TikTok Sleuths Are Obsessing Over the Case of Nancy Ng, Who Vanished

  • 29-year-old Nancy Ng disappeared on October 19 at a retreat in Lake Atitlán, Guatemala.
  • She went kayaking and never returned, leading authorities to think she drowned.
  • But her family isn’t convinced, and TikTok sleuths have been sharing every update.

Nancy Ng disappeared on October 19 at a retreat in Lake Atitlán, Guatemala, and TikTok is keeping up with every update.

Ng, a 29-year-old school assistant from Southern California, had gone on vacation to a yoga retreat and was reportedly kayaking on the lake when she vanished.

Authorities believe she may have drowned, though her family and friends are unconvinced, The Independent reported. As of December 4, Ng has not been found and her case remains unsolved.

Meanwhile, TikTokers have been sharing every new interview with witnesses and notices from police. Videos with the hashtag #NancyNg have amassed 36 million views on the platform.

Ed Choi, for example, who has almost 500,000 followers, has been reporting on Ng’s disappearance since November 5, with his videos regularly hitting hundreds of thousands or over a million views.

In his first video, he addressed some “really shady” circumstances around Ng’s case, including some comments by Chris Sharpe, the leader of the search-and-rescue team hired by Ng’s family.

According to ABC7, Sharpe said he was having trouble getting witnesses to come forward or speak to him, and that his team had searched most of the lake and not found anything.

“For me, this is now becoming a criminal investigation because the witnesses who were there at a material time are not being forthcoming,” he told the outlet.

Choi, and others, have since made videos reporting on every update about Ng’s disappearance, including when a video of her kayaking was released, and when the last person thought to see Ng alive, named Christina Blazek, came forward.

The rise of armchair sleuths

True crime content is huge on TikTok, with videos about historic cases regularly racking up millions of views. But internet sleuths have also played an increasing role in mysteries that unfold in real-time.

For example, when van life influencer Gabby Petito went missing in August 2021, social media was flooded with information about her disappearance, and theories about what may have happened to her. Some content played a part in getting her case

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