Arrests in missing Colorado trekker case in Nepal

Nepal Police arrested five suspects in connection with the 2010 disappearance of American trekker Aubrey Sacco. The arrested suspects have admitted to murdering Sacco in April 2010.

Nepal Police arrested five suspects in connection with the 2010 disappearance of American trekker Aubrey Sacco. The arrested suspects have admitted to murdering Sacco in April 2010.

The US trekker Sacco, 23-year-old University of Colorado graduate, was on a trek to Langtang region in the second week of 2010. As she didn’t return to Syafrubensi on April 30 in accordance with her itinerary, her parents pressed the concerned agencies of Nepal for her rescue.

Aubrey Sacco’s parents announced a prize of US$25,000 to anyone telling them about her whereabouts.

They visited Nepal many times in search of their daughter.

A squad of Nepal Police arrested Jagat Tamang, Pemba Tamang, Lakpa Tamang, Chyangba Tamang and another suspect of Rasuwa district on August 2, 2013.

According to the police sources, the suspects murdered Ms. Sacco in Langtang region and looted cash and camera in the last week of April 2010.

A young Belgian trekker Ms. Debbie Maveau was murdered in the Langtang region in 2011.

There arenโ€™t a lot of details yet on the men or their motives. Even their names donโ€™t seem to be revealed, at least not in English media sources.

The family has visited Nepal several times to put pressure on the authorities to find out what happened to Sacco. The original case was bungled. Her father Paul Sacco himself discovered items belonging to his daughter in May 2011. They had been left in her hotel room and included a laptop that had presumably not been checked since her disappearance from the area over a year before.

In the past, the Aubrey Sacco search led only to dead ends. Almost three years after her disappearance, an update on her missing persons website from her mother Connie Sacco noted that, โ€œAubreyโ€™s case truly remains a mystery.โ€

Both the US Embassy and the Nepalese police had promised to investigate. However, civil unrest in Nepal seemed to draw much attention away from the search for the missing trekker.

In spring 2013, the familyโ€™s website said that the authorities were working more harmoniously again, giving them hope that more attention could be paid to the cold case.

The murder of a Belgian trekker in Langtang National Park along with other cases of disappearance of trekkers including missing Sacco have created negative image of Nepal in international market.

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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