The owners of a kayaking company used by missing California woman Nancy Ng before she disappeared during a yoga retreat in Guatemala say the group she was with “immediately clamped down” after she disappeared.
Lee and Elaine Beal, the owners of Kayak Guatemala, spoke out during the search for 29-year-old Ng, who is feared to have drowned during an excursion on Lake Atitlán – although her family has since said they are struggling have to accept this story.
The Beals said 10 people went on a trip on Oct. 19, but only eight returned with Ng and another woman paddling further into the water.
Ultimately, the woman returned to shore alone, but there was no sign of yoga enthusiast Ng, who has not been seen since.
“No one in the group was interested in talking to anyone,” Lee told Good Morning America. “It was almost like we immediately clammed up and like we weren’t going to say anything.”
Lee and Elaine Beal, owners of Kayak Guatemala, rented a kayak to missing woman Nancy Ng before she disappeared during a yoga retreat in Guatemala, where she is believed to have drowned. They say the rest of the group “didn’t say a word” after the alleged accident
The Beals spoke as the search for missing Ng, 29, continued around the Lake Atitlán area, where she last paddled away from shore with another woman on October 19.
The group failed to pay the owners and subsequently all left the country “within twelve hours” of the suspected accident, which Elaine Beal found strange.
‘They didn’t say a word to us. “I just don’t understand that part, I’m leaving in 12 hours,” she added.
The couple described watching the group, with Ng and the female kayaker about 100 meters away. The women continued paddling until they were out of sight.
The next thing the couple saw was a distress signal, before the woman returned alone.
“I witnessed the survivor being led up the stairs,” Elaine added. “She was clearly upset.”
Guatemalan authorities have had difficulty finding the woman who was last with Nancy, or finding the tour guide when they left the country.
The woman previously told investigators that Ng drowned after getting out of her kayak to go for a swim.
But Ng’s family have come out saying they are struggling to accept the official story, and have revealed several startling details in the case.
A woman who was on the water with Ng previously told investigators that the yoga enthusiast got out of her kayak and drowned. Her ship was located, but there has been no trace of Ng since
The Ng family says they are struggling to accept the Guatemalan authorities’ account of events that Ng drowned during a kayaking trip
In an update posted on a GoFundMe made by Ng’s sister’s partner on behalf of the family, she said: “We are aware of the statement from the Guatemalan public prosecutor’s office.
However, it is difficult for us to accept that explanation for a number of reasons. None of the participants we spoke to saw Nancy step out of her kayak into the water.
We have tried many times over the past three weeks to contact the woman who was with Nancy during the incident, but she will not talk to us.
‘The police report we received did not contain a direct statement from the woman. We have yet to see an official statement from her or any other retreat participant.
“This woman’s silence has not only hampered our search efforts, it has made the excruciating three weeks all the more painful.”
Prosecutors have now requested international assistance to locate the woman and the tour operator.
In the meantime, Ng’s family remains desperate for answers and has hired private searchers to scour the area.
They are cooperating with the FBI, which was called in last week after claims Ng drowned emerged.
Ng works in a local school district helping students with disabilities and is active in both yoga and travel in her personal life
The FBI has now joined the search, with Guatemalan authorities keen to speak to the woman last seen with Ng or anyone else at the yoga retreat as they have all since left the country.
The terrain, combined with a lack of information, has hampered the search, said Chris Sharpe, owner of Black Wolf Helicopters, which led the private search mission.
Local fire and rescue teams said the missing woman was last seen about half a mile offshore and her kayak was later recovered.
Ng left her home in California for the weeklong yoga retreat on October 14. It was the second time she had visited the remote location after a previous holiday to the same spot last year with her sister Nicky.
Ng’s family did not hear from her again on October 19, the day the last known images of her were taken.
Information about the circumstances of her disappearance was difficult for the family to obtain.
They previously said they are in a “living hell” as they wait for answers about the fate of the special education teaching assistant.