Family searching for missing San Bruno mother who disappeared six months ago
Tracy Avilez has not been seen or heard from since September, 2018.
SAN BRUNO, Calif. - The family of a 45-year-old Bay Area woman who disappeared six months ago is asking the public for help finding the mother of three.
San Bruno police are investigating the disappearance of Tracy Avilez, whose family and friends have not seen or heard from her since last September.
“This is uncharacteristic for Tracy to have zero contact with anyone,’’ said her sister Nicole Hamilton of Petaluma.
Friends of Avilez’s reported her missing to San Bruno police about a week after she disappeared on Sept. 18. Her family has since been working with police on the search for her, said Hamilton.
“Although my sister Tracy had recently fallen on hard times and had been staying with friends, she remained in constant contact with her oldest son and her youngest daughter,’’ Hamilton said. “For her to simply vanish without so much as a word to either of them is completely uncharacteristic of her. We are worried for her safety.”
Hamilton said she and her family have spoken to people who have “not been truthful” about Avilez’s whereabouts.
“Some have claimed to have heard dark rumors about Tracy’s fate, yet those rumors were investigated by police and have been unsubstantiated,’’ she said.
San Bruno police Lt. Ryan Johansen confirmed investigators have checked those rumors and other potential tips about the woman’s whereabouts.
“Through her social group, people have said bad things have happened to her, but there’s never been anything concrete, it was just rumor-mill type stuff,’’ he said.
Johansen said an investigator traced Avilez’s last cell phone activity to an area in East San Bruno on Sept. 18.
The trace area is within the radius of Lions Field on 1st Avenue and a nearby Jack In The Box fast food restaurant, two places Avilez may have visited that day, her sister said.
Johansen said people have also reported seeing Avilez since she disappeared.
“We have had a number of reports of sightings by people who didn’t know her, and so far those have all checked negative,’’ he said.
Investigators also checked her banking and social media records over the last six months and there has been no activity, Johansen said.
Hamilton said she did not know what Avilez was doing in the days leading up to her disappearance, other than a phone call the woman had with her son.
“They said they would talk in a week or two and she never ever called again, and hasn't still,’’ Hamilton said.
Avilez does not have a permanent address and had been staying recently with various friends. She is known to frequent South San Francisco, Millbrae, Burlingame, San Mateo, Palo Alto, Redwood City as well as San Francisco.
Avilez has green eyes, long hair, which is sometimes blonde and sometimes light brown, and multiple distinctive tattoos, including a sunflower on her upper left arm, a “sleeve” of tattoos her right arm, and a sun tattoo near her neckline. She is about 5 foot 7, and very slender, Hamilton said.
Anyone with information about Avilez is asked to call San Bruno police at 650-616-7100. Anonymous tips can be emailed to sbpdtipline@sanbruno.ca.gov.