Deputies suspect store owner was kidnapped north of Weslaco

Authorities urge anyone with information about Daniel Ramirez Jr.'s alleged kidnapping to call the Hidalgo County Sheriff's Office at (956) 383-8114.

NORTH OF WESLACO - Authorities continue to investigate the Wednesday disapperance of a Weslaco-area convenience store owner.

Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño said Daniel Ramirez Jr., 29, was kidnapped about noon from the Country Village Market at the intersection of Farm-to-Market Road 88 and South Beto Garcia Road.

Ramirez was last seen wearing a gray Calvin Klein shirt with black sleeves, black low-top Nike tennis shoes and blue jeans. He has two scars on his left arm, one on the lower portion and one on the upper part, Treviño said.

Treviño said his deputies believe Ramirez vanished from the convenience store about 11:20 a.m. Wednesday.

Sheriff's investigators and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents swarmed the scene and raided an area home Wednesday where they suspected Ramirez was being held, but he was not found, Treviño said.

Some, but not all, of the money was missing from the convenience store's cash register, Treviño said. He added that evidence suggested that there was a minor struggle when Ramirez was taken.

"We have no idea," Treviño said of Ramirez's disapperarance. "We are talking to the family.

But "they don't know why he would have been taken. They just can't find him."

A customer at the store discovered it abandoned about 12:30 p.m. Thursday. He contacted the man's family who then called authorities.

Beto Garcia, an area activist and the namesake of the street, said he just talked to the man Tuesday and found him rather pleasant.

"He was a good guy," Garcia said Wednesday.

COUNTRY VILLAGE MARKET, FM 88 (TEXAS BLVD.) AND S. BETO GARCIA DRIVE:

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