Missing man destined for Mexico

HARLINGEN — The last thing Noel Shankle told his father Stan before he boarded a plane Feb. 3 was, “I love you. I’ll see you tomorrow or Sunday at the latest.”
His family in Carrollton heard from him later that evening after he’d landed at Valley International Airport and rented a car from Hertz.
“He was in contact with my mother around 7:45,” his sister Natalia said. “And he was in contact with my cousin and uncle at 9:30 p.m. and he was still on the U.S. side” of the border.
The 28-year-old man’s family hasn’t seen or heard from him since.
Natalia Shankle said her brother had flown to the Valley to get some expensive dental work done across the border, but she isn’t sure what town he planned to visit for the procedure. She said she did not believe he would have ventured across the border at night without someone with him, especially not in the silver 2011 Altima he’d rented.
His family is frantic to find him.
“He always calls and checks in daily when he travels,” his sister said. “I need my brother back home safely. He is a loving father, son, friend and brother. We are begging for any coverage to get the word out.”
She cried as she described her brother.
“My brother is just a great guy and he’s got a lot of friends and family who just want him home safely,” she said.
Her brother, she said, stands 6 feet tall, weighs about 240 pounds and wears a goatee and short black hair. He works as a bouncer in a nightclub and has a 4-year-old daughter.
The family first filed a missing person’s report with Dallas County and then with the Harlingen Police Department, which requested assistance from the Brownsville Police Department.
Brownsville police detective David Martinez spent most of Friday afternoon on the phone with the family. Martinez said he could not discuss the case. He did say that there are no cooperative agreements between agencies on both sides of the border to find missing persons.
“I have many reports of missing people that enter Matamoros or into Mexico and they’re not seen from,” he said.
He would not say whether police believe Shankle had crossed into Matamoros.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Eddie Perez said he could not comment on the case because of privacy issues.