Come home, sweetheart...
Desperate parents issue appeal to daughter after she mysteriously vanishes in Guatemala
THE parents of a British backpacker yesterday pleaded with her to come home after she mysteriously vanished from a Guatemalan hostel.
Catherine Shaw, 23, was last seen at a popular tourist destination in the Central American country last Tuesday carrying a stray puppy she had adopted.
The yoga teacher’s disappearance came after she decided to give up most of her possessions following a ‘magically spiritual week’ at a nudist festival.
Her family yesterday said they were ‘desperately worried’ about her safety as a search was launched in the San Juan La Laguna village beside Lake Atitlan.
In an emotional appeal, the Briton’s father David Shaw said: ‘We need you. Your friends, your family are all really worried about you. Please come home, sweetheart.’
Her mother, Ann, added: ‘You have been out of touch for five days now and we, your family and friends, need to know that you are happy and are well. So please get in touch. We really need you home.’
The Shaw family, from Witney, Oxfordshire, said the disappearance was highly unusual as their daughter regularly kept them updated on her whereabouts.
Mr Shaw, 59, was yesterday travelling to Guatemala to assist efforts to find his daughter, who was last seen at the Eco Hotel Mayachik. Her friends have launched a social media appeal to aid search efforts, raising £3,600.
CCTV captured Miss Shaw leaving the building on two occasions in the early hours of Tuesday – once at 1.37am, carrying a steel hand drum, and again at 5.23am, carrying the puppy. Her passport, money and mobile had been left in her dormitory room.
A former US paramedic who has worked on scores of search and rescue operations is helping to look for Miss Shaw. Amy Farrow, 37, said: ‘It’s very common for people to go and walk to see the sunrise there. The puppy was found on Friday. The puppy was OK, a little undernourished and crying a lot.’
Miss Farrow said Catherine was an ‘avid nature enthusiast’. ‘ She had hiked a volcano barefoot,’ she said, adding: ‘She has been known to go on nature walks before and come back totally fine.’ She added: ‘She’s not acting erratic in the video and appeared
‘I feel in love with life in so many ways’
sober.’ Last night, a search party with a drone was looking for Miss Shaw at the spot where she went missing.
In the days before she vanished, Miss Shaw was due to go away with a man but his identity is not yet known.
Local police are understood to have been alerted to her disappearance on Thursday. She is described as 5ft 7in, slim, with piercings in her nose, lip and ears.
Writing online, Miss Shaw’s travel companion Elena Consolini said her friend had recently decided to give up a lot of her possessions.
Speaking about the last time she saw her on Monday night, Miss Consolini said: ‘Saw her really sad with not much power.’ A hostel worker said: ‘San Juan la Laguna is very safe and quiet and we don’t suspect at this stage anything bad has happened to Catherine. We just think she’s got lost somewhere.’
The backpacker began her trip in September last year, visiting America and Mexico before travelling to Guatemala in recent weeks. In a post written online two weeks ago, Miss Shaw described having the ‘most magically spiritual week of my journey so far’ following a visit to a nudist festival in Oaxaca, Mexico. She wrote: ‘I feel in love with life in so many more ways I never even knew existed.’
Miss Shaw runs a jewellery business called Enchanted Earthwear, making items throughout her travels. She has travelled across the world extensively since 2013, visiting Australia, India and Thailand, where she enjoyed a stint teaching yoga to fellow tourists.