A tight-knit Mexican Mormon family have spoken of their heartache for the first time after their daughter’s remains were found following her mysterious disappearance three years ago.
The skeletal remains of Elizabeth Elena Laguna Salgado, 26, were found in May by a hunter in a mountainous area outside Provo, where she had been temporarily staying.
Salgado disappeared in 2015 after traveling to Utah to learn English. She had just received her college degree in engineering and concluded her year and a half missionary service in Mexico.
Salgado went missing 20 days after arriving in Provo and was never heard from again.
Because of economic hardships, Julio Cesar Laguna told Univision that he tried to convince his daughter that it would be better if she stayed in their hometown of Chiapas for at least a year before moving.
Elizabeth Elena Laguna Salgado wanted a better job after graduating college in 2015 and completing her Mormon mission. Learning English in Utah was key to her dream
Elizabeth’s father (first front center) Julio Cesar Laguna did not want his daughter to travel to the United States to learn English because the family was struggling economically
Elizabeth with her mother, Libertad Salgado (left), and father, Julio Cesar Laguna, (right)
She ultimately went against his advice.
‘She said she was going to come, she was going to come,’ Laguna said.
Elizabeth pleaded with her dad, selling the idea about how spending a critical stage of her life in Provo, which she chose because of its large Mormon enclave and the security the city ‘the safest city in the world’ offered, would benefit her job prospects. Her brother Julio Cesar Laguna-Salgado Jr had visited before.
As her mother held back tears, Libertad Salgado recalled a conversation she had prior to Elizabeth leaving Mexico. Her daughter asked her not to cry because she wanted to be assured that everything would turn out OK as she was set to study abroad.
The Mexican student disappeared on April 16, 2015, three weeks after arriving in Provo, Utah. to study English at a learning center. Her decomposed body was found on May 18, 2018 about 30 miles from Provo
Elizabeth’s family used different outlets to seek her return, including social media
Elizabeth arrived in Provo at the end of March 2015 to study at the Nomen Global Language Center, and shared a room with other students and even managed to pick up a job waiting tables at a local Latino eatery. Part of her daily routine included calling her parents after enjoying a meal after arriving home from her classes.
On the afternoon of April 16, the family received a text message from Elizabeth who in Spanish wrote a family member, ‘I have already left school.’
It was the last time they would ever hear from her.
During the emotional sit down, the family spoke about how they tried different venues as they sought her safe return, visiting the learning center she had enrolled at, plastering signs on street poles in the town she was enamored with and posting videos on social social media sites.
Multiple calls came in from different people with different leads seeking money. Even a California woman and daughter were flown to Mexico claiming they had an idea of a house where Elizabeth was being held.
The family’s hope were dashed in May when a local man out hunting came across her decompose body in Hobble Creek Canyon, about 30 miles from Provo. Authorities still have captured the suspected killer.
‘Her destiny was calling,’ Julio Cesar Laguna said.