Mexican authorities are urgently searching for an Arizona-based content creator after a chilling video surfaced showing her being abducted at gunpoint in broad daylight.
Nicole Pardo Molina, a 20-year-old Mexican American internet personality, was kidnapped on Jan. 20 in Mexico. Video circulating online appears to show her stepping out of her pickup truck when another vehicle suddenly pulls alongside her. Two men jump out, a brief struggle follows, and she is forced into their car before the vehicle speeds away.
According to El País, the abduction took place in the parking lot of a shopping center in Culiacán, a mid-sized city in the Sinaloa region that has long been associated with cartel violence.
Shortly after Molina was taken, the Sinaloa Attorney General’s Office activated the Alba Protocol, a state-level emergency system used to locate missing women. Authorities also released a missing persons poster warning that Molina’s safety “may be at risk” and that she “may be the victim of a crime.”
Molina has more than 180,000 followers on Instagram, where she frequently shared content about her travels throughout Mexico. She also maintained a prominent profile on OnlyFans and ran an online store called Nicholette Shop, selling bracelets and clothing. Some of the items reportedly included references to notorious cartel leader Joaquín Guzmán, also known as El Chapo.
In a statement released Jan. 21, Sinaloa authorities acknowledged that Molina’s kidnapping could be connected to ongoing cartel tensions in the region.
“According to initial investigations, three armed men in a stolen white vehicle threw tire spikes at the SUV the victim was traveling in, intercepted it, and then forced the victim into the car,” officials said in a statement reported by El País. “Versions circulating on social media, particularly TikTok, point to the Los Mayos faction as responsible for the incident; this is part of the ongoing investigation.”
Per El País, Molina was born and raised in Phoenix. At the time of her kidnapping, she was living in El Salado, a town roughly 25 miles from where she was taken, though she frequently traveled back to Arizona.
Molina’s Instagram account appears to have last been updated on Dec. 22, when she shared a video filmed inside a restaurant. Since then, her social media has gone silent as investigators continue searching for answers — and as concern grows over her fate following the shocking abduction.
