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American Tourists Missing In Peru Since January (VIDEO)

American Couple Missing In Peru Since January
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Two American tourists who were traveling in Peru have been missing for a month.

Jamie Neal, 27, and her boyfriend Garrett Hand, 25, both from the San Francisco Bay Area, left in November for an extended cycling trip through South America, KTVU reports. After traveling through Argentina, Chile, and Peru, the pair wast last seen on January 26 getting into a taxi in the Peruvian capital of Lima.

According to Fox 40, the last known communication from the couple was a Facebook message Neal sent to her sister Jennifer on Jan. 25. Neal had previously been chronicling her trip with numerous photos and posts on Facebook, but the posts abruptly stopped.

“I haven’t seen a video from her since January 25, so to me anything could’ve happened since then," Jennifer Neal told KTVU. "I hope that she's just having a blast and they're doing what they went to do, you know.”

Reuters reports police believe Neal and Hand visited an ecological commune in the Peruvian jungle and left the region for Ecuador on Feb. 16.

On Feb. 13, the U.S. Embassy in Lima posted an emergency message on its website warning of a potential kidnapping threat in the Cusco area. According to Reuters, the U.S. embassy said, however, that there was no connection between the warning and the couple's disappearance.

Fox News reports that the U.S. State Department has joined the search for Neal and Hand. The State Department has produced bilingual missing person posters with an image of the couple, and a Facebook page devoted to finding Neal and Hand asks that any helpful information be sent to a State.gov email address.

The Pedaler Bike Shop in El Sobrante, California, where Jamie Neal worked, has made up its own missing person fliers, reports the San Jose Mercury News. The fliers, which offer a $3,000 reward for information leading to their whereabouts, are being posted around the store and handed out to customers.

Only two months ago, three American tourists in Peru were attacked and beaten by an angry mob in a mountain village near Cusco. According to the New York Daily News, the trio claims the villagers wanted to throw them off a cliff before police intervened and made them promise not to report the incident.

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Before You Go

Shining Path Rebels In Peru
(01 of06)
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In this photo taken Tuesday, April 17, 2012, Martin Quispe Palomino, also known as "Comrade Gabriel," center, a member of the Shining Path rebel force, talks with a group of journalist in Alto Laguna, Peru. (AP Photo/La Republica Newspaper, Luis Saldana) (credit:AP)
(02 of06)
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Ashaninkas Indians attend a memorial honoring the victims of the two-decade fight between the military and Shining Path rebels in Lima, Peru, Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2012. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia) (credit:AP)
(03 of06)
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A woman holds a photo of her dead son during a memorial honoring the victims of the two-decade fight between the military and Shining Path rebels in Lima, Peru, Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2012. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia) (credit:AP)
(04 of06)
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A woman weeps at a memorial honoring the victims of the two-decade fight between the military and Shining Path rebels in Lima, Peru, Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2012. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia) (credit:AP)
(05 of06)
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Two men plant rosebushes in memory of the victims of the two-decade fight between the military and Shining Path rebels, at a memorial in Lima, Peru, Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2012. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia (credit:AP)
(06 of06)
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A woman plants a rosebush in memory of her relative who died during the two-decade fight between the military and Shining Path rebels, at a memorial in Lima, Peru, Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2012. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia) (credit:AP)
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