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Published Monday,
April 20, 2020
Family of a U.S.
citizen missingask for help By the A.M. Costa Rica staff On Feb. 24, agents of Judicial Investigation Organization reported a U.S. citizen born in Costa Rica, named Christian Tijerino López, 33, went missing in Guanacaste Province. Not knowing the whereabouts of her brother has been the hardest situation the family has ever experienced," said Johanna Leiva, Christian's sister. “We pray to God for Christian to return home safe and sound. Any help you can provide us, we will greatly appreciate it." Since then his family has been organizing aid groups to spread the information of Tijerino, hoping to get clues to help find him. "Every province in Costa Rica has been saturated on social media with pictures and general information asking for help finding Christian," said Leiva. According to the agents, Tijerino came to Costa Rica in December to visit relatives. He was last seen between Feb. 21 and 22, near the community of Liberia in Guanacaste Province when he left his hotel driving a vehicle. On Saturday, Feb. 22, the car was found in the community of Bagaces in the same provicne. However, there are no traces of Tijerino. The missing network engineer and carpenter is hard-working and a lovely family member according to his family. They awaited his return to the U.S. in March 2020. Since he disappeared, the family has exercised all available resources within their means, including the OIJ and the U.S. embassy. "We have contacted the OIJ on a weekly basis, we get limited feedback and everything has been reported to us as confidential," said Leiva. After the family lost contact with him, they reported the case to Costa Rican authorities. They are not able to come to Costa Rica, and for that reason they make a call to people to help to find the beloved brother and son. "Please contact the local authorities or the U.S. embassy and give any information you may have, it is urgent. We want Christian back," said Leiva. "Our family has been living a nightmare." Anyone with information about this person can also contact judicial agents at 800-8000-645 or WhatsApp 8800-0645. There are bilingual agents who can answer calls in English or Spanish. The call is confidential. Tijerino is not the only tourist who disappeared in the past month.  Another recent case of a foreign tourist missing was reported on March 13 where the judicial agents requested help from the public to find Canadian citizen Kent Alexander Madsen, 59. According to the judicial investigators, Madsen, was last seen that Friday when he was diving off of Cocos Island. The island is located in the Pacific Ocean, approximately 550 km southwest of the Costa Rican mainland in Puntarenas Province. According to the information of the investigators, Madsen was scuba diving with a group of tourists who were taking diving lessons near the coast of the island. However, by the time the lesson was over, all the tourists returned to the boat except for Madsen. Professional scuba divers tried to track Maden for 72 hours, finding only his scuba equipment on the beach of Manuelita Island but there was no trace of the Canadian. Manuelita Island is located on the north coast of Cocos Island. If you have any information regarding a missing person please call the Judicial agents on their confidential line 800-8000-645 or WhatsApp 8800-0645. A.M. Costa Rica urges readers to share these missing person’s cases with their contacts. ----------------------
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