An Air Force veteran who went to Mexico for a weekend has not been seen or heard from in over two weeks.
John Gamboa was last seen early in the morning on Feb. 17 hailing a cab outside the Montana Disco in Mexico City, the FBI said in a missing person bulletin.
The Houston native left for Mexico City, where he was based last year, on Feb. 16 and had plans to get his belongings and come home by the end of the weekend, his mom, Fermina Gamboa, told ABC 13 Houston, which broke the story.
“Honestly, I am not sure if he’s alive,” Fermina Gamboa told the local news outlet.
Current photo of Air Force veteran John Gamboa, who has been missing since Feb. 17, when he was last seen in Mexico. (FBI )
Fermina Gamboa said she spoke to her son the morning of Feb. 16, before his trip, but she was not even sure if he made it to Mexico City, or even if he left the United States.
That same morning, she told ABC Houston that they received a notification from USAA Bank that someone was trying to access her son’s account.
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“I don’t care; I just need my son to be back. Money can be replaced, but the life of my son cannot,” she said.
The FBI referred to the missing person bulletin, which said John Gamboa was last seen wearing a maroon shirt with tan pants and a tattoo on his chest that says “Jesus” and an infinity tattoo on his index finger, according to the FBI bulletin.
The Department of State said in an emailed statement that they were “aware of reports of a U.S. citizen missing in Mexico City, and we stand ready to provide all appropriate assistance.”
“The U.S. Department of State and our embassies and consulates abroad have no higher priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas,” a state department spokesperson said. “We are monitoring the situation and have no further comment at this time.”
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Fox News Digital reached out to the Air Force, but the military branch did not immediately respond.
Gamboa’s cousin said on Facebook in a Feb. 24 post that he had not called his mom or any of his family.
“I pray that he can come home (and) he is safe,” she said in the post, which was translated from Cebuano (a language spoken in the Philippines) to English. “The people who did this stupid thing to him will touch the Lord and just return him to us.”
John Gamboa, a Philippine native who was living in Houston, served in the Air Force, his mom told ABC 13 Houston. (Mtal Tellopez/Facebook)
Gamboa and his family are from the Philippines, and he served in the Air Force, according to his mom.
Mexico City is generally considered one of the safest areas in the country. The state department breaks down warnings into four categories: do not travel, reconsider travel, exercise increased caution and exercise normal caution.
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Mexico City, the country’s capital, falls in the “exercise increased caution” category, which is the second safest.
The FBI asks anyone with information to call the Houston Field Office at (713) 693-5000, a local FBI office or the nearest American Embassy or Consulate. Tips can also be sent online at tips.fbi.gov.
