On the morning of September 20, 2010, Adela Guzman-Mendoza, a 45-year-old woman from Tucson, Arizona, started her shift at the Mountain Oyster Club, a private dining establishment. Only thirty minutes into her workday, at approximately 8:30 a.m., she informed her employer that she was feeling ill and was going home for the day. Adela, described by her family as a hardworking and devoted mother, began her usual commute home, a journey that required her to take two different city buses.
She was a woman who was deeply involved with her church, close to her friends and family, and was eagerly anticipating the birth of her first grandchild. Her decision to leave work that morning would be the last time she was ever seen.
The circumstances following Adela's departure from her job are troubling and have left investigators with very few leads. Although it was confirmed by authorities that she did board the first of her two buses, what happened after that point remains a mystery. Compounding the difficulty of the investigation, neither of the buses she would have taken had operational video cameras on that particular day. The only other clue to her movements was a final ping from her cell phone, which registered off a tower at Curtis and Kain. This location was distressingly only about a quarter of a mile from her home, yet it was the last electronic trace of her whereabouts.
The years following Adela's disappearance have been filled with unanswered questions for her family and the Pima County Sheriff's Department. Her loved ones have consistently stated that she would never have voluntarily walked away from her life, especially given her strong family ties and excitement for her grandchild's arrival. At the time she went missing, she was not married or in a relationship and had no history of mental illness. Adela had diabetes and other medical conditions that required medication, which she did not have with her, adding to the grave concern for her well-being. Since she vanished, there has been no activity on her bank accounts, and none of her prescriptions have been refilled. The overview of this case is a portrait of a responsible woman who inexplicably vanished during a routine trip home after feeling unwell at work; the lack of video evidence and the final, proximate cell phone signal create a perplexing scenario that authorities have suspected involved foul play, leaving her case unsolved.Last Seen: Sep 20, 2010
