Body Found During Search for Missing Texas Teen Camila Mendoza Olmos
A body was discovered Monday during the search for 19-year-old Camila Mendoza Olmos, who disappeared after leaving her night shift at an Edinburg taqueria.
Discovery in the Brush
At sunrise on Monday, a volunteer searcher noticed something pale half-hidden beneath the mesquite off County Road 417, just east of Edinburg. Within minutes, deputies cordoned off the thicket, and by 8:14 a.m. Sheriff Eddie Guerra confirmed what no parent ever wants to hear: a body had been found.
‘We Never Stopped Looking’
Camila Mendoza Olmos, 19, vanished after clocking out of a neighborhood taqueria on March 28. Friends say she Facetimed her mother while walking the half-mile home, promising she’d be there in ten minutes. She never arrived.
“Every night we drove these streets with flashlights,” said cousin Daniela Treviño, clutching a poster still flecked with last week’s rain. “We just wanted her back.”
Autopsy Under Way
Justice of the Peace Rosie Ramirez ordered an expedited autopsy, but formal identification could take days. Investigators declined to say whether any of Camila’s belongings—her rose-gold iPhone or the butterfly tattoo on her left wrist—were recovered.
A Community on Edge
Camila is the third Rio Grande Valley teen reported missing this year; the other two were found alive. Hidalgo County has now added a nightly deputy patrol along the desolate stretch where she disappeared, while a digital billboard on I-69 cycles her photo every 30 seconds.
- Tip line: (956) 383-INFO
- Anonymous texts: “Hidalgo” to 847411
- Family GoFundMe for search costs tops $38,000
What Happens Next
Detectives are treating the case as a homicide. Drones mapped the 40-acre crime scene until dusk, and state crews plan to drain an adjacent irrigation canal Tuesday. Sheriff Guerra vowed results: “We owe Camila every resource we have.”