TikTok has long since been a place true crime fans have gathered to solve mysteries — for better or for worse — and the latest disappearance to garner attention (and spark concerning conspiracy theories) is that of Nancy Ng.
What happened to Nancy Ng?
Nancy, a 29-year-old woman from California, vanished while kayaking on Lake Atitlán in Guatemala on 19 October. She was kayaking with 10 other people, all from a yoga retreat she was staying at, and all returned except for her.
After 72 hours, the naval team stopped searching for Nancy. Authorities believe she drowned.
However, Nancy’s family is still looking for her, and has raised funds through a GoFundMe to hire private helicopters, boats, drivers and drones to continue the search. Nancy’s body has not been found.
What do we know about Nancy Ng’s disappearance?
The only concrete fact available is that Nancy Ng has vanished, and that the last person to see her alive is believed to be fellow retreat attendee Christina Blazek. The other information available about her disappearance is murkier and at times openly disputed.
“There are frustrating, significant, and inexplicable inconsistencies between some accounts and a window of time between Nancy last being seen on a kayak and her kayak being empty that remains uncorroborated,” the Ng family shared in an update about their search.
Here’s what we know so far.
Rumours witnesses refused to assist investigation
At the time of her disappearance, key witnesses allegedly refused to cooperate with local rescue teams who were looking for Nancy.
Chris Sharpe, a member of the Guatemala-based Black Wolf Helicopters who was leading the search efforts for Nancy told KABC in November that he felt the circumstances of her disappearance may be suspicious.
“For me, this is now becoming a criminal investigation because the witnesses who were there at a material time are not being forthcoming,” he said.
Elaine Beal, the owner of the company that rented out the the boats to Nancy’s group, also claimed in November that the retreat attendees who were at the lake all checked out of their hotels within 12 hours of Nancy’s disappearance, including the witness who last saw Nancy alive.
“I just don’t understand that part of leaving within eight hours, 12 hours of the accident,” she told US news station ABC7.
“It just seems more odd that as time passes and this person, the survivor, may have certainly seen the news and knows what is going on and has not, even now, disclosed any information.”
The last person to see Nancy alive says she drowned
Christina Blazek, a defense lawyer, has been named as the last person to see Nancy alive.
Four weeks after Nancy vanished, Blazek’s lawyers denied the rumours that she refused to assist in the investigation and confirmed that she spoke to Guatemalan authorities before she left the country.
According to Blazek’s lawyers, she and Nancy did not go out kayaking together but happened to come across one another on the water.
While they were chatting in neighbouring kayaks, Blazek stated through her attorney that Nancy decided to go swimming. She said she tried to stop Nancy because the water was “rough out there” and there was a “good current”, per the Independent, but said Nancy abandoned her kayak and dove in anyway.
Blazek stated that while she became distracted with trying to hold onto Nancy’s ricocheting kayak, she looked away, and it was in this instance that Nancy disappeared.
Blazek hadn’t responded to the Ng family’s questions
The Ng family have not disputed Blazek’s recollection of events, but have expressed doubts about “inconsistencies” they claim to have heard from other unnamed sources.
“What we do not understand are the inconsistencies between the direct statements provided by [Blazek’s] lawyer and the varying secondhand accounts of her story we’ve heard from others,” they said in a GoFundMe update posted on 21 November.
“However, at the moment, our attention is focused on determining the precise location of the incident. Resolving these inconsistencies ultimately falls under the purview of the Guatemalan Public Prosecutor’s Office.”
The Ngs also expressed frustration that it took weeks for her to speak out given the “time sensitive nature of the search”. Christina Blazek’s lawyer said she was “too traumatised” to come forward sooner.
In a later update, the family claimed they’d tried to reach out to Blazek several times to discern where in the lake Nancy disappeared — answers they said were necessary for the search effort.
“Because of conflicting information, data collection constraints, and the fact that no one we’ve spoken with actually saw Nancy get into the water, we are still left with a large area to cover,” Nancy’s family wrote in a GoFundMe update posted on 15 December.
“Attempts to narrow the search area by speaking with Christina Blazek have proved fruitless so far. As the one person who was with Nancy when she disappeared, Christina’s account of where they were on the water is invaluable to the search effort.
“Unfortunately, Keith’s (diving instructor and owner of Search and Recovery Consulting) attempts to speak with Christina have been unsuccessful. Despite a promising initial conversation with her lawyer, Christopher Gardner, Keith hasn’t been able to get into contact with Christina. His latest effort to collect critical information through a list of questions over email has also been met with silence.”
PEDESTRIAN.TV is in no way suggesting that Blazek behaved unlawfully or was responsible in any way for Nancy’s disappearance.
Witnesses claim no life jackets were offered to kayakers, company denies this
Two witnesses — L.A. yoga instructor and the man who organised the retreat, Eduardo Rimada, and one who remained anonymous — told NBC News in December that Kayak Guatemala, the company that rented out the kayaks that Nancy’s group used, did not offer life jackets.
The pair claimed that they also weren’t offered safety instructions and “no precautions were given”. Blazek’s lawyers have also backed these allegations.
However, in October, Elaine and Lee Beal — the owners of the kayak company — told Inside Edition that they “give people the opportunity to take a life jacket and, for this group, they all said no to taking life jackets.”
Lee told KABC that they “witnessed the survivor being ushered up the steps with the yoga instructor. She was clearly distressed, and they didn’t say a word to us.”
The couple claimed the attendees left the resort and flew back to the US at 5am the day after Nancy’s disappearance, which they felt was suspicious.
Oddly, Rimada claims that the Beals were not actually present the day Nancy disappeared. A police report seen by NBC News appears to corroborate this claim. It says Lee was overseas and Elaine was in her home.
What does TikTok think about this case?
Nancy Ng’s disappearance has captured the attention of true crime sleuths on TikTok, who have come up with all manner of theories to explain the confusing events around what happened on 19 December.
However, I do want to reiterate that the following videos about theories are just that — theories. Nancy is a real person, with a family who loves her, so let’s not get carried away and make this tough time even more difficult for her loved ones by turning her disappearance into a spectacle.
TikToker Kourt (@crimewithkourt), a true crime enthusiast who makes investigative videos about missing people, uploaded a video onto the platform in November which has garnered more than 15 million views at the time of writing.
She claimed Nancy’s disappearance was “strange” because of the kayak company owners’ claims that all nine of the people she went kayaking with left without paying for the excursion and checked out of their hotels within 12 hours of the incident.
“The fact that the only witness who last saw Nancy alive took four weeks to even just come forward is so bizarre to me,” Kate said in a follow-up video.
For the record, Christina Blazek lawyer said she was “too traumatised” to come forward sooner.
The lack of witness statements, and the check-out time of the witnesses, seems to be a detail that true crime fans have latched on to.
“All these comments and no one is talking about how the whoooolllle group left…..” one person wrote, with others chiming in that they found this suspicious.
Others tried to make implications about Blazek’s decision to remain silent and only speak through a lawyer, but others shut this down given the sensitive (and viral) nature of Nancy’s disappearance.
“Christina could simply be innocent but is worried whatever she says would be used against here. A lawyer is a good idea,” one commenter said in her defence.
Another suggested people should turn their attention onto the rest of the attendees. “Why aren’t they talking? Why did they leave so quickly?” they said.
Eddie Choi (@etchaskej), another TikTok creator who has been posting regular updates about Nancy Ng, has publicly called the behaviour of the other attendees “shady” and joined in on the frustration directed at Blazek over the allegations she did not cooperate with the local search and rescue team to find Nancy. Blazek denies these allegations.
Choi claims to have spoken to sources who know Nancy as well as some of the other yoga retreat attendees personally, and also a local who was on the search and rescue team.
He has theorised that due to the altitude of the lake, Nancy’s body would sink to the bottom rather than float, which he believes could explain why she hasn’t been found.
He has also shut down other outlandish rumours TikTokers have posited, including suggestions that Nancy’s disappearance was the result of a love triangle, occultism and ritual human sacrifice, or drug use gone wrong.
At the time of publishing, Nancy’s family is still looking for answers and plans to continue their search for her.
