The mother of a 21-year-old transient woman who reportedly went missing in Mexico says she has been located by the FBI.
April Reed reported her daughter Zailey Unidad Flores missing to the U.S. federal agency. The FBI issued a missing bulletin on Jan. 12, the same day Reed said she received a call from her daughter saying that she was in Tijuana, Mexico, and she was “gonna die.”
“I asked what she meant by that, and she said she was going to ‘atone for her sins,’” Reed said in a Facebook Live interview.
Reed also made a TikTok video that went viral, where she shared screenshots of messages about requests for ransom. One message implied that her daughter was sex trafficked by a cartel.
The mother said she was also concerned about Flores’ mental wellness. She has a history of drug abuse and mental illness, which often caused her to fall out of her relationship with her family. In fact, according to Reed, the two have not spoken much over the past three years as she seemed to fall deeper into her manic behavior.
The FBI said the missing woman had been linked to a plethora of U.S. cities, such as Detroit, Phoenix, and the Slauson Avenue and Skid Row areas of Los Angeles. Reed said she was concerned because this time Flores’ disappearance “seemed different.”
Reed said Flores’ alleged boyfriend, Ricardo De La Torre, shared screenshots with Reed from a Facebook account where someone asked for money in exchange for her daughter’s return.
De La Torre, a man in his 40s, said he went with Flores to Mexico to look for apartments. Reed said she never heard of De La Torre, whose story has changed numerous times.
Reed said De La Torre translated the message where the person first demanded $500 for her daughter’s return. The number later went from $750 to $2,000, she said.
Reed said when she got in touch with the person who made the posts, she asked them to provide her with “proof of life,” like a photograph of…
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