Mother's Worry Rises over Missing Daughter

At roughly 4 a.m. on Wednesday, 15-year-old Briana Esquivel was laying on her bed texting, her mother said.

The young girl was pretty much attached to her cell phone, constantly texting and posting updates on social media sites from the time she got home from school until she went to bed each night.

Jan. 21 had been another one of those nights, her mother said. The two hadn’t been in any fights and everything was relatively normal, but by 7:30 a.m., the young teen and a pack of belongings were gone, and in their place was a brief note made out to mother Savina Garcia.

“She left me a letter saying that she’ll be ok, telling me not to worry about her and stuff like that,” Garcia said on Monday. “But it’s been six days and for her phone to be off, it’s not—something is wrong.”

Since that Wednesday morning, Briana Esquivel has neither attended school nor made contact with her mother. Her presence on social media sites has suddenly dropped off, and her father, Garcia said, hasn’t seen or heard from her either.

“We think she ran away, because the last place she was seen was here at home,” Garcia said. “She did take her school bag, and she took her make-up and, you know, some clothes.”

Garcia said that a neighbor recently told her that he saw Briana getting into a vehicle shortly after 4 a.m. on Wednesday in the 2200-2300 block of Chestnut St. The neighbor could not provide an accurate description of the vehicle because it was dark, Garcia said, but mentioned that it was similar to her own Pontiac Grand Am.

Sightings of the 15-year-old have been phoned in to Garcia since she began asking for help via police and Facebook Wednesday evening, but none of the reports have panned out, she said.

Now, she’s starting to wonder if her daughter might have gotten caught up with some shady individuals on Facebook and other websites.

“From what I understand, she had a Meet Me account,” Garcia said. “We just found out about this Meet Me account that she had. Supposedly it’s where you can meet singles in your area. On this Meet Me account she had put that she’s 18 years old.”

Briana also had Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Zoosk accounts, her mother said, and had recently been involved in conversations on several sites regarding modeling for photos.  

“She was speaking to a Hispanic guy and a black guy on [Meet Me],” Garcia relayed. “So they were offering her money, you know, if she wanted to pose, you know, and stuff like that and get paid for it. We don’t even know if that’s the case. It could be, possibly, but we don’t know.”

Garcia said that in December, she had intercepted a series of Facebook messages between her daughter and a local woman looking for models for a photo shoot, and had immediately notified the photographer that her daughter was only 15 and still in high school.

“My biggest concern is that she got involved in this modeling scam,” Garcia said. “We’re really thinking that someone got in her ear and convinced her to go with them, that she would be ok, you know, and she would be back soon.”

Garcia stated that she had mentioned all of the online conversations regarding modeling to the detectives, and provided them with screen names. She said the detectives have since notified her that they had spoken to the individuals and that they are not believed to have had anything to do with Briana's absence, but Garcia still worries.

Since her daughter ran away on Jan. 21, her family’s life has been turned upside down. Garcia has three other children, she said, and the worry and effort of trying to locate her daughter has put their lives on hold.

“I’ve been here at home just waiting for her to come home,” she said. “I mean, I have three other children, you know, that I have to look over. My kids have already missed three days out of the week because I’m constantly handing out flyers, I’m constantly looking for her and I don’t have anybody to pick my kids up from school and drop them off.”

Lieutenant David Howard of the San Angelo Police Department’s Criminal Investigations Division said detectives had been working the case through the weekend and will continue to do so until she is found.

Due to her age, Briana Esquivel is considered an endangered missing runaway. She is 5 foot 2 inches tall, weighs approximately 150 pounds, and has brown hair and brown eyes.

Anyone with information on Briana Esquivel's whereabouts is asked to contact the PD at 325-657-4315 or her mother, Savina Garcia, at 325-245-9920. Anonymous tips may also be made at sanangelopolice.org.