The views and opinions expressed in Cold and Missing are exclusively those of the hosts.
All parties mentioned are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Cold and Missing also contains adult themes and languages.
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I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin-Sulkowski.
And I'm your co-host, Eli Sulkowski.
And this is Cold and Missing, where we cover cold cases and missing person cases.
Hello everyone and welcome back to Cold and Missing.
I'm your host, Ali, and it will just be me coming to you this week.
Eli has some exciting audition opportunities, so he has to spend a lot of his free time
focusing on some of his other work this week.
But he will join us again in the future, I'm sure.
But I wanted to get back on the podcast, get back into covering cases.
We were off last week.
It was Thanksgiving here in the U.S. of A. So we took the week off, had a lot of really
great family moments, just got to do like the whole Thanksgiving thing.
So I really appreciate everyone for granting us the week off, the week vacation.
But here I am ready to bring you a new case.
So let's just go ahead and get into it.
This is episode 111.
And just as a bit of a content warning at the top, this case does involve a young person.
Today we are talking about the missing person case of Sofia Juarez.
And this takes place in February of 2003 in Kennewick, Washington.
But first, a little bit about Sofia.
Sofia is a vivacious and spunky four-year-old, but she is on the cusp of turning five.
She loves to put on makeup and play with her Barbie dolls.
She often begs to go to Burger King for her favorite food, a hamburger.
Sofia is her mother's only child.
Maria, Sofia's mom, had Sofia young and at this time in 2003, Sofia's mom is only
20 years old.
Sofia and Maria live with Sofia's grandmother and with her boyfriend, who acted like a grandpa
to Sofia, along with Sofia's uncles.
But some of her uncles were young enough to be more like her brother or friend.
The entire family lived in a cozy home on the 100 block of East 15th Avenue.
The neighborhood is quiet and safe.
Kids walk to school and will leave toys out in the front lawn overnight so that way they're
ready to play with in the morning.
Sofia is Hispanic.
At this time in 2003, she is about three feet tall, weighs 33 pounds, has black hair and
brown eyes.
She was also missing her top four front teeth.
And now, a timeline of events.
On Tuesday, February 4th, 2003.
It is the night before Sofia's fifth birthday.
At about 7.45 p.m., she's playing with her uncle.
Her uncle is 10 years old, so like I mentioned earlier, he was more like a brother or a friend.
The two are hanging out watching TV in Sofia's room.
Sofia is wearing blue overalls, a red long sleeve shirt, violet socks and white Converse
shoes.
She also had in small gold hoop earrings.
Jose, her grandmother's boyfriend, who acted like a grandpa to her, was going to fill up
his car with gas and then head to the Red Apple Market to get some milk.
When Sofia heard, she begged her mom to go with.
It was normal for Jose to take the kids with him to the store, and Sofia was especially
good at talking him into buying her some candy.
Maria gives Sofia permission to go with Jose and even gives her a dollar to buy a piece
of candy.
Jose leaves the house around 8 p.m.
Jose stops to get gas, attempted to call family in Mexico from a payphone, and then went to
the Red Apple Market to buy milk.
While Jose is at the store, Sofia's grandmother comes back from running errands and picking
up her other kids, and she asks where Sofia is.
Maria tells her that she went to the store with Jose.
Jose returns to the family home around 9 p.m. with a gallon of milk.
When Maria asks where Sofia is, he said she never got in the car with him.
He had no idea Sofia was supposed to be going with him to the store, so he left without
her.
The family begins searching the home for the little girl, searching in any spot where she
would fit.
But after 20 minutes with no sign of the girl, no matter how many times they called her name,
the family decides at 920 to call police and report her missing.
Police responding to the scene take her disappearance seriously from the beginning.
They take Jose down to the police station for questioning, and he goes without complaint.
Police left at the family home begin searching for the little girl, both around the house
and around the neighborhood.
Police bring in bloodhounds who were able to pick up a scent.
The dog handler says, quote, We weren't able to find anything, but both dogs were
able to tell where the trail apparently ended, end quote.
The spot where the trail ended was along a fence some distance from Sofia's home.
Police search through the night, but as dawn approaches in the early morning hours of Wednesday,
February 5th, which should have been Sofia's fifth birthday, police regroup to come up
with a plan.
Police decided that they'll issue the first amber alert for the state of Washington.
At 830 a.m., police send out an amber alert, which was a brand new system in the state
of Washington at the time.
Sofia's case is the first time it's used.
Unfortunately, there were issues in the system that had not yet been worked out.
The code that was sent to radio and television stations was the code used for floods, earthquakes,
and other natural emergencies.
No one who received the alert really knew what was going on, and the news about Sofia
was slow to get out to the media.
Other officers are trying to track down Sofia's biological father.
He had never been in her life and told Maria when she found out she was pregnant with Sofia
that he didn't want her to go through with the pregnancy.
He threatened to hurt her if she kept the baby.
Police are eventually able to locate him, and after some questioning and investigating,
they are able to rule him out.
Night falls on Sofia's fifth birthday without any sign of her.
Police are checking every nook and cranny that Sofia could squeeze into, but still nothing.
The temperatures drop to the mid-20s at nightfall.
Police officially suspend the search for volunteers with a plan to start at 7 a.m. the next morning.
Despite the search being suspended, several officers stay out looking through the night,
and more local, state, and national police agencies are called in to help look for the
little girl.
In the second day of Sofia missing, Thursday, February 6th, the search resumes early the
next morning.
One of the searchers, Jody Norman, says, quote, we've looked everywhere.
We've searched over fences, every backyard, garbage cans, crawl spaces, but we need to
find her, to get her home.
End quote.
During the day, police do collect something as evidence that was found under a bush near
the elementary school, but police stress that they don't have anything of importance.
However, as the day wears on, the search is scaled back in the area surrounding the home.
On Friday, February 7th, Sofia has been missing since Tuesday night.
Sofia's family make an emotional plea for her safe return.
Her mother, Maria, says, quote, I beg you please to return Sofia to her family.
We really miss her.
Whoever has my daughter, please return her to her mother.
End quote.
Sofia's 10-year-old uncle tries to speak to the crowd.
He only got out the words, quote, we're missing, before breaking down into sobs.
Police still have no suspects in her disappearance, but they have rolled out her family.
They say, quote, we are here in support of the family and to help support them through
this very, very difficult time, this nightmare for any mother and any family.
No one in this family is suspected of any wrongdoing or doing anything wrong at all
in relation to this missing child.
End quote.
It should be noted here that Jose is also cleared by police and is included as part
of the family in this statement by police.
Police begin refocusing their attention on running down all of the tips that have come
in, now that her family has been rolled out as suspects.
Police set up a special phone line for tips that will be manned 24 hours a day.
On Monday, February 10th, it's approaching one week that Sofia has been missing.
Police announced that they're looking for the driver of a van that was seen at Washington
Street and 14th Avenue around the time that Sofia disappeared.
The van is described as a light blue or silver mid 80s model.
The van was a panel van with no windows along the body.
Police say that they just want to talk to the driver, quote, it may or may not be connected.
Any help in locating the vehicle will be appreciated.
End quote.
On Tuesday, February 11th, Sofia has been missing for one week now and police re-interviewed
her uncle, who again is 10 years old.
And this time he says that he saw Sofia walking down the driveway from the home with a man
wearing a black sweatshirt with a hood, black pants and black shoes.
He hadn't told police initially because he had been afraid.
On Thursday, February 13th, Sofia has been missing for nine days.
Police go back to Sofia's neighborhood and go door to door and ask their neighbors to
look again.
Police are really going over areas that they've already searched, just looking for any sign
of Sofia that could have been missed.
But at the end of the day, police are frustrated to report that there's still no sign of her.
Police begin searching the Columbia River and they spend the next several days dragging
the river and bringing in dive teams looking for any trace of the little girl.
But again, nothing is found.
In mid March of 2003, so Sofia has been missing for five weeks, Sofia's mom and grandmother
plan to travel to Mexico to see if anyone there has information about Sofia.
Police doubt that Sofia is there saying, quote, we don't have anything to suggest that Sofia
is in Mexico, end quote.
In mid May, Sofia has been missing for three months.
Police say that they have new information that an orange van driven by a bearded man
was seen in the neighborhood about the time Sofia vanished.
Police are looking for the driver and the owner of the van.
This van is described as a mid 1990s full size van that was faded orange and had no
side windows.
The van had a Washington license plate that included the letters JJ.
The man is described to be about 35 to 40 years old with a thick blonde beard.
In August of 2003, Sofia has been missing for six months.
Sofia's mother Maria sits down with the local paper and says that she believes that
Sofia's disappearance is connected to a family member in Mexico, not a stranger or a neighbor.
Maria believes that Sofia is alive and well, but living in Mexico, which is why her and
her mother want to travel there to look for her.
Police are still hesitant to call Sofia's case an abduction since they don't have any
evidence of a crime taking place.
But by February of 2004, at the one year mark, police say that they are treating the disappearance
as an abduction by a stranger, but they still have no real idea of what happened to Sofia.
Her family misses her deeply.
Her mother Maria says, quote, every day is hard.
It's just not the same.
She put a glow in the house.
We don't know who took her or why.
We know in our hearts that she is out there.
End quote.
In July of 2005, Sofia has been missing for two and a half years.
Police serve a search warrant at a rundown farm.
Volunteers bring in ground penetrating radar to go over the grounds to see if there's
any disturbances that could suggest a body.
Police take days searching the property.
They bring in a backhoe to search any suspect spots.
Police believe that she could be buried at the property.
Ultimately, after days of searching, no human remains are found at the farm and no sign
of Sofia is found there.
During the course of Sofia's investigation, police often get the tip that Sofia is buried
in Jump Off Joe Butte on the Horse Heaven Hills.
The story being that she was hit by a driver who panicked and thought Sofia was dead.
The driver takes her body and when she later begins to wake up, he panics and then actually
kills her.
He then buries her body off of Jump Off Joe Butte.
In fact, the search of the farm is related to a tip about this urban legend, but police
have never been able to find any connection to Sofia and these multiple stories about
Jump Off Joe Butte.
In January of 2009, it's been almost three years that Sofia has been missing and her
mother Maria passes away.
Maria was only 26 years old when she passed and the family decides to spread her ashes
where Sofia was last seen.
In May of 2021, so Sofia has been missing for over 18 years.
Please give us some new information.
The following comes from the police website directly about a witness back in 2003.
It says, the witness observed the person described in detail below approaching the young female
and lead her way towards a van that was occupied and stopped at the next side street.
Sofia cried as the person left.
The adult witness reported the incident to police the next day, immediately after seeing
media accounts of Sofia's disappearance.
After viewing a photograph of Sofia, the witness confirmed the young female was Sofia.
Police determined the witness to be highly credible.
Police kept the suspect description confidential at the time due to active investigations being
conducted on people of interest.
A description of the van was released at the time resulting in 24 tips reported to police.
Police currently believe the van and its occupants may be associated with the suspect who led
Sofia away.
Police obviously have a high degree of interest in the suspect and the suspect van.
Anybody who has information on a person and van seen in the area of South Washington Street
near East 15th Avenue between 8pm and 915pm on February 4th, 2003 is asked to contact
the police.
Police are also seeking information from the public on anybody who may have operated a
similar type of van and either lived nearby, would have passed through the area at that
time or driven by as any part of the regular route or routine.
Police are interested in any information people may have regardless of how minimal it may
be.
Somebody out there knows what happened to Sofia or at least have suspicions about someone
that may have been involved.
Now is the time to come forward and help bring answer to Sofia's family and our community.
The suspect description as provided by the witness is as follows.
A Hispanic juvenile male estimated to be 11 to 14 years old at the time.
At the time of occurrence described as being light complexioned about 5 foot or 5'2",
believed to be chubby based primarily upon facial features, having a baby face with a
possible mark on a cheek.
Dark short wavy hair that was about 1.5 inches long that appeared greased that lay flat with
bangs and possibly having big hands for a person his age.
The suspect vehicle is light blue or silver or gray.
Older 1970s to early 1980s type full bodied panel van with no visible side windows.
Had appearances of possibly being a work type of van.
The type that contractors or painters may have used.
This is not to imply that it would have been a contractor or painter's van.
So that is all from the police website directly.
In addition in 2021 a TikTok video surfaces of a woman that bears a striking resemblance
to Sophia's age progress photo and she says that she's a kidnap victim.
Police do track her down and get her DNA but ultimately she's ruled out that she is not
Sophia.
And then the last update I could find came in November of 2024.
And really the update was just that there are no new updates.
Police work every tip that comes in especially since they released that new information in
2021 but none of those have led to Sophia.
And that is all we know about the missing person case of Sophia Juarez.
So if you know anything about the disappearance of Sophia Juarez or her whereabouts today
please call special investigator Al Wenner at 509-582-1331.
Or if you want to leave a tip online you can do that with a link that will be in our show
notes.
So that is the case of Sophia Juarez.
And this case is one that I saw kind of floating around my social media in 2021.
You know I had mentioned right there at the end of the timeline about that TikTok that
got a lot of news and a lot of traction on social media.
That's what I really saw happening and that's when I first really learned about Sophia's
case.
It does seem like Sophia's case at the time did get some national coverage and national
attention but it was covered very heavily locally.
So it did get to like America's Most Wanted and get some coverage on like big daytime
talk shows.
But extensively it was covered in the Washington area.
And it was just a case that I did not know a lot about so it was something that I really
wanted to dig into.
And overwhelmingly what I feel in this case is just tragedy.
Like when I think about the events leading up to her going missing like the timing of
everything it just seems like so deeply unfortunate that you know the night before her fifth birthday
she hears an adult going to the store wants to go along wants to go for a ride an adventure
get a little piece of candy.
And so she asks but like the adult going to the store didn't know like to wait up that
she wanted to come along that you know you should wait for her to get in the car so leaves.
And then it seems like based off of everything I read that Sophia gets you know money from
her mom and permission to go and then kind of runs out the door to what everybody assumes
is the car to go to the store but then she's just kind of out at the driveway and you know
my heart breaks just like wondering what her next steps were which brings in a lot of the
questions in this case.
So her uncle does mention back in 2003 he does say it like about a week later but he
says he sees somebody like leading her down the driveway dressed in all black.
And that was only really mentioned like one time kind of briefly but then in 2021 we get
this other witness description of seeing Sophia being led away kind of by what her uncle said
like you know somebody leading her way she's crying and this other person is laughing.
And this witness police felt was very credible you know that just like makes me really question
like was was something always planned for this evening and this was just like a moment
of opportunity you know because it sounded like there was a van waiting with somebody
else in the van that this young adolescent 11 to 14 is how he's described leads Sophia
to there so like was this all planned to take place that night or was this just like a crime
of opportunity and like just you know these people were driving around like looking for
something it just it brings up so many questions for me about like how could this have happened
like was this some plan or just some opportunity that was taken like how did this happen because
this should have just been like a simple mistake of like oh he left without Sophia so she goes
back inside disappointed she didn't get to go to the store but you know also like it
should not have ended this way with her going missing so how did this get here it just it
really boggles my mind in this case and also just the snafu with the amber alert you know
Sophia's case being the first amber alert ever issued in Washington so the system had
some issues and the notice didn't go out as like a missing child it went out as like a
natural disaster but because of that delay you know there was delay getting Sophia's
story out there which kind of delayed this witness this witness didn't know that they
had seen anything of like utmost importance until the next day when they see that the
girl they saw went missing so it's like if they had gotten that information sooner from
the witness could anything have changed would anything have changed like it just makes you
wonder and why not give the description at the time you know in 2021 giving the description
of the person seen leading Sophia away like that person was described between 11 and 14
so today they would be in their 30s likely you know their mid-30s so it just makes me
wonder if you know we got the description of the van early in 2003 but if we had maybe
gotten that description of the suspect as well if more information could have come forward
at that time it sounds like they did get some tips surrounding the vans but you know if
they're still searching for whoever owned one in 2021 like I don't think they've ever
pinpointed exactly who was driving the van that night that Sophia disappeared and then
there was also the orange van that they briefly brought up a few months after her disappearance
and the man with the blonde beard if I could get answers to whatever I wanted I would just
want to know what happened with that was that ultimately ruled out yeah I would just be
really curious about the orange van that was mentioned because we have the blue silver
or gray van the mid 70s panel van but then there was also that faded orange one mentioned
so I would just be curious what ended up happening there it was also so heartbreaking to learn
that Sophia's mom Maria also died very young and never got answers which is like heartbreaking
you know the family deciding to spread her ashes and like the spot that Sophia was last
seen like how deeply she must have missed her daughter I can't even begin to imagine
how deeply she must have missed her every single day but you know Sophia's uncles were
young at the time in 2003 so they're still around they're still looking for answers in
this case and I really hope that we're able to get answers for her family in what happened
her and that she's able to come home one way or the other that she's able to come home
and her family will know where she is of course we always want to see the miracle happen and
for her to come home you know alive and well but if that can't happen then having the answers
of what happened to this little girl and somebody answering for what happened to this little
girl we should have those answers the family deserves those answers the community deserves
those answers and Sophia deserves those answers so I do hope we're able to get that and you
know this case is worked a lot and I think police are going to keep at it investigators
are going to keep at it the fact that I saw you know the police website updated as of
November 2024 even though it wasn't anything new it just like kind of shows that they're
thinking about it and working on it behind the scenes so I am hopeful that eventually
we'll see something in this case and get some answers but again if you know anything about
the disappearance of Sophia Juarez or her whereabouts today please call the special
investigator Al Wenner at 509-582-1331 and we'll also have a link to where you can leave
a tip online as well in our show notes on our Instagram at cold and missing we're going
to have pictures of Sophia as well as an age progress photo her age progress photo is her
at 17 but in February of this year we're going to be coming up on like a big anniversary
of Sophia being missing so I wouldn't be surprised if we saw some new age progressions of her
coming in the next few months since we haven't gotten any since 2015 but we will have what
is available on our Instagram at cold and missing and please if you're not following
us there we've been getting lots of followers so thank you everybody for joining us we try
to post active missing person cases happening in real time just informational flyers in
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for all these stories that we're telling like all these cases more people should know about
them so thank you for doing that advocacy work and then on our website www.coldandmissing.com
we have all our episodes you can rate review us there as well and if you need transcripts
because you or someone you love is hard of hearing you can find all our transcripts on
our website as well but thank you again so much for listening to cold and missing I'm
your host Ali have a good week and stay safe y'all.