Body found in search for Texas teen who vanished while going for a walk on Christmas Eve
SOURCE:Daily Mail
Camila Mendoza Olmos, 19, was last seen on a neighbor's surveillance camera leaving her San Antonio neighborhood just before 7am Wednesday, prompting a week-long desperate search.
A body has been found after a frantic search for a Texas teen who mysteriously vanished after going for a walk on Christmas Eve.
Her sudden disappearance prompted a week-long search as authorities feared she could be in 'imminent danger.'
On Tuesday, a cops discovered a body, along with a firearm, in a field 'very close to Camila's home,' according to the Bexar County Sheriff's Office.
The discovery was made around 4:45pm near the Burning Bush Landscaping Company, just a few hundred yards from her home in an area of tall grass.
Sheriff’s deputies and FBI agents found the body during a renewed search of the field, which they had decided to re-comb due to the dense brush.
However, Sheriff Javier Salazar said the medical examiner has yet to confirm the identity of the remains, as well as the cause and manner of death.
'But we hope to expedite that process to get the community answers,' Salazar said.
He added that he hopes the medical examiner will release answers regarding the identity within the next day or two.
A body has been found in the frantic search for Texas teen, Camila Mendoza Olmos, 19, who mysteriously vanished from her home on Christmas Eve
Olmos was last seen on a neighbor's surveillance camera leaving her San Antonio neighborhood just before 7am Wednesday, where footage captured her rummaging through her car
On Tuesday, the Bexar County Sheriff's Office said that a body, along with a firearm, had been found in a field 'very close to Camila's home'
As for the firearm, Salazar confirmed that authorities are not suspecting foul play at this time and are considering self-harm as a possibility, according to the outlet.
'We developed some information that there may have been some suicidal ideations on Camila's part,' the sheriff said.
'Undiagnosed, as far as we can tell,' he added. 'It sounds like this was a young person going through a very tough time in her life, going through some emotional issues.'
The discovery comes one week after the college student vanished from her mother's driveway on Christmas Eve morning, where she had been living while attending nearby Northwest Vista College with hopes of becoming an orthodontist.
Estrella told the New York Post that Olmos' parting words were, 'Bye Cami, I love you.'
Her sudden disappearance immediately prompted urgent pleas from her family, with authorities recognizing the area she vanished from as a human-trafficking corridor.
On the morning of her disappearance, KENS obtained surveillance footage showing Olmos near her car with the lights on, wearing only a hoodie and pajama shorts.
As for the firearm, Sheriff Javier Salazar confirmed that authorities are not suspecting foul play at this time and are considering self-harm as a possibility
Salazar said the medical examiner has yet to confirm the identity of the remains - as well as the cause and manner of death - but hopes there will be answers in the next day or two
Investigators said the footage shows Olmos searching inside the car for an unidentified item before the video abruptly ends.
They said it is unclear what she was searching for. Police believe she took only her car keys and possibly her driver's license when she left home.
Authorities noted that her car was still parked at the residence, suggesting she left on foot. From that point, she was never seen again.
Her mother, Rosario Olmos, told KENS 5 that they had been sleeping together that morning. She said Camila got up, and about an hour and a half later, she did too - but there were no signs of her daughter, except for her car.
'I called her cell phone, but the cell phone was there on the bed and it was turned off,' her mother told the outlet.
'I put it to charge and went out to look for her,' she added. 'I thought I would find her like other times - walking - and we would come home together.'
On Sunday, Sheriff Salazar told ABC News that authorities were 'not ruling out that this case may take us outside the borders of the continental United States.'
Her disappearance prompted urgent pleas from her family, with authorities recognizing the area she vanished from as a human-trafficking corridor (pictured: a map inside the Olmos home unfurled to show the surrounding area of the San Antonio family home)
Authorities noted that her car was still parked at the residence, suggesting she left on foot. From that point, she was never seen again
The teen's mother, Rosario Olmos, told KENS 5 that they had been sleeping together that morning. She said Camila got up, and about an hour and a half later, she did too - but there were no signs of her daughter
While withholding some specifics of the case, Salazar said the evidence collected so far suggested the teenage girl was in 'imminent danger.'
He also revealed that Olmos had recently experienced a romantic breakup, but said it was amicable and that everyone close to her was cooperating with the investigation.
Salazar made it a personal mission to ensure she had not been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, noting it was a 'concern' that had crossed his mind, despite Olmos being a US citizen.
Beyond that, investigators said all possibilities remained on the table, including the chance she was kidnapped or fell victim to human trafficking.
The FBI and Department of Homeland Security immediately assisted with the desperate search, including monitoring border crossings and international travel.
Meanwhile, the sheriff’s office deployed drone teams, search dogs and cadets to continue scouring the area around Olmos’s suburb.
On Tuesday morning, searchers continued scouring local fields and ditches for the teen while her family clung to hope, even while acknowledging that the chances of finding her alive was growing slimmer each day.
'I'm going to tell you something,' her mother, Rosario told the Daily Mail Monday morning. 'Giving up is not an option.'
The FBI and Department of Homeland Security assisted with the search, including monitoring border crossings and international travel. The sheriff’s office deployed drone teams, search dogs and cadets
Olmos's mother said the two were close and often shared a bed despite each having their own room in their spacious two-story brick home
The night before she went missing, Olmos, who had completed her fall semester in mid-December, was at home cooking and unwinding with her mother.
The two were close, often sharing a bed despite each having their own room in their spacious two-story brick home.
Olmos's mother said she awoke early on Christmas Eve wearing baby blue pajama shorts, a black North Face hoodie, and white sneakers. The neighbor's camera later captured her rummaging through her car in that same outfit.
Then, as if in a flash, her image disappeared from the video footage, leaving no clue where she went.
That changed on Monday, when Salazar released new evidence: dashboard camera footage that, while blurry, appeared to show someone matching her description walking alone northbound on Wildhorse Parkway, just a few blocks from her home.
Salazar stated that authorities were considering all possibilities, including suicide, and that she had been dealing with depression, 'undercurrents of suicidal ideation,' and self-harm in the months prior to her disappearance.
Olmos and her boyfriend, Nathan Gonzales, broke up in the fall when he moved out of town for college.
'She had lost weight, her grades were down and she was feeling low from the break-up with the boyfriend,' her father, Alfonso Mendoza, a trucker who lives a block from his ex-wife, told the Daily Mail.
Salazar released new evidence on Monday: dashboard camera footage that, while blurry, appeared to show someone matching her description walking alone northbound on Wildhorse Parkway, just a few blocks from her home
On Tuesday morning, searchers continued scouring local fields and ditches for the teen while her family clung to hope
'I'm going to tell you something,' her mother, Rosario told the Daily Mail Monday morning. 'Giving up is not an option'
Although Rosario acknowledged that school and grades had been stressing her daughter out, she disputed that she was facing serious mental health challenges.
'People talk. But they don't know my daughter like I do,' she said, noting that Cami's recent breakup was mutual and respectful.
'It ended on good terms, in a lovely way,' she said, and 'wasn't something she was depressed about.' Nathan had been actively helping in the search for his ex.
Additional extended family members from California and Mexico rushed to Rosario's side after learning of their loved ones disappearance.
Both friends and volunteers spent Wednesday through Sunday scouring nearby neighborhoods, vacant lots and creeks for the daughter Rosario calls her 'princess,' her 'dream.'
Rosario revealed that she was unable to sleep each night, wondering if her daughter was 'out there somewhere hungry and cold in the late December wind and rain.'
A flood of tips has come in since Wednesday, including one on Sunday from a psychic who told Rosario that Cami is alive and in a one-story home on a gravel road.
'I don't know what to believe,' the mother told the Daily Mail.
Salazar said authorities were considering all possibilities, including suicide, and Olmos had been dealing with depression, 'undercurrents of suicidal ideation,' and self-harm in the months prior to her disappearance (pictured with friend)
Additional extended family members from California and Mexico rushed to Rosario's side after learning of their loved ones disappearance
One person who has been helping with the search efforts is 69-year-old Frank Trevino, a retired salesman who helped organize search parties for the past 25 years
Frank Trevino, 69, a retired insurance salesman, has organized search parties helping families find missing loved ones in the San Antonio area for 25 years and was especially drawn to Olmos's case.
As he told it, the teen's death stands out from other disappearances because 'we have so many questions and so little to go on.'
His hunch was that her beauty and small stature of 5ft 4in and 110lbs may have made her a target.
'If they see a young woman who is alone and would not be a problem if she fought back, that makes her vulnerable to human trafficking,' he said.
While human trafficking was among investigators' theories, a person close to the search told the Daily Mail that Olmos did not seem to have the kind of social media presence that usually lures in traffickers.