BEXAR COUNTY, Texas – People who live in a northwest Bexar County neighborhood where Camila Mendoza Olmos disappeared the morning of Christmas Eve are feeling a sense of déjà vu.
For nearly a week, volunteers have assembled in the parking lot of the Wildhorse HOA Sports Park as they prepare to search for the missing 19-year-old.
Mendoza Olmos was seen on a security camera around 7 a.m. Dec. 24, standing near her car outside her home on Caspian Spring.
>> What we know about the disappearance of Camila Mendoza Olmos, last seen in northwest Bexar County
According to the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office, relatives called 911 later that day after she failed to return home.
In several news briefings, Sheriff Javier Salazar said there is reason to believe Mendoza Olmos may be in danger. Salazar said she has a past history of depression and “suicidal ideation.”
An additional video released by the sheriff’s office Monday shows a grainy figure, believed to be Mendoza Olmos, walking down Wildhorse Parkway in the opposite direction from her home.
Based on the development, volunteers expanded the area they were searching Tuesday morning, fanning out as far as four miles from their meeting point.
Those family members, friends and strangers have been acting as reinforcements for deputies who are also searching the area.
“It is really close to home and she’s very young,” said Carolyn Reasons, who showed up before sunrise Tuesday. “I have stepchildren of my own, and I can only imagine what her parents are going through.”
For Reasons and others, Mendoza Olmos’ disappearance bears some similarities to another missing woman’s case from earlier this year.
Mariadelis Labrador Siles, 28, walked away from her home in the same neighborhood back in March. Deputies searching the area eventually found her body, and her death was later ruled a suicide.
“That was really shocking, but it’s even more shocking now that someone else in this area has gone missing as well,” Reasons said.
Susana Peterson, who knew Labrador Siles personally, said she still has trouble believing her friend died by suicide.
This latest disappearance brings it all back for her, and she finds it disturbing.
“It’s really odd, they said that both of them, they said they just went walking but disappeared,” Peterson said. “I used to feel really safe going, walking around, but now I try to make sure I know when there’s a lot of people around.”
Both neighbors, along with everyone involved in the search, are hoping for a happier ending in this case — that Mendoza Olmos will return home safely.
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