Missing Tijuana Woman Found

After a frantic week of phoning hospitals and morgues and expecting the worst, the mother and three brothers of Guadalupe (Lupita) Sanchez Muniz spent Saturday relieved but puzzled by her mysterious return.

Tijuana municipal police brought the slightly retarded Muniz, 32, home to Tijuana Friday night after she turned up at a Mexican hospital.

She was last seen Jan. 25 after she was dropped off at a bus stop on Carmel Mountain Road near a residential care facility in Poway where her mother, Julieta, worked.

Muniz, who does not speak English, was given instructions by her mother to take the bus to downtown San Diego and transfer to a trolley bound for San Ysidro. Once there, she was to deposit into a bank $1,500 in cash she had spent months saving and then return to Tijuana.

She never made it home. Less than four hours after she was last seen, her brothers called police.

Law enforcement officials circulated flyers with Muniz’s picture at migrant camps in North County as sheriff’s deputies and police from San Diego and Tijuana began investigating.

It is still unclear what happened to Muniz, whether she was abducted and how she got to the hospital.

“All we know is that she was traumatized and we’re trying to sort everything out,” said Dee Peterson, who employs Julieta. “There’s got to be a story behind the story.”

Police spokesman Bill Robinson said initial reports by the family suggest that Lupita may have been molested, but nobody knows for sure.

“She’s extremely stressed,” Robinson said. “She’s been gone a long time.”

Muniz is emotionally scarred by the incident and will have to undergo psychiatric treatment, Peterson said Julieta told her. Also, the $1,500 Muniz saved from her job as a housekeeper is gone.

Peterson said she had suggested to Julieta that her daughter open a bank account in the United States. The family tried to open the account Jan. 21, but the banks were closed on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday.

Muniz and her mother had been staying in Peterson’s guest house for a week and brought the money with them. When it came time for Muniz to return to Tijuana, Peterson drove her to a bus stop at the corner of Camino del Norte and Carmel Mountain Road, about 4 miles from Peterson’s home.

Peterson said she had no idea that Muniz was carrying so much money and had decided to open the account that day. If she had known, Peterson said she would not have let Muniz travel with the cash.

As she dropped Muniz at the bus stop, Peterson said she had second thoughts about whether to stay with her until she boarded the bus. But Muniz told Peterson she would be fine and both saw the bus approaching. However, the bus driver said he did not recall seeing Muniz, or a man waiting at the bus stop right before it arrived, get aboard.

At 5-foot-1 and 115 pounds, Muniz looks about 17 years old, Peterson said. She was very popular with the six elderly women at the residential care home because of her shy sweetness, and she also helped her mother with the ironing.

Muniz’s mother had been Peterson’s maid for 16 years before starting to help Peterson cook and clean at the day-care facility two years ago. Muniz’s father died of a heart attack four years ago. One of her brothers is a sophomore at Baja University, another has just graduated from law school in Mexico and a third is in the construction business and has his own family.

The family has spent a hectic week trying to figure out where Muniz was. Her 74-year-old grandmother was so concerned that she flew to Tijuana from Guadalajara.

“There’s been a lot of crying (at the Muniz home) but they have all been tears of joy,” Peterson said. “I have a feeling that (Saturday night) is the first good night’s sleep the family has gotten in a while.”