Colombian officials discovered a body Friday amid the search for a U.S. flight attendant who went missing in the country last weekend.

Subscribe to read this story ad-free

Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.

Medellin Mayor Federico Gutiérrez announced the discovery in a post on X, saying that “a lifeless body has just been found between the municipality of Jericó and Puente Iglesias,” in the northeast region of the South American country.

The mayor said the body was likely that of Eric Fernando Gutierrez Molina, a 32-year-old American Airlines flight attendant from Texas who vanished while out with colleagues in Medellín, Colombia, during a layover.

“There is a very high probability that it is this person. The lifeless body is being transported to legal medicine in Medellín for identification and recognition,” Gutiérrez wrote on X. “We express our solidarity to his family and friends. I have just personally delivered the painful news to his father, who is in Medellín.”

Gutiérrez also said authorities suspect foul play, adding that officials “have very clear leads on those responsible” and calling for those individuals to be sought through extradition.

The mayor said he informed the U.S. ambassador to Colombia of the discovery. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did Gutierrez Molina’s family.

In a news briefing, Medellín Security Secretary Manuel Villa said Gutierrez Molina was in Colombia on business and was out in the city of Itagüí with two co-workers that he identified as a man and a woman. Gutierrez Molina and the man then left the first establishment to go to a second location with others, also in Itagüí.

“And from there, once they left, there has been no further information on the whereabouts of Eric,” Villa said. “The woman arrived at the hotel where she was staying. However, she arrived somewhat disoriented.”

Villa said law enforcement have determined through their investigation that Gutierrez Molina and the woman encountered individuals “with a history of committing theft under the influence of scopolamine.”

The investigation remains under investigation and national police are still deployed throughout the area, Villa said.

Gutierrez Molina’s sister, Mayra Gutierrez, said in a phone call earlier this week that her brother had been out with another crew member over the weekend. She said the family last heard from him in the early hours of Sunday and confirmed that he worked for American Airlines.

American Airlines did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In a statement earlier this week, the airline said it is “actively engaged with local law enforcement officials in their investigation and doing all we can to support our team member’s family during this time,” but did not mention Gutierrez Molina by name.

President Donald Trump said Sunday that he would like to “take the oil in Iran” and is considering seizing the export hub of Kharg Island, which is responsible for more than 90% of Iran’s oil exports.

Subscribe to read this story ad-free

Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Trump said his “preference would be to take the oil.”

“To be honest with you, my favorite thing is to take the oil in Iran but some stupid people back in the U.S. say: ‘Why are you doing that?’ But they’re stupid people,” he said.

The interview marks some of Trump’s most direct comments about his thinking on what to do with Iran’s oil.

In an interview with NBC News this month, Trump sidestepped answering whether he had plans to try to take Iran’s oil.

“You look at Venezuela,” he said. “People have thought about it, but it’s too soon to talk about that.”

In January, the U.S. captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and proceeded to take more control over the country’s oil industry.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday night.

Trump told the Financial Times on Sunday that the U.S. has “a lot of options,” including potentially taking Kharg Island, a rare island made of hard coral off Iran.

“Maybe we take Kharg Island, maybe we don’t. We have a lot of options,” Trump said. “It would also mean we had to be there [in Kharg Island] for a while.”

Oil prices have skyrocketed around the globe as the war continues, with U.S. crude oil costing over $100 a barrel Sunday.

Thousands more U.S. troops are heading to the Middle East, with the USS Tripoli arriving on Saturday as part of a complement of 3,500 troops. But Trump and his administration continue to signal that they are working to negotiate a 15-point proposal to end the war.

Trump declined Sunday to offer specific details about whether a ceasefire deal could be reached in the coming days to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway used to move about 20% of the world’s oil exports.

“We’ve got about 3,000 targets left — we’ve bombed 13,000 targets — and another couple of thousand targets to go,” Trump said in the Financial Times interview. “A deal could be made fairly quickly.”