Ash Kelley

Now, if Mark had been kidnapped for ransom, the county sheriff would have had the resources and the regional knowledge necessary to resolve everything, hopefully, without getting on the wrong side of Mexican authorities.

So Perez assigned the case to his most reliable deputy, George Gavito, who immediately recruited the help of Deputy Lupe Limas, a former Brownsville police officer who had recently started working with the sheriff's department.

And he had a lot of experience working on cases that crossed over into the border.

So this is kind of, that's who you need.

A perfect duo, right?

Yeah.

So Gavito and Limas were aware of the potential implications of Mark having gone missing, especially over the border.

He was one of 60 Americans to have been reported missing in Mexico in just three months.

Whoa.

Yeah.

However, they were also familiar, like we were just saying, with the chaos and, you know, just the drunken vibes going around on spring break.

So neither of them were ready to assume the complete worst.

Yeah, because this could just be debauchery.

Exactly.

And honestly, I'm sure they were hoping it was.

Yeah, that's the thing.

You're hoping this is just a lesson learned.

Exactly.

You know.

So instead of going to worst case scenario, they decided to proceed as they would with any other missing persons case, operating on the assumption and the hope that Mark had simply caught a ride with a girl that he met at a bar and he would turn back up soon enough.