This year, seven people have officially gone missing in the area. Four of those people still have not been found. Rosario Garcia was last seen on July 7, and her family has been left with a deep, vast hole of unanswered questions and grief.

On Nov. 29, Maggie Zavala, Garcia’s daughter, and Laura Atenci, Garcia’s daughter-in-law, went to Pinyon Pines where Garcia’s car was located. They set up in front of the The Sugarloaf Cafe and Market with a large banner showing Garcia‘s photo and phone numbers to call if anyone recognized her.

The Town Crier met with Zavala and Atenci that afternoon and they spoke about the struggle the whole family has endured.

“It’s been devastating with the holidays and birthdays,” Zavala said. “This was our first Thanksgiving without her. One of her grandkids couldn’t even be there because it was too hard.”

Garcia was suffering from the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, which the family thinks she had for about two years. While she didn’t travel far from home, she still enjoyed trips to the casinos and would run errands near her home in Hemet.

According to Garcia’s family, her car was found on Sawmill Trail 5E02 in Pinyon Pines two days after she was last seen but there was no sign of Garcia. The car didn’t appear to be ransacked and only her DNA was found in the vehicle. That leads them to believe she got disoriented, and lost, as opposed to someone else being involved with her disappearance.

“Everything shows she made the drive on her own,” Atenci explained. “Nothing was taken from inside the car. Her seat wasn’t adjusted. There were pills and jewelry in the car. There was a full tank of gas still. The DNA results came back with nothing except her own. She had her purse with her — $250 in cash, all her cards and blank checks. If someone wanted to steal her identity, they could have. There’s been no activity on her accounts since she went missing.”

Zavala and Atenci shared some good memories of Garcia, emphasizing how much her family meant to her.

“She loved her grandkids and she loved to dance,” they said.
“I have a very short video — but now it’s priceless — of her at one of her grandkid’s birthday parties,” Atenci added. “She was in the background just dancing, dancing, dancing to Mexican music. She was friendly to everybody and everyone knew her in town.”

Garcia has three grown children and eight grandchildren. She lived in the same house for almost 50 years with her husband. One of her grandsons, who is now 20, lived with her and his grandfather to help take care of them.
“He’s my youngest and he’s the one that is taking it the hardest,” Zavala said. “He’s the one who didn’t join us for Thanksgiving. They were very close. Having to be in the house is hard for him. He and my dad have been the ones taking care of her and they were used to waking up and seeing her every day.”

Since Garcia has been missing, another one of her grandchildren turned 3 years old, and for the first time, he said Gamma (grandma), but she was not there to hear it.

“She would’ve loved that and the fact she wasn’t here to hear that is heartbreaking,” Atenci said. “He looks at pictures and he knows who she is.”
Zavala has been the rock for her family during these tough times, “I’m the headstrong of the family; I have to be. I’m carrying the weight of my nieces and nephews, of my own kids and my dad. I have to be the tough one but nobody knows what I go through when I’m by myself. It was a tough Thanksgiving but I told myself we have to have Thanksgiving and make the best of it for the kids. They’re little and don’t understand really what’s going on.”

With time ticking by, Garcia’s family has been frustrated with the lack of communication or action from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department (RCSD).

“They’re not doing anything for us,” Atenci said. “They don’t call us. They make us feel like they’re not on the case — not even a courtesy call. We take to social media and put flyers up. We spent her birthday on Sept. 4 handing out flyers in the community. This banner was donated by Golden Brush Signs in Hemet. We’re doing everything we can and we’re not going to be quiet until she’s found.”

Garcia’s family even reached out to Texas EquuSearch, a search and rescue organization dedicated to searching for missing persons, hoping they could provide search and rescue efforts. Unfortunately, being based in Texas, they don’t have any ties in the Southern California area.

“When they said they didn’t have anything, it really upset us,” Atenci said. “It was a big, big hope for that professionalism to come search. We need professional climbers to search the ravines and crevices, to get off the trails where we can’t. Obviously, she’s not on the trails or roads or we would have found her by now. All organizations are tied to the sheriff as far as search and rescue go, so we’d have to go through them, so it’s been hard. We need some kind of closure one way or another.”

Garcia‘s family expressed how grateful they are to the communities and volunteers that have continued to support and help search for Garcia. As they spoke of how many people have helped them, a passing car pulled up and stopped.

The driver, Jesse Glick, of Palm Desert, said, “I was up there yesterday and I thought of you guys. I’ll go up there again and I’ll always keep a lookout for clues.” Adding, “I’ve seen these nice ladies here before and I’ve always kept an eye out when I’m in that area. It’s always important to be cognizant and aware of your surroundings and what you may see because it might be evidence for missing people or situations. You need to keep looking. I just hope the authorities will do one more search before the winter because nobody will want to come out here to do searches once it snows.”

As Glick got back in his car and drove off, Atenci said, “It’s people like him who have helped us more than any agency has. I feel like we have been more supported by the community than law enforcement.”

People need to remember that this is someone’s mother, wife, grandmother — someone’s loved one that is missing and needs to be found.

“It’s hard waking up every day and it’s another day,” Atenci said. “You wake up hoping, go throughout the day and go to sleep upset. It’s mentally exhausting and then you break down in the night. She is the heart of our family and it’s a big void. It’s getting harder the longer she’s missing.”

“I’ve already prepared myself emotionally and physically that I don’t think she’s with us anymore,” Zavala added. “I have to be realistic. I just want to bring her home.”

Three people in addition to Garcia remain missing
Seven people have gone missing in the area since March of this year. Four of the seven people, including Garcia, remain missing. RCSD media information bureau responded to the newspaper’s weekly inquiry Friday as to whether or not the agency had any updates.

“The cases are still open. No updates from our investigators,” Sgt. Albert Martinez wrote.

Lydia “Dia” Abrams, Roy Prifogle, Melissa Lane and Rosario Garcia remain missing.

The newspaper has been asking for updates weekly since early summer.
On Sept. 10, a RCSD SUV was spotted hauling an off-road vehicle near Highway 243 and Saunders Meadow Road.

According to Hemet Sheriff Station Capt. Leonard Purvis, “They were conducting follow-up searches for Melissa Lane.”

While it was unclear exactly where on the mountain deputies were searching for Lane, Purvis also confirmed that the search didn’t provide any further information or evidence of where Lane may have gone missing. That is an update the media information bureau could have provided.

Lane, 41, was last seen June 15, according to a poster that was displayed in the Mountain Center area. The Town Crier spoke to Kathy Lamont, Lane’s mother, right after she was reported missing.

“She was an avid hiker but didn’t have a destination,” Lamont said. “She was last seen in Pine Cove. I don’t know if she’s dead or alive.”

Outside of the search for Lane, the community has not received any updates on the other three missing people. Friends, family and the community have been left in the dark.

Garcia was last seen July 7 wearing a brown shirt and blue jeans in Hemet. Garcia is a 73-year-old Hispanic female and suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. She is 5’ 3” tall and 120 pounds.

Palm Desert deputies from the RCSD were dispatched to the area of 70000 East Highway 74 in Pinyon Pines at 11:46 a.m. July 9 after Garcia’s vehicle was found unoccupied. Garcia was not located after a search of the area was conducted.

Earlier in the year, Prifogle was reported missing after going on a hike in the Pine Cove area Wednesday, March 4. He left home at about 1 p.m. and was last seen at the Pine Cove Market at 6:30 p.m. on the same day. He was last seen wearing a red backpack and jeans.

RCSD Deputy Jeremy Parsons said, “After six full days of searching in between inclement weather, searching 8 to 10 hours per day, Prifogle has not been located. The Riverside Mountain Rescue Unit (RMRU), as well as search and rescue volunteers from San Bernardino County, Orange County and San Diego County, were assisting. In total, about 150 people have been searching during those six days.” Also adding, “On the second or third day of the search, we found his backpack, but have found no other clues as to his whereabouts.”

On Sunday, June 7 at approximately 8:24 a.m., Hemet Station deputies were dispatched to the 58000 block of Bonita Vista in reference to a missing person. Abrams was placed into the system as a missing person.

Abrams is 65 years old, 5’ 5” tall, 130 pounds with blonde hair and blue eyes. She was last seen wearing a black and turquoise jacket, yellow shirt and blue jeans.

According to RMRU, their team of volunteers was dispatched to Abrams’ 160-acre ranch in the Apple Canyon area (between Mountain Center and Garner Valley) June 9. They conducted a search from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. with no success of finding Abrams.

RMRU went out again June 10 to search more difficult areas on the property including a creek bed and the hills overlooking her ranch. All assignments were completed by 6 p.m. At that point, detectives took over the investigation and called off the physical ground search.

If you have any information regarding the whereabouts of Roy Prifogle, Dia Abrams, Rosario Garcia or Melissa Lane, contact the RCSD at 800-950-2444.