He was last seen in the early hours of Sunday, October 5, after going with his cousins to a restaurant-bar in Mazatlán, Sinaloa.
According to his mother, Brenda María Valenzuela Gil, the young man traveled with his father and relatives to Mazatlán on Friday, October 3, to spend the weekend.
“While he was at Valentinos bar with his cousins, at approximately 2:20 a.m., he went to the bathroom, and since then we have had no further contact with him. We have filed a formal complaint with the Mazatlán Prosecutor’s Office and also in Durango, but so far there has been no progress or evidence that leads us to him,” his mother said in an interview with EMEEQUIS.
The young man’s stepfather, Michelle, explained that Carlos Emilio’s cousins saw him enter the establishment’s bathroom accompanied by a man who was apparently talking to him about a vape pen. “His cousins saw him go into the bathroom and waited 20 minutes for him to come out. When they went looking for him, he was gone. The place has several exits and a basement, which complicates the search,” she explained.
Since then, the family has led their own search. Based on the real-time location shared by Carlos Emilio’s cell phone, they were able to track his last signal to an address near the bar, but without results.
“We went house to house in the area where the location appeared, but we didn’t find anything. Some houses wouldn’t let us in, and others didn’t know anything,” Brenda says.
At the bar, “there’s no one directly responsible, no one to give you an answer,” she adds of the cousins: “They’re two girls in the cousin’s circle. They ran away in an Uber, and thank God they didn’t disappear either.”
According to the official search report, at the time of his disappearance, Carlos Emilio was wearing a black Armani shirt, black jeans, and tennis shoes. He is approximately 1.70 meters tall, has a slim build, light brown complexion, short wavy brown hair, light brown eyes, a wide nose, and bushy eyebrows.
The young man’s mother reported that, despite having filed the report on Monday, October 6, they have received no concrete progress or constant communication from the authorities: “They told us they would keep us informed of any developments, but we are still in the same situation as we were on Sunday at 2:30 in the morning. There are no reports, no traces, nothing.”
“We are in the same situation as we were on Sunday at 2:30 in the morning,” she added.
Michelle also lamented the normalization of disappearances in the tourist area: “The police told us that between five and ten young people disappear every weekend, but that most of them turn up later. It’s a systematic problem that should alarm everyone. If it’s not investigated properly, there will be more families like ours every weekend.”
On social media, family and friends are promoting the #RegresenaCarlosEmilio campaign, which has gone viral in just a few days. They seek to keep the search alive and pressure authorities to intensify their search efforts.
“We want them to find him, to tell us where he is. We don’t want another family to experience this anguish. Carlos Emilio is a quiet young man, a recent culinary graduate, with dreams and plans. He didn’t deserve to disappear like this,” Michelle said.
Anyone with information on his whereabouts can call the official numbers of the Missing Persons Prosecutor’s Office or call 911.
According to an analysis of records from the state prosecutor’s office conducted by El País, 44% of the missing persons are between 18 and 29 years old, while 28% are between 30 and 39 years old. In this sense, three out of four disappearances affect people under 40 years old.
The study indicates that Culiacán accounts for 19% of the disappearances, followed by Mazatlán (6%) and Ahome (4%).
The security situation in Sinaloa remains mired in a deep crisis, with rampant violence transforming the state into an epicenter of instability in 2025. Clashes between factions of the Sinaloa Cartel, which have intensified since September 2024, have worsened the situation.
Governor Rubén Rocha Moya himself has acknowledged the difficulties in pacifying the area, despite federal intervention.
Source: emeequis
