US citizen sought over Israeli tourist missing near Cancun

May 15, 2007, 18:19 GMT

Cancun, Mexico - Mexican authorities said Tuesday that they were searching for a US citizen in connection with the disappearance of an Israeli tourist in March near the eastern Mexican resort town of Cancun.

Public prosecutor Bello Melchor Rodriguez told Cancun's Enfoque Radio that he has asked Mexico's Foreign Ministry and Interpol to find Matthew Ryan Wilson, believed to be back in the United States.

Israeli citizen Dana Rishpy, 25, had arrived in the Latin American country four days before she went missing on March 31. Her family reported her missing 15 days later.

Wilson was the last person seen with the young woman. His van, with Oregon state licence plates, was found abandoned on Saturday near the Mexican city of Tulum, with blood stains and a broken window, Melchor Rodriguez said.

Preliminary investigations on Wilson by US authorities indicate that he has a criminal record for sexual assault in the state of Oregon.

Wilson, who is known in the area around Cancun, stayed in Mexico's Mayan Riviera between February 13 and April 7.

Over her first few days in Mexico, Rishpy visited Isla Mujeres and Playa del Carmen, on the Caribbean. On March 31 she moved on to Tulum, near Cancun, where she was last seen at the nightclub of the Hotel Mezanine.

Rishpy's belongings, including all her travel documents, were found in her hotel.

Several foreign tourists have been murdered or died in accidents near the resort of Cancun.

Last year, a Canadian couple was brutally murdered in their room at the hotel Barcelo Maya de Playa del Carmen, in a case which has not yet been solved. Authorities suspect that people who travelled with them were in involved in the crime.

Months earlier, the dead bodies of a Spanish woman and an Italian man were found near the Tulum archeological site. The woman had been raped, and two young Mexican men were arrested in connection with the case.