Texas authorities have released dashcam video showing the last confirmed sighting of missing 19-year-old Camila Mendoza Olmos, who has been unaccounted for since the morning of Christmas Eve and is believed to be “in imminent danger.”
Grainy video taken on Wildhorse Parkway between Shetland Wind and Caspian Spring in Bexar County, Texas, shows a lone figure wearing clothes consistent with what Mendoza Olmos had on when she went outside her family home minutes earlier.
The video was recorded by a neighbor who happened to be driving to work and had a dashboard camera in their vehicle, according to Sheriff Javier Salazar. It was taken just a couple of blocks from her home, he added, and authorities have not ruled out that “somebody may have taken her” after the sighting.
“We’re sharing that with you all in hopes that somebody may have collected similar video,” he told reporters at a Monday news briefing. “To this point, really, this was the best direction of flight that we were able to develop.”
Mendoza Olmos is believed to have left her home on Caspian Spring, turned left on the parkway and continued north to parts unknown, he said.
The missing teen was last seen wearing a baby blue and black hoodie, baby blue pajama pants and white shoes, according to authorities.
“We just have a feeling that someone took her,” her aunt, Nancy Olmos, told Fox News’ Lawrence Jones on “FOX & Friends” Tuesday morning. “Someone took her from outside.”
However, she called rumors that her ex-boyfriend could be behind her disappearance “fake news.” She said the two had recently split on “good terms” and that the two families have been close for decades.
The missing teen’s cousin, Destiny Mendoza, also told the show that nothing seemed unusual the last time she spoke with Mendoza Olmos on Dec. 23.
“Everything was completely normal, it was just, ‘Oh I love you I’ll talk to you after the gym,'” she said.
She added that her cousin wasn’t a fan of the outdoors and didn’t like hiking or nature trails.
“At this point we’ve got several different theories,” Sheriff Salazar said.
There is some evidence of past “bouts of depression,” he said, before adding that’s common in young people.
“We’ve got to consider all possibilities, from disappearing willfully to the possibility of self-harm, to somebody may have taken her,” he said. “Maybe, after this video, somebody may have taken her.”
The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office is asking anyone who lives in the area or was driving through at the time to call 210-335-6000 or email [email protected].
“If you live two or three communities over, it doesn’t cost you much more than time to just look through your surveillance camera video from [Christmas Eve] and let us know, and we’ll be the judge of it,” Salazar said.
He said the FBI is assisting with the analysis of digital evidence, including devices and additional video — and that Homeland Security has been monitoring flight and border crossing records.
“Not that we have any direct information that would lead us to believe that she left the country, but again, we would be remiss if we didn’t check everything,” the sheriff said.
And although Mendoz Olmos is a U.S. citizen, Salazar said his office also checked with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to see if they’d run into her.
“That didn’t lead us to anything,” he said. “They indicated that they did not have her in custody, but we would have been remiss if we did not ask that question.”
A body found in Texas on Tuesday has been identified as 19-year-old Camila Mendoza Olmos, who had been missing for nearly one week, the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office said on Wednesday.
The medical examiner determined she died by suicide from a gunshot wound to the head, the sheriff’s office said.
The teenager went missing on the morning of Christmas Eve.
Authorities found her body in a field on Tuesday afternoon, approximately 100 yards from Mendoza Olmos’ home, in northwest Bexar County, according to Sheriff Javier Salazar. The area had been previously searched, though authorities with the sheriff’s office and FBI were back on Tuesday, Salazar said. The field has tall grass, and authorities felt there would be a benefit to check it again, he said.
A firearm was located at the scene where the body was found, Salazar said. A firearm belonging to a relative of Mendoza Olmos’ has been missing, he said. As of Tuesday, authorities had not yet determined if the missing firearm is a match for the one observed at the scene, he said.
Salazar said one possibility investigators were working under regarding the teen’s disappearance was the “fear of self-harm,” and that there were some “indicators of suicidal ideation” and undiagnosed signs of depression.
“From what’s being described to us, it sounds like it was a young person going through a very tough time in their life,” he said.
The body was found in clothing similar to a description of what Mendoza Olmos may have been wearing when she went missing, Salazar said.
“This is certainly not the outcome we were hoping for,” he said.
Amid the search for the teen, authorities this week released a dashcam video from someone who was driving to work on Wednesday morning and passed a woman walking by herself. Salazar said Tuesday it is still unclear if that person was Mendoza Olmos.
If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide – free, confidential help is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Call or text the national lifeline at 988.
