Parents plead for daughter's return
McALLEN — There isn’t one night that Frank Sanchez won’t wake up thinking about his daughter’s fate.
“At 4 o’clock in the morning I have gone out and walked around looking for her,” Sanchez said.
Crystal Sanchez, 20, has been missing since Dec. 12, her parents said. She went walking to a friend’s house at 11 p.m. that Sunday and was last seen near the intersection of North Eighth Street Court and Kerry Lane, behind the Whataburger on Tenth Street. Sanchez lives several blocks away, near the intersection of North Ninth Street and Vine Avenue, behind the Sun Harvest on Tenth Street.
Her parents, Frank and Diana B. Sanchez, have been posting missing signs in the neighborhood and in clubs but have gotten no leads.
“We can’t eat, sleep, but we look at the picture and get strength (to continue the search),” said Diana Sanchez.
Crystal moved back to McAllen from Plainview, in early March, her parents said. Before moving to Plainview, she lived in McAllen and attended Nikki Rowe High School for two years.
Crystal is 5 feet 1 inch tall, weighs 115 to 118 pounds, and has brown eyes and black hair, her parents said. She has a heart tattoo with a ribbon and her mother’s initials, D.B.S., on her right wrist, as well as a nose piercing on the right side.
Crystal’s parents do not know her friends; they don’t even know where they met. Every time they would ask her she refused to respond, arguing that she is already a grown woman. The parents felt they had to start giving her some space since she was 20 and not married yet. “I got married when I was 17, and she is already 20,” said Diana Sanchez.
The parents were able to find out the she went to an apartment on Eighth Court and Kerry Lane where a man by the first name of “Joe” said to them that the last time he saw her was at 4 a.m. walking back home on Eighth Street. “Joe” said that Crystal decided to leave after waiting for another friend, “Tony,” who never arrived.
The Sanchez’s don’t think their daughter was on drugs or drunk. The only odd behavior they can recall was on Thanksgiving when she spent the night out and returned with marks on her neck.
“She just wanted to know the world, because we were too strict with her,” said Diana Sanchez.
Crystal did not go to school or work because she was taking care of her diabetic mother. With the support of her parents, she was planning to move out in February as soon as she became 21.
The case is under investigation, said Jose Hernandez, spokesman for McAllen police.
Crystal was last seen wearing a white sweater, brown muscle shirt and blue jeans, her parents said. Anyone with information about the missing woman is urged contact the McAllen Police Department at (956) 681 2010 or contact Detective Mario Cavazos at (956) 681-2238.
