A married couple from Texas has been missing since late July while traveling in Mexico, prompting family and friends to leverage the public and the media to help find them.
University of Texas doctoral student Frank Guzman and his wife, Caroline Katba, were last seen on July 18 in Austin, Texas, according to the Texas Missing Persons Clearinghouse Bulletin.
Frank and Caroline were traveling in Mexico when their families lost contact with them around July 22, according to an Instagram post from Frank’s sister Liz Guzman.
‘It is believed that the last location they were in before they lost contact was Coatzacoalcos Veracruz Mexico. They drove their gray 2016 Toyota Prius-Hatchback 4 door,’ Liz wrote in the post.
Liz told the Austin American-Statesman that her brother and sister-in-law planned on driving through Latin America in order to get to Chile, where Frank was going to be doing research for his doctorate.
Click here to resize this module
Liz said they messaged their respective families frequently over WhatsApp, providing updates and pictures cataloguing their journey.
But on July 22, they both went offline.
‘He told me he was arriving at his next hotel around 3 p.m., we’re an hour ahead, maybe I give you a call around 3 or 4 your time,’ Liz said.
Neither family has gotten a call from Frank or Caroline.
That didn’t stop them from attempting to reach out throughout the summer. Liz thought maybe they lost service as they ventured further down into Central America.
Their worry reached a fever pitch when a UT Austin professor called Frank’s dad, letting him know that Frank hadn’t shown up to class, Liz said.
‘My brother has completed 12 years of effort into this degree; he wouldn’t just leave it,’ she said.
Liz said that a security team hired by the university believes the pair’s last known location was Coatzacoalcos. The team also told the family there is no evidence or documentation that they left Mexico.
Frank is described as a 5’8″ Hispanic male weighing 160 pounds with brown eyes.
Liz has filed a missing person reports for Frank in Mexico and Texas, adding there is a separate report in Mexico for Caroline.
Liz has also reached out to the US Embassy and the FBI.
Frank is an anthropology student at UT Austin’s College of Liberal Arts.
His LinkedIn reveals he’s been a PhD student at UT Austin since August 2020. Prior to that, he was enrolled at Pennsylvania State for his masters and Stanford University for his bachelor’s.
Caroline is in the midst of opening her own business, Liz said.
UT spokesperson Mike Rosen told the Austin American-Statesman that the university couldn’t speak to specific missing person cases.
He said that when UT students do go missing abroad while on university business, the university deploys its international Critical Incident Response Team, which collaborates with the US State Department, embassies and other international authorities.
‘In the case of a missing student, UT would provide assistance and resources to the fullest possible extent to help ensure every effort is made to locate and assist the student,’ Rosen said.
In her post, Liz asked people to share this story with as many people as they could. For people with information.
‘They were just traveling, and they would have never disappeared out of nowhere. They had an end goal,’ Liz said. ‘He’s just a student; he’s just a regular guy.’
