'Lost in the jungle': Mexican authorities consider Charleston man missing, not dead

Members of a search team in Cozumel, Mexico, looking for missing Charleston native Brad Solomon talk to a local resident.

BY JASON CATO and VALERIE NAVA

vnava@postandcourier.com

Mexican authorities continue to comb parks, beaches, caverns and Mayan ruins — essentially anywhere and everywhere — as they remain focused on a singular mission: find Brad Solomon, a Charleston native who has been missing in Cozumel going on three weeks.

Edmond Bradley Solomon III, 66, was last seen April 3 after he and his wife disembarked from a Royal Caribbean cruise ship. They were on a seven-day vacation, intended to be their last, as his dementia conditions worsened. Solomon was diagnosed in 2022 with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia, a neurodegenerative disorder.

"No evidence of foul play exists. The most likely scenario, and our current hypothesis, is that he is lost in the jungle," Rafael Tenorio Pizano, the Citizen Protection director in Cozumel, told The Post and Courier.

Pizano is in charge of the search operation conducted by the municipal government.

Search efforts continue in Cozumel, Mexico, for missing Charleston native Brad Solomon.

In 1993, a Missouri man went missing in the Cozumel jungle before walking out alive after 19 days — the same number of days since Solomon officially was last seen.

Solomon's daughter, Savannah Miller, previously told The Post and Courier that her father and stepmother ducked into restrooms at a shopping area near Cozumel's cruise terminal. Miller believes that Solomon exited first, rejoining an unfamiliar landscape of vendors and souvenirs. When he didn't spot his wife, he set off in search of her, his daughter suspects.

Security cameras captured images of Solomon walking down various streets. He was wearing a hat, light-colored shirt, shorts and sneakers. A lanyard hung around his neck, and he wore what appeared to be a watch.

Undated street video of Edmond Bradley "Brad" Solomon III, in Cozumel

"The state's attorney general currently has an open file and is investigating Brad's disappearance. We continue searching for him to this day," Pizano said.

In addition to his wife, Mimi Hyer Solomon, other members of Solomon's family were with him on the vacation. Others later went to Cozumel to help with the search. Many of them have since returned to the United States and to the Lowcountry — including his daughter and wife.

Neighbors had fastened yellow bows and ribbons to posts and mailboxes throughout their Mount Pleasant neighborhood, according to a Facebook post from her sister.

A week ago, the search turned from rescue to recovery. A cousin of Solomon's who had been updating others of what was happening on the Mexican island broke the news to followers.

"I understand there are still many who want us to keep hoping," cousin Martha Warren wrote. "(W)e have so been hoping and wanting to find Brad alive. But now we must face the nearly insurmountable evidence to the contrary. Hope in the face of hopelessness is not the same as hope in the face of possibilities."

Pizano said Mexican authorities have not officially given up hope.

"We can't presume him dead until we find him, which is why we are still searching for him," he said. "The very day he went missing, we activated a search protocol, which has involved every authority in the island with the complete support of the municipal president (Juanita Alonso Marrufo) who orders that we continue searching for Brad."

So far, those searches and reported sightings have come up empty.

"The Cozumel fire department and island Civil Protection corps have not stopped their search efforts for Brad. We keep searching the jungle and areas where he was last seen," Pizano said. "We have only heard rumors from islanders who claim to have seen someone resembling Brad, but we corroborated with cameras installed across the island, and our reports indicate that it was not Brad."

Solomon

Last week, Cozumel authorities released details about one day of searches — which involved four brigades fanned out to scour different places on the island. Though only roughly 30 miles long by 10 miles wide, Cozumel has a number of beaches, swaths of dense tropical jungle, vast farmland, water-filled sinkholes known as cenotes, underground caves, historic ruins, small villages and the commercial center of San Miguel, where the cruise ships dock.

Searches have included three government agencies, local residents and some members of Solomon's family. Mexican authorities involved in the search include firefighters, paramedics, police, public security and personnel from the National Guard, Citizen Security, Secretary of the Navy and Civil Protection.

Early on in the case, a cab driver later told authorities that a man matching Solomon's description asked for a ride to Isla de la Pasion, a popular beach area on the north edge of Cozumel and not far from San Miguel. When the man didn't have money, the cabbie said he paid with his watch.

Last week, authorities reported that they also had received information that Solomon was taken back to the city in a van at some point.

Places searched that day included "parks, properties under construction, abandoned houses, vacant lots and beaches on the east side of the island," Cozumel authorities reported on April 18.

Other spots the brigades examined included clubs, hotels, subdivisions, villages, "el pueblo fantasma" (the ghost town), beaches and coastal areas, a cenote known as "Chempita," the Mayan ruins of San Gervasio and forested areas.