In 2024, Bexar County had one detective investigating practically 600 lacking individuals circumstances. Some are years outdated, however new ones are available nearly on daily basis.
A type of chilly circumstances is Pauline Cantu Diaz. It’s been 14 years since her household final noticed her.
In San Antonio and Bexar County, there are at the very least 9 people who find themselves reported lacking each single day. Who works on these lots of of lacking individuals circumstances?
Legislation enforcement businesses deal with lacking individuals circumstances in numerous methods. Most of Texas’ largest metropolitan areas police division or sheriff’s workplaces have devoted investigative models for lacking individuals however businesses with out lacking particular person models find yourself passing these circumstances on to detectives who work every kind of circumstances from homicides to burglaries.
The Bexar County Sheriff’s Workplace Lacking Individuals Unit, established in 2017, has one detective — Richard Villa.
In October, BCSO informed the San Antonio Report it was not including detectives to its lacking individuals unit as a result of there have been no funds allotted for positions within the price range. 4 months later and after the publication of a multi-part reporting sequence known as Lacking in San Antonio, these plans have modified.
Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar mentioned his workplace is now interviewing candidates to rent at the very least two further detectives to work within the lacking individuals unit. If employed, they might begin by this summer season. Salazar mentioned he hopes to ultimately have at the very least 5 detectives working within the lacking individuals unit.
“It’s essential businesses do extra than simply put out to the general public, ‘We’re in search of this youngster.’ To the general public, all these flyers start to look alike,” Salazar mentioned.
One detective within the unit isn’t sufficient to reply to the lots of of adults and youngsters who’re nonetheless lacking annually, Salazar mentioned.
“Until a legislation enforcement company is bodily sending somebody out into the sector to search for that youngster, you’re not doing justice to the group,” Salazar mentioned.
It’s price making a public database that exhibits who’s actively lacking, he mentioned. Usually, there isn’t any means for the general public to know who’s lacking, until they see it on social media or within the information.
When there aren’t devoted detectives, info is missed
For Paula Diaz-Martinez, figuring out there might be further detectives investigating lacking individuals circumstances in Bexar County provides her a brand new sense of hope.
Her mom went lacking on Dec. 7, 2010 after working a shift on the H-E-B on Goliad Highway.
In September, nonprofits that work to assist clear up circumstances, Search and Assist San Antonio and Season of Justice, sponsored a billboard in Floresville that includes Cantu Diaz’s case, which can watch for a yr.
Suggestions began coming in nearly instantly, Diaz-Martinez mentioned. She despatched them to BCSO urging them to speak to tipsters earlier than they determine to not converse in any respect.
“A complete month glided by, there was nothing, and once more we went again in October, there was nothing … It was a number of months that they uncared for or he was simply overwhelmed,” Diaz-Martinez mentioned.
A current assembly with the detective has reassured her household that the BCSO is working to unravel her mom’s case, she mentioned.
She believes the turning level within the investigation may lie throughout the proof nonetheless in possession of the Wilson County Sheriff’s Workplace, together with Cantu Diaz’s truck, which was discovered empty in Floresville close to her estranged husband’s home after she went lacking.
Diaz-Martinez recalled a tiny speck of blood being discovered and saved as DNA proof.
Detectives informed the household on the time it wasn’t animal blood, however the quantity of proof collected wasn’t sufficient to determine whose it was by means of assessments on the time.
“I’m hoping they see issues that have been disregarded prior to now. Issues, clues, suggestions might have been disregarded and dismissed coming again to Bexar County from Wilson County Sheriff’s Workplace,” Diaz-Martinez mentioned. “I’m hoping they will see one thing that was dismissed and may very well be the breaking level on this case.”
San Antonio’s lacking individuals unit has no detectives
The San Antonio Police Division’s Lacking Individuals Unit consists of 16 civilian brokers who can be found 24 hours a day, seven days every week to help folks reporting somebody lacking and taking in recommendations on lacking individuals and investigating them.
They do all their work from a downtown workplace, working the computer systems and the telephones; making calls, investigating info on-line and on social media, and requesting help from law enforcement officials and detectives, when wanted.
The brokers test with native hospitals, coordinate with different legislation enforcement businesses to handle leads in different cities, and are approved to request search-and-rescue canine.
Michelle Ramos, spokeswoman for the police division, mentioned these brokers name on murder detectives to research foul play, whether it is suspected.
SAPD Chief William McManus informed the San Antonio Report that the division will not be contemplating including detectives to the lacking individuals unit.
“Many of those lacking particular person reviews are repeat runaways, so it’s not like each time anyone goes lacking, there’s foul play concerned,” he mentioned after a public security assembly at Metropolis Corridor on Feb. 18.
The police chief is true. In 2024, three-quarters of people that have been reported lacking in San Antonio have been youngsters, or teenagers, primarily based on information collected by means of open data requests. The overwhelming majority of those juvenile circumstances are solved or closed shortly.
Nationally, lower than 1% of lacking individuals circumstances reported to the Nationwide Middle for Lacking and Exploited Youngsters are abductions by strangers. However even runaways are vulnerable to being concerned in or changing into victims of crime.
Retired SAPD murder detective Mark Duke mentioned the unit’s brokers get coaching “but it surely’s nothing like what a detective would undergo.”
The work the brokers do is essential, he says. There should be folks at a desk across the clock to doc, request patrol, go info to follow-up models, observe down info within the on-line world and add lacking individuals to the Nationwide Crime Data Middle and Texas Crime Investigation Middle (NCIC/TCIC) databases shortly.
In accordance with town’s job description, San Antonio’s lacking individuals brokers make $17.65 an hour and are NCIC licensed to take reviews, enter information, replace databases and supply fundamental info, entry police types and enter the data of juveniles processed by means of the Juvenile Processing Workplace.
Additionally they should determine elements associated to Amber or Silver Alert circumstances, current info to different models when wanted and help exterior legislation enforcement businesses in finding lacking individuals of their jurisdictions. A highschool diploma and two years’ expertise able interacting with adolescents in an academic or felony justice place is required.
Duke labored roughly 60 murder circumstances per yr for 13 years earlier than leaving town’s police division.
Having detectives is important, Duke mentioned, as a result of when lacking individuals circumstances get handed onto murder detectives, the case is added to their workload and is probably not a precedence, particularly since homicide circumstances might comprise extra proof detectives can comply with. And fixing lacking individuals circumstances doesn’t rely towards a murder detective’s clearance charge.
Having sufficient detectives to carry folks house is essential as a result of each lacking particular person ought to matter, mentioned Annie Salcido, whose daughter has been lacking for seven months now.
“To them, my daughter is only a Hispanic who’s an addict,” she mentioned.
Jeanie Chavez, who might be 33 in March, was final seen at her boyfriend’s house on San Antonio’s West Aspect in July. Her mom, a nurse in California, is elevating Chavez’s two women. They consider their mom on daily basis.
On Wednesday, her 11-year-old daughter Leah Garcia held a small crystal in each of her fingers, clinging to her grandmother. She mentioned it’s her good luck appeal gifted to her by her mom.
On the nook of West Summit and Aganier avenues, Salcido factors out that at the very least three houses surrounding the property the place Chavez went lacking have video doorbells. However she says police informed her that there’s no video footage proof.
“Present us that Jeanie left, that’s it,” Salcido mentioned, annoyed that there isn’t any proof or info from SAPD that proves that she is lacking and didn’t willingly go away.
For Salcido, life has to proceed, though she’s not giving up on discovering her daughter. She’s employed a non-public investigator as a result of she says she’s heard little to no communication from police.
The non-public investigator found that the final particular person Chavez was with has a number of earlier prices referring to household violence, together with in Bexar County, and that this particular person is needed in different states for extra severe crimes.
Salcido believes her daughter is alive primarily based on current suggestions.
She hasn’t shared that info with SAPD’s lacking individuals unit as a result of she’s not satisfied they might comply with up on the data.
There was two detectives within the SAPD lacking individuals unit between 2008 or 2009, Duke mentioned.
“Even then it wasn’t sufficient,” he mentioned. “There’s no substitution for manpower, or having sufficient folks to do the job.”
All of it comes right down to allocating funds to rent detectives for the police division, and ensuring lacking individuals circumstances get the eye they want, Duke mentioned.
