(NewsNation) — There are new allegations about what happened after a California woman went missing while on a yoga retreat in Central America.
It’s already been reported that rather than staying to look for Nancy Ng in Guatemala, the retreat director and other attendees reportedly pushed up their travel plans to leave early, and now there’s talk of a police bribe to make that happen.
The lead investigator told NewsNation the witnesses’ silence is still stymying efforts to find the teacher’s aide.
The yoga retreat
Nicky Ng says her 29-year-old sister was thrilled to return to Guatemala for a second year and looking forward to the peace of yoga and time away.
“Nancy’s the first thing I think about in the morning,” Nicky said. “The last thing I think about before bed.”
Ng grew up admiring her outgoing big sister and clings to a last known video of Nancy, with little more left to hold on to.
Nancy, who worked with special education students, had embarked on the retreat for a relaxing break. She arrived Oct. 14, 2023, letting her family know she’d made it to Guatemala and would be putting her phone in airplane mode.
But by Oct. 19, 2023, Nancy was missing and her family says witnesses have remained silent, making the investigation difficult.
Day of disappearance
It was supposed to be the perfect adventure for the last full of day of the “Be the Change” yoga retreat in October, kayaking on Lake Atitlán.
The group set out, renting kayaks and paddle boards. But Nancy never returned to shore. According to Christina Blazek, the last person to see Nancy, she jumped out of her kayak to go for a swim and then vanished.
Christopher Gardner, an attorney for Blazek, said his client went looking for Nancy and had warned her not to go for a swim, even wrangling her kayak as Nancy jumped into the water.
“She tried to paddle to the area right above the area she thought that (Nancy) was,” Gardner said. “She was screaming her name, trying to find out if she could help her. She quickly realized that she is missing, she’s underwater.”
Gardner said there was nothing Blazek could do except to get to shore and alert the rest of the group as quickly as possible.
After Nancy disappeared, the rest of the retreat group left the country within in eight to twelve hours.
For the Ng family, a call on Oct. 19, 2023 brought utter panic.
“When we first got word she was missing, we just had so many questions,” Nicky said.
A timeline of the case
Oct. 14: Nancy arrives in Guatemala for the yoga retreat.
Oct. 19: A group of 10 sets out to kayak on the lake. Nancy and Blazek separate from the group, then Blazek sends a distress signal.
Oct. 19: Nancy is reported missing four hours after the incident occurred.
Oct. 20: The rest of the group leave Guatemala, failing to pay the kayak rental company.
Oct. 21: First air search performed.
Oct. 25: The Ng family reaches out to Blazek with no response.
Oct. 31: The Ng family tries again to contact Blazek.
Nov. 13: Christina Blazek named in news release by company that conducted aerial search.
Nov. 14: Blazek gives a statement through her attorney.
Searching for Nancy
The Ng family sprang into action, hiring a search-and-rescue company immediately.
But the family says the retreat director and the woman who last saw Nancy kayaking didn’t stay to help narrow down the search area in the vast lake. Instead, they left early.
“What do you mean she disappeared? What happened?” Nicky asked. “Did the other students see anything? Nancy can swim, how did this happen?”
Some of the participants in the group said they weren’t offered life jackets or given any safety instructions. The rental company, however, said life jackets were offered but nobody took them.
Black Wolf Helicopters’ Chris Sharpe spearheaded the search for Nancy. He questions why other attendees left the area.
“I’ll be quite blunt — a normal human being would stay, and then go, ‘I don’t know where it was, but we went over there.’ Just that verbal response,” Sharpe said.
He was so frustrated by the female kayaker’s silence that he named her weeks later in a news release.
“It would have narrowed the area down, or at least we could have put divers in or the dive boat could have gone around and say, right, come on the boat. What were you doing? Can you remember?” Sharpe said. “That would have narrowed a massive lake down to an Olympic-sized swimming pool.”
After that news release, Blazek’s attorney began speaking to the media, nearly a month after Nancy disappeared.
Missing witness statement
Blazek’s attorney said she spoke to police and was told many people drown in the lake.
“My client has, from the very beginning, done everything she can to shed light on what happened and to cooperate and give whatever information that she has,” Gardner said.
But the Ng family said they can’t find any record of Blazek ever talking to police before leaving Guatemala.
After raising money to hire a Guatemalan attorney, they now suspect they know why.
“The investigation revealed that a bribe had occurred, that allowed Christina’s statement to be omitted and to prevent her from being detained,” Nicky said.
Blazek’s attorney told NewsNation the idea that his client would bribe anyone is “nonsense” and said she left the country on a regularly scheduled flight, leaving the retreat early in the morning because of road closures due to civil unrest in Guatemala.
Without help from Blazek, the family is planning to return to the volcanic lake again and use an underwater vehicle to painstakingly search a grid in the water.
An American nonprofit group will also bring a cadaver dog that has been successful in detecting underwater human remains from a boat.
“There’s a lot of risk for us flying there,” Sharpe said. “The divers are diving probably deeper than they should. But (Blazek’s) not helping.”
The Ng family said they understand why Blazek might have felt reluctant to talk to police in Central America.
But they still can’t understand why she didn’t share details as soon as she got home.
“My family, we’re not in denial. Nancy’s gone,” Nicky said. “All we’re looking for now is to understand what happened that day. How can we see closure?”