Jolissa Fuentes: Everything we know about 22-year-old missing in California

Fuentes was last seen at about 4am on 7 August in Selma, California

The parents of missing 22-year-old Jolissa Fuentes are pleading for anyone to come forward with information about her disappearance from a service station in Selma, California, more than two weeks ago.

Here’s what we know about the case so far:

Last sighting

Ms Fuentes was last seen at about 4am on 7 August driving a 2011 Hyundai into and out of a AM/PM gas station near her home in Selma on Nebraska Avenue and has not been heard from since.

It was not clear where she was heading, although her family told Fox News on Friday that the area is near vineyards and orchards that Ms Fuentes would sometimes visit to clear her head, especially after the death of a friend last year.

Police meanwhile said that surveillance footage showed Ms Fuentes driving solo at the time of her last sighting and her current whereabouts remain unknown.

Selma Police Chief Rudy Alcaraz told Fox News: “We picked her up on camera after that. However, we’re not going to relinquish that information, as we…have to kind of consider all avenues,” he said. “Right now, there’s nothing that is insinuating foul play, but, again, we don’t have much information.”

A missing persons poster shared online also states that Ms Fuentes’s sister received two missed video calls from her number just after 5am, and that the Selma Police Department were contacted not long after.

The 22-year-old had previously been at a party and had stopped at her grandmother’s house before going to the gas station to presumably by something, reports added.

Family criticise police

With the search for their daughter entering a third week, Ms Fuentes’ family on Friday expressed their concerns over the police search amid limited updates from authorities on the investigation into the case.

“What I don’t understand is, if you’ve got all these resources and other agencies involved — police say the FBI is getting involved — we should have something,” Ms Fuentes’s father said on Friday. “These are some of our top, trained agencies in the United States, supposedly”.

The Fuentes family added that in comparison to the search for another missing Californian, 16-year-old Kiely Rodni, the case surrounding Ms Fuentes’s disappearance had received less attention.

Selma police have meanwhile said no updates will be shared unless significant with the police chief telling Fox News: “We want to make sure that if we put something out, it’s because we have something new and a different direction to go in and more information,” said Mr Alcaraz.

Ms Fuentes’s car, a Hyundai Accent with a California license plate 8MPU766 has not been found.

Police were believed to be searching California’s Flat Lake and Avocado Lake and a $10,000 reward for information leading to the 22-year-old’s whereabouts has been offered. As has a GoFundMe been organised her family.

Kiely Rodni dive team to join Fuentes search

A dive group that helped locate a body believed to be that of Kiely Rodni on Monday said it would join the search for Ms Fuentes.

Kiely, 16, vanished from Truckee, California, one day before Ms Fuentes on 6 August.

On Sunday, volunteer diving team Adventures With Purpose (AWP) reported that they had found Kiely’s car with a body inside at the Prosser Creek Reservoir. An official body identification has yet to be made, but authorities said it is “more than likely” to be Kiely.

In a press conference on Monday, AWP’s Doug Bishop said: “We will be taking the next two days to properly debrief, decompress and prepare for our next case, which is 22-year-old Jolissa Fuentes in Selma, California.”

‘A criminal matter’

The Selma Police Department say they are treating the disappearance of Ms Fuentes as a “criminal matter”.

At a press conference last week, Selma police chief Rudy Alcaraz said they had been able to trace her phone to an area north of the city, that had been the focus of extensive search efforts. 

“It’s very rare that a 22-year-old girl has no digital footprint,” Mr Alcaraz said.

“This is not normal behaviour for Ms Fuentes. So we are treating this as a criminal matter.”