In the winter of 2005, a one-year-old child named Marisa Velasco disappeared from Norcross, Georgia, under deeply concerning circumstances. At the time of her disappearance on December 17, Marisa was a ward of the Georgia Department of Family and Children Services. A court had placed her in foster care, having determined that her biological mother, Rena Velasco, and her mother's boyfriend, Vidal Cruz, posed a potential danger to the young child.
Despite these concerns, Rena was granted court-approved, unsupervised visits with her daughter. It was during one of these visits that the distressing sequence of events leading to Marisa's disappearance began to unfold.
Rena Velasco was residing in a shelter for battered women at the time. On that Saturday, while Marisa was in her care for a scheduled visitation, Rena informed another resident at the shelter that she required medical attention and asked for a ride to a local clinic. With her infant daughter in tow, Rena was dropped off, but they never came back to the shelter. The alarm was raised the following day when Marisa's foster parents arrived to pick her up and discovered that both she and her mother were gone. The hope of a simple misunderstanding quickly faded as the details of Rena's actions came to light, painting a picture of a premeditated departure.
The investigation into their whereabouts soon revealed that the clinic where Rena and Marisa were last seen was conveniently located near the apartment of Rena's boyfriend, Vidal Cruz. When Gwinnett County police officers went to his residence to investigate, they found the apartment empty. Neighbors and acquaintances later told authorities that Cruz had mentioned plans to leave the area and return to Mexico. This led investigators to believe that Marisa had been abducted by her non-custodial mother. A felony warrant for kidnapping was subsequently issued for Rena Velasco. In the years that have passed, there has been no sign of Marisa or her mother. Authorities have released several age-progressed photos of Marisa, hoping someone might recognize the young woman she has become. The case remains an active investigation, a painful and unresolved family abduction centered on a young child who vanished during a visit meant to foster a family connection but instead led to her disappearance.Last Seen: Dec 17, 2005
