Jeff Dunsavage's Blog (589)

A family of four that was reported missing overnight has been found dead in Mexico. The bodies of Kevin, Amy, Sterling and Adrianna Sharp were discovered Friday inside a condominium, CBS Des Moines affiliate KCCI reports. 

"Autopsies are being performed in Mexico and results are pending," the Creston Police Department said in a…

A boater who sailed from Charlotte County is missing.

Benjamin Hartman left Charlot Harbor on Feb. 22 to sail to St. Augustine.

He was last seen on Feb. 27 when he left Dry Tortugas en route to Key West.

Hartman is sailing by himself on his 31-foot 1970 Kenner Sailboat that is blue and white. Its registration number is FL3831SK.

The Coast Guard is searching for Hartman and the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office has asked that anyone with information contact…

Authorities are investigating the disappearance of three Italians who went missing after they were detained by police at a petrol station in Tecalitlán, Jalisco, on the Jan. 31. Friends and family marched in Naples, "demanding answers from the Mexican government."

The three men have been identified as Raffaele Russo, 60; his son Antonio Russo, 25, and his nephew Vincenzo Cimmino,…

On March 1, undetonated explosive devices were found by Mexican law enforcement on a tourist ferry that operates between Cozumel-Playa del Carmen, Mexico.  On February 21, an explosive device detonated on a tourist ferry in Playa del Carmen resulting in injuries, including to U.S. citizens.  U.S. Government employees are prohibited from using all tourist ferries on this route until further notice.  Mexican and U.S. law enforcement continue to investigate.…

Having a family member suddenly go missing is a terrifying experience; having this happen while your loved one is traveling in a foreign country compounds the fear with myriad complications.

What do you do when you get the phone call? Or, worse, when there is no call; when your traveling child or sibling or parent or friend, who has been diligently staying in touch throughout his or her trip, suddenly falls silent?…

The U.S. government has issued more crime warnings for the Bahamas than for all locations in the Caribbean. 

Violent crime, such as burglaries, armed robberies, and sexual assault is common, even during daylight hours and in tourist areas. U.S. government personnel are not permitted to visit the Sand Trap area in Nassau due to crime. Jet-ski operators are known to commit sexual assaults against tourists, including minors. As a result, U.S. government personnel are not permitted to use…

If you’re planning on going to a country with a Level-4 warning, the U.S State Department suggests you draft your will and plan your funeral ahead of time.

It’s all part of their new system of travel advisories that rolled out on January 10, which ranks places on a scale of one to four with a corresponding color code.…

Nineteen American citizens have reported symptoms similar to those suffered by U.S. diplomats who had been identified as victims of alleged attacks in Cuba.

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Several countries, including the U.S., have issued travel warnings in the wake of a spate of violent crimes in Jamaica. The warnings come after a series of violent incidents, including one in which a Canadian couple was…

Five states in Mexico now have the sternest "do not travel" advisories under a revamped U.S. State Department system, putting them on the same level as war-torn countries like Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen and Somalia. The five states are Tamaulipas on the U.S. border and Sinaloa, Colima, Michoacan and Guerrero on the Pacific coast. All the states are hotspots of drug…

Mexico posted its highest homicide rate in decades, with the government reporting Sunday there were 29,168 murders in 2017, a 27 percent increase over 2016.

The number is the highest since comparable records began being kept in 1997 and is also higher than the peak year of Mexico’s drug war in 2011, when there were 27,213 killings. The Interior Department, which posted…

Three U.S. siblings found dead in Mexico in 2014 were executed by Mexican marines and a border mayor's paramilitary security team, the country's National Human Rights Commission said Thursday.

Erica Alvarado Salinas, 26, Alex Alvarado, 22, and Jose Angel Alvarado, 21, all U.S. citizens, disappeared in 2014 while visiting their father in El Control, a small town near Matamoros, a Mexican city in the dangerous state of Tamaulipas, across the border from Brownsville,…

The U.S. State Department issued a travel advisory for Belize on Wednesday, January 10, warning American citizens to exercise caution when in the country. The advisory states that violent crime, such as sexual assault, armed robbery, and murder are common in Belize and local police lack the resources to respond effectively to serious criminal incidents.…

It never fails.

The moment an American or other foreigner comes to harm in an exotic locale, the first response of "community activists" is to undermine his/her story, to declare them unfit for public sympathy and their families unworthy of compassion and voluntary support.

My brother was alternately declared a CIA agent and a narco trafficker because, 72 hours too late to be helpful, we were able to get U.S. aircraft launched to assist in the search for him off the island of…

Costa Rica recorded its highest-ever annual murder rate in 2017, authorities said this week, blaming score-settling between gangs and drug trafficking for the rise. 

The nation of about five million people, still considered one of the safest relative to others in Central America, saw 603 homicides last year, according to preliminary data from the police service responsible for investigating them. That works out to a rate of 12.1 murders per 100,000 inhabitants.

The…

Ryan Messerschmidt, from Wisconsin, was tortured, stabbed and beaten -- attacked while on vacation in Costa Rica. He'd been missing for days, but his family has received word that he's alive. However, they said they're not convinced he's safe.

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Thank you to all who provided assistance, ideas, and resources for Ryan's family!

An American tourist was shot and killed while apparently being robbed in a resort town on Mexico’s Pacific Coast that has become popular with surfers and Hollywood stars.

Douglas Bradley was killed Thursday in the hotel zone of Ixtapa. He was on Christmas vacation in neighboring Zihuatanejo and would have turned 50 the next day. The city of Imperial Beach in San Diego County announced Bradley’s death on Friday. He was the city’s director of…

Alisa Clamen is back in Montreal, after spending the last two months abroad, and she's ramping up search and rescue efforts to find her missing son, Jesse Galganov.

She's been on the ground in Peru, working with local officials and search teams there. She also enlisted the help of an Israeli company the specializes in search and rescue.

Galganov, 22, left…

The bodies of a Houston man, his wife and son who went missing in January during a trip to Mexico are back in Houston.

The family of Juan and Maria Vargas told Eyewitness News that Mexican officials notified them that their bodies were found in September alongside that of 18-year-old Daniel Vargas.

Annel Ochoa, who said her parents and brother went to Mexico for a funeral, said, "From what I was told, it was one suspect's birthday, and when…