A missing teen was spotted Wednesday morning in Hollister
alongside a wanted man, but disappeared before Sheriff’s deputies
could approach her.
Gilroy – A missing teen was spotted Wednesday morning in Hollister alongside a wanted man, but disappeared before Sheriff’s deputies could approach her.
Monique Carabajal, 16, was reported missing Aug. 5. Her mother, Julia Inigo, was worried that Carabajal had run away to be with her boyfriend David Campos, a 23-year-old man wanted for statutory rape, listed as the Dispatch’s “No. 1 Most Wanted” for 55 days. Carabajal has run away at least five times to be with him, Inigo said, but has usually called home within a few days, asking if she’s angry.
“I’ve never told her she couldn’t come home,” said Inigo. “But this time, she hasn’t contacted us … I think about Franca Barsi,” a former Gilroy Garlic Queen whose boyfriend confessed to killing her, police say, “and I don’t want this to end like that.”
Inigo called police, who kept an eye on Campos’ mother’s house on Polk Court. Neighbors said they’d seen Campos near the home, but police lacked the evidence for a search warrant. A threatening call to Inigo, made one month ago by a man she believes was Campos, was untraceable, she said.
“It’s not like on TV, where you can just bust in and start searching,” said Gilroy Police Detective Mitch Madruga. “Unfortunately, it’s not his address of record – so unless we get consent to go in, or we see him there ourselves, we can’t go in.”
Campos’ mother and her boyfriend have since moved away from the Polk Court home, Madruga said. Neighbors said they saw moving trucks at the home two or three days ago, and haven’t seen anyone at the home since.
Wednesday morning, a San Benito Sheriff’s deputy saw Carabajal and Campos walking on Fourth Street in Hollister, said Madruga. He recognized Campos, Madruga explained, but didn’t know that Carabajal was missing or that Campos was wanted. Minutes later, he learned of the warrant and turned around to find them. The couple was gone.
Carabajal is described as 5-feet, 5-inches tall, weighing 125 pounds, with brown eyes and brown hair with blonde highlights.
“My main concern is that Monique gets home safe, and that he doesn’t touch a minor ever again,” said Inigo.
Campos drives a tan four-door Nissan Altima, said Madruga. He is 6-feet tall, weighs 160 pounds, has brown hair, brown eyes and a tattoo reading ‘Gonzales’ on his chest. Anyone with information may call Detective Mitch Madruga at 846-0350 or leave an anonymous tip at 846-0330.
