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Missing California Woman’s Car Found Along Iconic Highway and Her Family’s Been Living a “Nightmare” Since
When Arelie Garcia, 25, didn't show up to her job near her Salinas apartment and stopped responding to messages from family, they knew something was wrong.
Arelie Garcia’s pride and joy was the distinctive, bright red car she drove around Salinas, California. It was also one of the first clues that the 25-year-old was in trouble.
Arelie’s sister Elizet “Eli” Mendoza discovered the customized Honda Accord abandoned on a stretch of Highway 1 in Big Sur, about an hour from home, hours after learning Arelie hadn’t shown up for work.
Arelie, an outgoing automotive specialist who loved Starbucks and was studying to be an ultrasound technician, mysteriously disappeared on September 22, 2022 and hasn’t been seen since.
“It’s been like a scary movie since the day it happened, like it’s just been a nightmare,” Arelie’s sister Veronica Garcia told the Dateline: Missing in America podcast for its "Mystery Down Highway 1" episode.
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What happened to Arelie Garcia?
The youngest in a tight-knit family of seven siblings, Arelie was known for having a solid work ethic. That dedication is what made it all the more troubling when she didn’t show up on the morning of September 22, 2022 to her job as a service adviser at a Chevy dealership near her apartment in Salinas.
Arelie’s sisters say she usually hit the gym by 5:30 a.m. before heading to work at 7:30 each morning. But on the day she disappeared, Arelie broke from her usual tradition.
Security footage showed her leaving the apartment she shared with her mother at 6:34 a.m., dressed casually in black leggings, a black hoodie and sneakers.
Her sisters were struck by the fact that she wasn’t dressed for work even though she needed to be at her job less than an hour later. At 6:34 a.m., there wouldn’t be time to go to the gym and get to work on time.
The footage shows Arelie getting into her red Honda and driving away, but what happened in the hours that followed remains a mystery.
Just before 7 a.m., Arelie texted her sister Veronica, writing, “Good morning. I miss you and my baby, love you!” Arelie was referring in the message to her godson, Veronica’s son Davian.
But Veronica, who was sleeping, didn’t see the message until nearly two hours later and when she replied back, she never got a response.
Police have said they believe another video shows Arelie’s Honda passing a general store in Big Sur around 7:30 a.m., although it’s not clear who is driving the vehicle because the windows are tinted.
When Arelie failed to show up for work, one of her coworkers reached out to her family around 10 a.m., wondering where she was.
“She was always on time,” Veronica said. “She would be involved with all her coworkers, so everybody pretty much knew, like, everyone’s day. They would text throughout the day.”
Arelie Garcia’s sisters track her location
But, by then, Arelie was not returning any text messages. Her panicked sisters used the Find My iPhone app to track her to Big Sur.
While Veronica and her husband went to report Arelie missing to Salinas Police, Eli headed to Big Sur with her husband.
They spotted the bright red car pulled over at a scenic turnout along Highway 1 that overlooked a relatively flat area with lots of underbrush. The car was locked and there was no sign of Arelie — yet Eli noticed something odd about the way it was parked.
What clues were found with Arelie Garcia’s car?
Arelie had a customized suspension system in her car that allowed her to raise and lower the chassis. Her sisters say that when Arelie parked the vehicle, she usually lowered it all the way down in what car aficionados refer to as “slamming.”
But this time, it wasn’t “slammed.”. Eli believed that suggested that somebody else had been driving the car. Police confirmed after processing the vehicle that the driver’s seat was set farther back than they believe the 5’5” Arelie would have positioned it.
Salinas Police found Arelie’s phone, wallet and keys inside her car. There were no signs of Arelie though, or any obvious signs of foul play.
Deputies from the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office were also sent to the scene. When they arrived, it was already dark, and they searched the surrounding area with specialized drones.
“The drones that we use are — are well equipped for searching at night,” Monterey County Detective Arras Wilson said. “They have infrared cameras. They can detect body heat and there was no indication that she was anywhere in that area.”
The effort to locate Arelie continued the next day and search teams, trained cadaver dogs and regular search dogs spent two days scouring the area.
“We essentially searched four miles north of where her car was found and four miles south of where her car was found,” Wilson said. “So, every cove, every beach, every trail, every turnoff, everything was searched and there was no indication of Arelie.”
Detective Wilson said the search team looked for footprints, broken branches in the underbrush, or anything that had been recently dropped, such as a candy wrapper. They found nothing.
“To me, as a search and rescue team member and as a detective, it just indicates that she didn’t remain in the area where her car was found,” Wilson said.
Salinas police told Dateline they’ve interviewed several dozen people since Arelie’s disappearance, including her boyfriend — a photographer she met at a car show — along with her coworkers and others, but have made no arrests.
Arelie Garcia’s disappearance has similarities to another case
Arelie’s sisters and investigators have considered the possibility that her disappearance could be connected to the case of 20-year-old Kayeleigh Gammill, another Salinas woman of color who went missing about five weeks before Arelie. The two young women lived just a mile apart, and both had long, dark hair.
“At this point, we’re not sure,” Veronica said of a possible connection between the two cases. “I mean, they’re both young, you know? They’re both women of color. They both went missing at the same area. It’s very shady.”
Gammill’s body was discovered on August 30, 2022 in Big Sur, about 200 yards from Highway 1.
Detective Wilson of the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office serves as lead detective in Gammill’s homicide case. He told Dateline that while he isn’t ruling out any possibilities, to date he’s seen “no evidence” that links the two cases. The Salinas Police Department is investigating Arelie’s disappearance and said they’ve ruled out a connection between the cases.
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Nearly two years after Arelie disappeared, her family remains desperate for answers and believes she’s still out there alive somewhere.
“We know she’s gonna come back one day,” Eli said.
At the time of her disappearance, Arelie was described as being 5’5” tall, 150 lbs, with brown hair and brown eyes. Anyone with information about her disappearance is urged to call Detective Edwin Cruz with the Salinas Police Department at 831-758-7393 or the anonymous tip line at 831-775-4222.
