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Body Found Near Hotel Where Missing AIG Exec Was Last Seen
Omar and Diane Meza (Photo via the Find Omar Meza Facebook page)
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A body has been found on the golf course of the hotel where missing AIG exec Omar Meza was last seen. The body was discovered near the 18th hole of a golf course at the JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort & Spa, KESQ reports. The JW was the last place Meza, 33, was seen prior to his disappearance last Thursday. Authorities have not confirmed whether this is Meza's body.
Meza, a vice president for AIG Financial Distributors, was staying at the Courtyard Marriott—which is about a mile and a half away from the JW—while on a business trip, The Desert Sun Reports. He disappeared last Thursday sometime after 11 p.m. after he called his wife, Diane Meza, to tell her he was leaving a dinner meeting with coworkers, but would call her again when he returned to his hotel room. She fell asleep and he never called. Meza was reported missing before noon on Friday after failing to make his meetings.
Meza's coworkers said they saw him leave dinner in Indian Wells in an Uber. He was later seen in security footage walking into the lobby of the JW. It is not clear how he exited the hotel, but he was seen again outside, walking towards a parking lot. Investigators later found Meza's jacket and wallet on the the hotel's golf course. Authorities and bloodhounds searched the property for Meza, and teams of divers began looking in man-made lakes and other bodies of water.
The news of a body found on the grounds of the JW is admittedly odd. Earlier today, volunteers involved in the expanded search into Thousand Palms after Riverside County Sheriff's Department said they'd finished searching the grounds of the JW. Meza's brother, Sven Meza, told The Desert Sun, "We're 100 percent sure that he's not in the pond or the lakes at the JW Marriott, which is great news. It gives us hope that he's alive and it gives us hope this crew can help find him or provide us with some information."
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Diane Meza said last week that they had been in a car crash in March that left Meza with some memory loss, and that he could have become disoriented. She believes that his Uber driver mistakenly dropped him off at the JW Marriott—not the Courtyard Marriott—which would explain why Meza is seen entering the lobby and leaving.
Update, January 16, 10 a.m.: The family of Omar Meza has confirmed that it was his body that was pulled from the pond yesterday. They have asked for privacy at this time, according to a statement on the Find Omar Meza Facebook page.
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