SPANISH FORK, Utah (AP) — The body of a woman who disappeared on her way home from English class in Utah three years ago has been found and police are investigating her death as a homicide, officials said Thursday.
The skeletal remains of Elena Laguna Salgado, who had moved to Utah from Mexico, were found last Friday by a man searching for camping spots in a canyon several miles from where she was last seen.
Officials with the Utah County Sheriff’s Office and Provo police told reporters the death is considered suspicious.
A medical examiner is trying to determine how Salgado, 26, died, officials said. The man who found her remains is not considered a suspect, officials said.
Salgado was last seen in April 2015 as she left a class to walk home in Provo, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) south of Salt Lake City.
She was from Chiapas, Mexico, and had moved to Provo about a month before her disappearance to study English shortly after finishing a Mormon mission in Mexico. Most of her family live there and she was living with roommates in Utah.
Her family began a desperate search after losing contact with her. She usually talked with them every day. Her uncle Rosemberg Salgado has described her as an optimistic, spiritual woman.
Activist Elizabeth Smart has been among those publicly pleading for information about Salgado’s disappearance. Smart was kidnapped at age 14 and held captive for nine months before being found.
