Andy’s timeline

A full summary of the first year after Andy’s disappearance is at Andy’s story 2011-2012: Questions Still.

• November, 1965 – Andy is born and grows up with his family in Los Mochis, Sinaloa.

• early 1980’s – Andy comes to the U.S. on a visa, and his family said he worked on getting a green card through amnesty but that “something went wrong with the lawyers.”

• about 2002 – Monse comes to the U.S. on a visa (then meets her future husband, Eddie, in 2007). Andy is running a hair salon in the Los Angeles area.

• December 2009 – Andy and Monse’s mother passes away in Los Mochis (their father had passed earlier); Andy returns to make arrangements and deal with her paperwork.

• September 14th, 2010 – Andy tries to cross from Tijuana with a cheap fake passport, but is stopped and detained. A court order sentences him to be in prison for 45 days.

• November 2010 – Andy is released.

• March 2011 – Andy tries to cross from Mexicali.

• May 2011 – Andy tries again to cross from Tijuana.

• July 14th, 2011 – Andy goes to Nogales, leaving some possessions in Tijuana. A relative has offered to make arrangements for him to cross from Arizona at a discounted rate.

• July 15th, 2011 – Andy goes to Cananea, leaving nearly everything else in Nogales.

• July 16, 2011 – Andy’s last contact with family is through text messages and telephone calls. He admits he’s nervous about crossing, says he’ll have to leave his phone behind for the actual crossing, and asks for money ($100) to be wired Western Union to Cananea but it’s never picked up.

• July 16 – 21, 2011 – Andy scheduled to cross the border near Agua Prieta / Douglas or Naco. The route was to go to or towards Sierra Vista (expected travel time: 5-6 days).

• Andy’s family receives 3 calls two weeks after on July 29th to August 6th, from unknown numbers asking for money for someone who crossed (do not know who) but hanging up instead of answering questions.

• From a family member, Monse gets the contact info of the man who carried the trip arrangements and is able to reach him but his information is too inexact (including the confusion over crossing at Naco or Agua Prieta / Douglas) for a detailed search and the contact disintegrates then ends 6 months later.

• late July / early August 2011 – one of Andy’s nieces, Liz, goes to Arizona to look for him. She’s told that Andy and one other man in the group decided to rest a few hours from HWY 10 and that when the rest of the group continued, leaving them directions. The group waited at the highway pickup point for several hours but Andy and the other man never arrived. Liz “was told to leave the area before bad things could happen to her” and returned to Los Angeles on August 5.

• August 11, 2011 – Eddie emails Rebekah.

• September 24-26, 2011 – Eddie and Monse drive to Arizona to look for Andy.

• October/November 2011 – Andy’s niece Nid (who has been running his business in his absence) tells the family that she’s filed a missing persons report with the police department.

• December 2011 – Andy’s niece Nid closes his hair salon, unable to keep it open without him.

• January 21, 2012 – Suspected cartel member Mancinas Fidel Franco is arrested by Mexican law enforcement near Cananea.

• spring 2012 – Eddie contacts The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs).

• March 2012 – Eddie finds out Andy’s niece wasn’t able to file with the local police department and he files a missing persons report with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

• May, June & July 2012 – Eddie continues to submit follow-up information to NamUS and the sheriff’s department, makes & mails multiple copies of Andy’s dental records, finds out that his wife’s family has been visiting brujas for news of Andy.

• July 16th, 2012 – one year since Andy went missing.

• February 2013 – Andy’s oldest brother, Robbie and a cousin from Tijuana go to Nogales and Cananea to talk to police and put up flyers (partly motivated by more consultations with brujas).

• March 2013 – Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner (PCOME) contacts Andy’s dentist to get radiographs and written dental records as part of an effort to update all their missing persons case files with as much information as possible to maximize their chances of making successful identifications.

• May 2013 – As part of a reporting project on the Arizona OpenGIS for Deceased Migrants, Andy’s story is featured in The New York Times May 21 piece Arizona Desert Swallows Migrants on Riskier Paths.

Andy’s route*


View Andy’s route in a larger map

* As reported by family members, though Andy did not travel through the United States between Tijuana, Baja California and Nogales, Sonora and went missing somewhere between Cananea, Sonora and Sierra Vista, Arizona. It remains unclear whether his route would have had him crossing the U.S.-Mexico border near the Naco crossing or near the Agua Prieta / Douglas crossing.

2 thoughts on “Andy’s timeline

    • Hi Jessie – I need to say first: there is NO guaranteed way to find somebody who is missing.

      What I can share with you is all my contact information for people who work on these cases. What I have so far is on this page: Resources for missing persons searches and I’m working on adding more information, including California & Texas.

      I’m sending you this information directly, too, along with some of the questions they may ask and items like photographs that might be helpful to have ready – please let me know when it reaches you and if it’s helpful or what kind of other information may help. – Rebekah

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