Officials in Medellín said formal identification and an autopsy are still pending after remains were recovered in rural Antioquia.
MEDELLÍN, Colombia — Colombian officials said Friday that a body believed to be missing American Airlines flight attendant Eric Fernando Gutierrez Molina was found in a rural area of Antioquia, ending a frantic search and opening a new phase of the case focused on identification, cause of death and possible arrests.
The discovery shifted the story from a missing person alert to what now appears likely to become a death investigation. Gutierrez Molina, 32, was a Dallas-Fort Worth-based crew member who disappeared during a layover after arriving from Miami on March 21. Medellín officials said investigators have strong leads, have identified people last seen with him and have tied those people to earlier theft cases involving scopolamine. But authorities have not announced arrests, named suspects or said how Gutierrez Molina died.
Gutierrez Molina arrived in Medellín with an American Airlines crew for an overnight stop and was scheduled to work the return flight to Miami the next day. Instead, the routine layover turned into a widening search. Officials and relatives said he went out Saturday night in El Poblado, a nightlife district popular with visitors, and later moved on with others after the first outing ended. Medellín security officials said he had been with two coworkers, a man and a woman, and later left with the woman and other people for another establishment. By early Sunday, he was no longer in contact with relatives or colleagues, and he failed to report for duty on the return flight. His longtime partner, Ernesto Carranza, said the first real alarm came Sunday morning when calls and messages no longer went through. Carranza said, “That’s when I said this is odd,” after Gutierrez Molina’s phone began showing activity in parts of Medellín far from the crew hotel. What had looked like a simple missed check-in quickly became something much more serious.
By Thursday, Medellín Security Secretary Manuel Villa Mejía said investigators had made significant progress. He said authorities identified the people last seen with Gutierrez Molina and found that those individuals had histories of carrying out thefts using scopolamine, an incapacitating drug long associated with robbery cases in Colombia. Investigators also identified vehicles and phones used by the suspected group, though they did not release names or say whether anyone had been detained. Officials said Gutierrez Molina was last seen early Sunday in the La América neighborhood. Family and friends said a female coworker who had been out with him later returned to the hotel in a disoriented state. Even after the body was found, many of the most important facts remained unknown. Authorities have not said where Gutierrez Molina died, whether he died where the body was recovered, what injuries were found, or what evidence from phones, surveillance footage or witness interviews directly led them to the search area.
The recovery site added another sharp turn to the case. Medellín Mayor Federico Gutiérrez said a body was found between Jericó and Puente Iglesias in a rural area southwest of the city and was taken to the Forensic Medicine Institute in Medellín for identification and autopsy. He said there was a very high probability the remains were Gutierrez Molina’s and added that he had personally notified the flight attendant’s father. The mayor also said the U.S. ambassador to Colombia and the consul general had been informed. That public statement gave the family its first official answer after days of uncertainty, but it did not close the case. The mayor said investigators had very strong leads, yet officials still withheld the details that usually define a criminal case: no suspects were named, no motive was announced and no cause of death was given. For a family and work community that had spent days hoping a missing crew member might still be found alive, the announcement changed the emotional weight of every unanswered question.
The case has also drawn attention because of the pattern authorities say may sit behind it. Medellín officials did not say scopolamine caused Gutierrez Molina’s death, and no toxicology results have been made public. Still, they were unusually direct in describing the backgrounds of the people last seen with him. Scopolamine, sometimes used in robbery schemes, can leave victims confused, sedated and unable to clearly remember what happened. Local stations in Texas, citing U.S. Embassy guidance, reported that the drug has been linked for years to thefts targeting people in nightlife areas of Medellín, Cartagena and Bogotá. That broader context helps explain why investigators focused so quickly on phones, vehicles and the social circle around Gutierrez Molina’s last known movements. It also helps explain why the case spread so fast beyond Colombia. This was not only a missing person case involving a U.S. airline employee abroad. It was also a case that fit an already familiar public safety concern in one of Colombia’s most visited cities, even as officials stressed that the exact facts in Gutierrez Molina’s disappearance were still being pieced together.
Back in Texas, the disappearance had already become a story of waiting, dread and dwindling hope before the mayor announced that a body had been found. Carranza said the uncertainty had made each day move more slowly. Family members described looking at phone activity, trying to reconstruct the last hours of the layover and sending information to authorities in both countries. Gutierrez Molina’s father traveled to Colombia to help search for him, turning the case from a distant international headline into an intensely personal cross-border effort. American Airlines said it was actively engaged with local law enforcement and doing all it could to support its employee’s family. The Association of Professional Flight Attendants also said it was supporting efforts tied to the case. Those statements did not answer what happened, but they showed how widely the disappearance had rippled: from a crew hotel in Medellín to an airline operation in the United States, from a missing person search to a possible criminal case that now touches diplomats, city officials, investigators and grieving relatives.
The next steps are likely to be methodical rather than dramatic. Forensic officials must first confirm the body’s identity and complete an autopsy. Toxicology testing, if ordered, could help investigators determine whether drugs played a role. Police and prosecutors then will have to decide what charges, if any, are supported by the evidence collected from phones, vehicles, surveillance video, witness interviews and the condition of the remains. Officials have indicated that more information may be released at a briefing, but they have not said when that will happen. Until then, the public record remains unusually thin for a case receiving so much attention. Authorities have a missing crew member, a body believed to be his, identified people who were with him before he vanished and strong official language about the state of the investigation. What they do not yet have in public view is the one fact that would turn suspicion into a clear narrative: an explanation of how Eric Fernando Gutierrez Molina’s layover ended in death.
As of Saturday, officials had not formally identified the remains or announced arrests. The next milestone is the forensic confirmation and autopsy in Medellín, followed by any public update from police and city officials on suspects, charges and cause of death.
Author note: Last updated March 28, 2026.