, and we feel a profound sense of empathy for them and for the requirements that they have. Assuring them and the general public that we will continue our investigation until we have answers is something that we want to do. In the event that you possess any information concerning the case of Elizabeth, kindly contact the Investigations Division of the Utah County Sheriff’s Office at the following number: (801)851-4010.
