https://www.cbsnews.com/news/florida...united-states/
Floridalma Roque arrived at the Perfektima clinic in Guatemala City on the morning of June 13 for a scheduled plastic surgery. A day later, Roque, a U.S. citizen, had disappeared without a trace.
Roque's family has been searching for her since then, and the experience has left them feeling lonely and desperate as they try to navigate two criminal justice systems and a stalling criminal investigation.
Roque's daughter Vida Roque, 22, told CBS News that on June 14 she spoke to her stepfather, Jeremias, who was crying and saying her mother never came back home from the clinic. Roque, who lives in New York, had undergone a successful surgery at the Guatemalan clinic a year earlier and returned to get liposuction on her back and arms, her daughter said.
Her daughter said Roque didn't like to travel on her own and always was accompanied so it would be unusual for her to leave alone after the surgery. Vida called her mother's phone repeatedly but there was no answer. Rosario Sandoval, a relative, had agreed to pick up Roque from the clinic at 10 a.m. the day after the surgery, Vida said.
Sandoval told Vida that she had driven to the clinic and spoken with the receptionist, who put her in touch with the surgeon. The doctor, Kevin Malouf, told Sandoval that Roque had left the clinic by 7 a.m. in an Uber.https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%...open-web-entryEventually, the case was investigated by Guatemalan police, who obtained the surveillance video from the clinic, the nation's Public Ministry, which oversees justice matters, said in a statement to CBS News.
Clips from the surveillance video appear to show a patient with a bandaged head leaving the office; the family says they don't recognize the person, and additional surveillance video shows seemingly odd behavior by the doctor and clinic. It shows clinic staff taking out a large garbage container and bags the night of Roque's disappearance.
Guatemala's Public Ministry, in response to CBS News' questions, said that "on July 28, 2023, the Prosecutor's Office against the Crime of Femicide carried out search, inspection, registration and seizure of evidence in four properties due to a report being filed two weeks earlier by the Roque family."
The police arrested the doctor and some clinic staff, including nurses, an anesthesiologist and an assistant from the clinic. Kevin Malouf, Ligia Silva, Luis Castro and Susana Rojas were arrested, the Public Ministry said. The Public Ministry said that the Prosecutor's Office against the Crime of Femicide presented sufficient investigative means to link the four accused to Roque's disappearance and charge them with kidnapping and obstruction of criminal action.
Floridalma Roque case: Health suspends licenses of clinic and hospital of plastic surgeon Kevin Malouf.
GFM: https://www.gofundme.com/f/justice-f...oridalma-roque
The family put a ton of details in the GFM
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Originally Posted by bowieluva
