This was written by one of the main searchers in Cat's recovery, Amy Farrow. It is posted in the Ex-Pats Living in Guatemala private Facebook page. I have been given permission to post it here by the author since it isn't posted on the Finding Catherine Shaw Facebook page. If it isn't permitted I apologize but getting timely accurate information from the Guatemalan press is nearly impossible:
As a group of mostly volunteers and a few close friends of
#catherineshaw, we have elected to make a final statement today and close this page. We are still deeply saddened by the death of such a beautiful soul like hers. We were relieved and cried tears of joy when we were told by our sources with the morgue that the rape kit came back negative and there was no evidence of foul play. Because she was found naked, specific crime scene protocols were enacted, as they should be to investigate the nature of Catherine's death.
My time at Fuego and other disasters in addition to my EMS experience taught me you have to look at the whole picture to try to know what happened. While it may be understandably alarming to find Catherine's body naked, Catherine's clothes were found near to where she fell. There were no signs of tearing, blood, semen or anything conducive to the rumors that were initially swirling. From that moment on I truly believed this is what happened (which has now been personally confirmed by myself, Amy Farrow, after interviewing with the special victims unit of the Ministerio Publico [MP] for crimes against women here in
#guatemala):
1. Catherine Shaw was a Yoga instructor, Reiki practitioner, and an incredibly spiritual person. She was fasting for spiritual reasons the week before her death. As her friends called her an old soul but in this life, she was 23 years old exploring the world learning about what really matters in life: adventure, love, and friendship. In regards to rumors Cat was intoxicated, using drugs or working with hallucinogenic flowers, I spent hours watching and rewatching all the video surveillance of Cat in her last hours at the Hotel. In my professional opinion as a paramedic, she appeared sober and was acting normal. I saw no behavior to suggest she was intoxicated with any substances.
2. The hotel surveillance video was only initially only watched up until the point of seeing her leave with a hand-drum at 0137 leaving with a drum. Once her good friend Elena told us she was actually in possession of the drum, we realized there was a gap in the story and asked to see the rest of the video footage. This is how we discovered that she left twice, once returning to the hostel at 3:21 and then leaving again with only a jacket and puppy in tow at 0523. This changed the whole story. Around the same time, we were informed that Catherine's puppy had been found on top of Indian's nose by a hiker Friday. We were able to share a photo of the puppy with her friend Elena, who confirmed that it was indeed Catherine's.
3. Given this new evidence or the puppy and new timeline, we began working on a theory that Catherine went out to do the popular Indian's Nose hike to view the sunrise. That Sunday, we had about 30 volunteers as well as local police. One of our volunteers found a jacket near the base of the trail. We confirmed with her close friend Paco, who flew in from Mexico just to aid in the search, that this jacket was indeed hers. We feel it is also important to note that this jacket had all of Catherine's jewelry still in it 6 days later. For us, this indicated that she removed the jacket as the heat of the hike came on, placed her jewelry in the pockets, and placed it aside to pick up on her way back down.
4. Having the jacket, we decided to focus our efforts entirely on the Indian Nose trails. The next morning we were fortunate to have the aid of search dogs (who were provided to us by KSAR Guatemala for no charge!), a medical helicopter crew, the local police, and local guides. We started combing the area near where we found the jacket as well as GPS points of interest that my friend in California made for us.
5. After the first hour in the helicopter, the flight medic and I narrowed Catherine's location to two places. At this point my friend Johanna, another incredibly strong woman who happens also be a local reporter, came walking up with a few local police. (The previous day, Johanna lead a team to literally knock on the mayor's door to appeal for the backing and support of the town.) I advised Johanna two focus on two places: The woods in the back side of the Indian's Nose or the front in two different ravines that were covered with trees too thick to see in the air. I gave Johana a very intense directive: when we find Catherine (we all felt it was close) and she is not alive, please stay with the body and take video, pictures and anything that you think would help her family conduct their own private investigation if need be. Within 20 minutes, a team spotted Cat's body. It was an extremely dangerous mission for them to get to her. She was a 100 meters down from the very top of the "nose". Johana stayed with Catherine's body to ensure she was treated with the utmost respect and she risked her life to take video as well as photos of the scene in case it was foul play. She did not leave Cat's side until she was transferred to the morgue in the early hours of the following morning. Even though Johanna is a local reporter, she refused to feed into the media frenzy until we had all the FACTS. After reviewing this footage, images of her body and considering all of the things we learned about Catherine since Sunday morning, I am confident this was an accident.
To an untrained eye, her body did look severely "beaten" by the trees and rocks on the way down. In my professional opinion, she died very quickly and did not suffer. We suspect she passed out when she stood up after her meditation session due to the 5 day fast she was on, lost her footing, and fell.
There is no government cover-up. Again: no government cover-up. All of us who were there through this whole experience, those closest to her agree with and accept the results of her autopsy. For anyone who knows me, you know I am leery of any government and after what I went through here with Volcano Fuego, I would be the FIRST person to say something was wrong if I suspected the police did not do their due diligence. We were very upset that the photo of Catherine that was leaked caused many media outlets to immediately and irresponsibly report that she was raped and murdered even before her body was even removed from the mountain! This sensationalized reporting is something we adamantly denounce. For reports that are factually accurate and verified by our team of volunteers, please see the links on our page.
6. Why was she naked? Catherine was a braver soul than me with the freedom of her body! I spoke with a few friends that said it was totally normal for her to meditate naked in nature. From all the evidence on the scene, that is exactly what she did. Bravo Catherine for being a such a powerful woman! I love even more that it was a group of powerful women who found you.
7. This experience, while tragic and horrible, also brought out the beauty of the lake and people who inhabit these towns. I am so proud of everyone involved and there are just too many people to thank.
*** For those interested we will be holding an International Press Conference on March 23rd and having a ceremony at the top of Indian Nose in Cat's honor. We have also released statements to the Mayan community to the communities of San Juan and Santa Clara as they were all so crucial in helping as well as deeply concerned given the lies that spread like wildfire from the media. ***
