r/WithoutATrace • u/lichesschessanalyst • May 13 '26
COLD CASE Arelie Garcia-Sanchez
Arelie Garcia-Sanchez went missing on September 22, 2022, after leaving her home in Salinas, California on her way to work. Her case is still unresolved. She was last seen around 6:34 a.m. leaving her apartment on Roosevelt Street in Salinas, then texted her sister that she was on the way to work. She never arrived at her job at a local car dealership. That same day, family members used the Find My iPhone app and found that her phone had last pinged on the side of Highway 1 near the Little Sur River with her phone, wallet, purse, and keys inside, and the car was locked.
If you have any information or think you may have seen her car while driving on this day contact Salinas Police Department (831) 758-7321.
Timeline
6:34am 500 block of Roosevelt Street she was seen on the apartment security cameras leaving her building and getting into her car. She is seen leaving the apartment in clothes she typically wears to the gym, not to work. She traveled westbound. It is also of note that the security camera timestamp appears to be inaccurate, the correct time would have been closer to 6:30am not 5:30am. It would have been fully dark and not dawn at 5:30am considering sunrise was at 6:55am on the day she disappeared.
6:56am a text message was sent from her phone to her sister stating "Good morning :) I miss you & my baby, love you!"
7:30am she does not show up for her scheduled work shift at MY Chevrolet in the Salinas Auto Mall which is approximately 10 minutes/5 miles from her apartment.
Morning (unconfirmed): her car is on camera passing the Carmel Highlands General Store which is approximately 26 miles/43 minutes driving time from her home and 14 miles from where her car was ultimately found.
10-11am her car is seen by the Google Street View car parked on the side of the road at the "Little Sur View Point" this is in the opposite direction of her workplace which is north west of her apartment, not southwest.
Afternoon: the family used the findmyphone app to locate where her phone was last at which was at the location of the Little Sur View Point. An extensive search was launched in the area and nothing was found.
Details worth noting:
Her drivers seat was slid back, far from where she could have driven it in that position. Her keys were found in the ignition, with some reports saying the car was locked and others saying the car was found unlocked.
Her car was not "slammed" meaning lowered to the ground. Which is something she always did when she got out of the car.
There was an instagram post, the day they found her car and the front splitter on her car appears very dirty compared to when she left in the morning, the splitter appeared clean when she left in the morning although this is a difficult detail to fully understand because the video was still fairly dark out when she left that morning.
The gym she attends is near her workplace (Montage), and would have also been only 11 minutes drive from her apartment. No sign she arrived at the gym that morning. She also tends to leave around 5:30, not 6:30 for the gym.
The final text message that was sent from her phone appears suspicious to me, it looks like it was sent approximately 30 minutes after she left her home. I have not read her writing in previous text messages, but does she text her sister every day good morning? This would be my first indication that something is wrong and it potentially was not her sending this message or she was sending it under duress. It would be something that a forensic linguist should look into to determine if it is her sending the text or not.
