Found Deceased GUATEMALA - Catherine Shaw, 23, British backpacker, 4 March 2019

[CoverMeCagney]

TIMELINE

Sunday 1:37pm
Catherine and Elena checked in to the hotel

Monday night
Catherine & Elena on CCTV for an hour at the hotel. Elena goes to bed, Catherine plays the Hang before leaving

Tuesday 1:37am
Catherine leaves hotel alone with musical instrument (CCTV)

Tuesday morning
Friend (Elena? Paco?) wakes, Catherine's not there

Tuesday morning
Elena checks out of hotel

Thursday afternoon
Elena returns to hotel and asks where Catherine is



Let me know if I missed anything, lots of info coming out in various reports (but beware wonky translations!)

 

[Herat]

That Hang drum is fairly large.

Finding that would be a big help

 

[CoverMeCagney]

I believe this is the hotel

Mayachik | Eco Hotel and Vegetarian Restaurant in Lake Atitlan, Guatemala

It's right on the edge of town, hopefully this link will work. That expanse of water is, in fact, a huge 10 mile wide lake.

Google Maps

 

[castilloisno1]

Is Elena Paco? Is Elena a man or a woman? I honestly don't understand why there are two names here. Quite concerned for her.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

Is Elena Paco? Is Elena a man or a woman? I honestly don't understand why there are two names here. Quite concerned for her.

I think she's travelling with Elena. Not even sure Paco was in the country (he has just flown in from Mexico per fb)

Also seems Catherine is usually known as Cat

 

[CoverMeCagney]

Public search party for Catherine tomorrow at 8am (approx 13 hours from now)

Search Party for Catherine Shaw

 

[CoverMeCagney]

Just for info the time in Guatemala is 6 hours behind the UK, and in the same time zone as Texas*

*I never know which US time zone to convert to in this situation, is there a 'rule' to use one as a standard time, or would you typically just list them all?!

 

[Elainera]

The only reason I can think of why she would leave in the middle of the night with her instrument but without any of her belongings is an impromptu jam session with other musicians. Were there any events or parties with live music going on she might have wanted to join in? Did her phone yield any clues who she might have been meeting or where she might have been heading? Are there many tourists in Lake Atitlan in March?

 

[Amonet]

Just for info the time in Guatemala is 6 hours behind the UK, and in the same time zone as Texas*

*I never know which US time zone to convert to in this situation, is there a 'rule' to use one as a standard time, or would you typically just list them all?!

The simplest thing would technically be to use UT (Universal Time) with a comparison to Guatemala time. Unfortunately most people wouldn't be able to convert their local time from UT.

It's the Guatemala time that's important here. It's their local time which will tell us if things were occurring in the morning/daytime/evening/night.

I presume most USA people can convert from any of their timezones, but I can only do it from Eastern or Pacific.

 

[Herat]

If Cat and Elena were traveling companions, why would Elena check out if Cat's things were clearly there?

 

[Darling136]

Please do not sleuth people who are not declared POI just because they have been named in some msm or have "interesting" names!

@CoverMeCagney
can you have a look in your posts prior i start doing anything? Some links may be missing, so please just alert on those and i prefer to edit than remove.
note: everything fine now, thanks!

 

[ilovematt]

Do we know anything about the area? Is it tourist friendly? That usually means more cctv, in most major cities anyway. I hate that she left to seemingly make music and disappeared Musicians connect via making music. It makes its seem more intimate IMO.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

Says in this article Catherine may have had a puppy with her

Parents 'desperate' as Witney woman goes missing in Guatemala

 

[Elainera]

If Cat and Elena were traveling companions, why would Elena check out if Cat's things were clearly there?

I guess this was more of loose travelling companionship, nothing set in stone. Young people following their hearts desire that kind of thing.

 

[Ironside]

Says in this article Catherine may have had a puppy with her

Parents 'desperate' as Witney woman goes missing in Guatemala

The mention of her loving the ocean stands out to me. Perhaps she went nightswimming and it didn't end well.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

The mention of her loving the ocean stands out to me. Perhaps she went nightswimming and it didn't end well.

She's a good 50 miles away from the ocean though. Would she have swum in the lake? It's 10 miles wide so I don't fancy the chances of it being searched.

 

[Elainera]

If she'd had gone swimming I'd think they'd found the drum and her clothes on the shore.

 

[Herat]

If she'd had gone swimming I'd think they'd found the drum and her clothes on the shore.

And she was barefoot? I wonder how far it is from Mayachick to the water.

 

[Herat]

There are also photos on the hotel's website of a beautiful view from a platform up on a high hill overlooking Lake Atitlan

I wonder if she wanted to take the Hang up there and drum up at that view in the night.

SERVICES - Mayachik

Contact - Mayachik | Eco Hotel

Nice little map of the town. Looks lovely. I think the viewpoint is the Rostro Maya. Yipes. I hope she didnt try to go there in the middle of the night without shoes.

https://www.guatemala.com/fotos/201805/Mirador-del-Rostro-Maya-885x500.jpg

 

[Estrella]

Do we know anything about the area? Is it tourist friendly? That usually means more cctv, in most major cities anyway. I hate that she left to seemingly make music and disappeared Musicians connect via making music. It makes it seem more intimate IMO.

I am from the States and have lived in Guatemala for 26 years. Lake Atitlan is full of tourists and lots of foreigners live there. I would doubt there is any real cctv coverage on the streets and not all hotels or restaurants would have it. Guatemala is a third world country with tremendous poverty and violence that goes with that. I've been reading on the Ex-pat Guatemala Facebook site that there are searches going on now. Trying to find a drone. Guatemala is a pretty "do it yourself" kind of country. People are out looking for her now. The area is small enough and people talk, if something happened to Cat, as in someone harmed her, we will find out fairly soon.