Marisela Botello has not been seen or heard from since about 1:15 a.m. on October 5 when she left a Dallas nightclub in the Deep Ellum area of the city with a man who police are now saying is a person of interest, according to Dallas Police.
The 23-year-old Seattle woman was visiting an ex-boyfriend in Dallas but went out alone the night of October 4, according to Dateline, who reported that he did not want to go out so Botello took a Lyft to the club alone.
She never came back.
Here is what you need to know:
1.Botello Had Her Cell Phone & Debit Card With Her That Night But Neither Have Been Used Since She Went Missing
Dateline reported that the ex-boyfriend, whose name has not been made public, called Botello’s family when she didn’t return to his house after going out on October 4. All of her things were still there, except for her phone and her debit card, neither of which have been used in nearly four weeks, according to People.
“That to me is a huge red flag,” Botello’s aunt Dennesly Castillo told Dateline. “She’s 23 and hasn’t used her phone for social media or texts or anything in three weeks? It makes no sense. We’re just really worried that something happened to her.”
The family also realized something was terribly wrong when Botello, who lives with her parents, according to Dateline, did not make her flight back to Seattle.
Castillo told Dateline, “She was scheduled to fly back to Seattle that Monday. But she never made the flight. And she hasn’t returned home. She’s an avid traveler and she’s always in contact with someone. She wouldn’t just miss a flight or cut all communication like this.”
Botello’s aunt said that there has been no activity in Botello’s bank account nor outgoing emails. Her phone was last used to make a call at about 4 a.m. on the morning of October 5, according to Dateline.
2. Botello Was Seen on Surveillance Leaving With a Man & Police Are Looking For Charles Beltran as a Person of Interest
According to the Dallas Police Department Charles Beltran is a person of interest. In their call to the public asking for anyone to come forward if they know how to find him, they say they want to talk to him as it relates to the “Botello missing person investigation.”
Police say Beltran was driving a “Black 2014 Audi A6 with Texas license plate MJG3114 in the early morning hours of October 5, 2020,” but he nor his car have been seen since the morning of October 5.
According to Fox News, Botello’s family said Beltran has “gone dark” and police have been unable to reach him. They said he “disconnected all social media and once they identified him “he was unreachable and appeared to have moved,” Castillo told Fox.
A background check on Beltran shows a history of drug arrests. Most recently he served eight months in a federal prison in 2018 for violating probation when he failed drug tests.
In 2013 court records show that Beltran was sentenced to 46-months in a Texas prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm. That sentence was followed by three-years probation.
It was during those three years that he violated probation by using drugs and was sentenced to another eight months in jail.
3. Botello was Wearing a Purple Metallic Dress When She Went Out on October 4 But It’s Not Clear Why She Went Out Alone Since She Was In Dallas Visiting an Ex-Boyfriend
Castillo told Dateline the family has been able to access Botello’s social media accounts and there is a photo she took of herself from the night she went missing in which she’s wearing a purple metallic dress. It’s the same dress she is wearing in the surveillance video of when she left the club.
According to Dateline “the family believes the man in the video is the key to finding Marisela.”
But Botello’s worried-sick mother, Ernestine Valadez, questions why her daughter went out by herself when she was there to visit her ex-boyfriend.
She told WFAA, “If she went to visit him, why did he let her go alone that night? That’s the number one question I have,” she said.
“I don’t know if it was a mistake that she went there because she was so happy to fly there to visit Dallas, and she never imagined something like this would happen. If someone knows something please tell us or let her go. I beg of you,” Valadez told WFAA. “Every day that passes is very difficult.”
4. Crime Has Been High in Dallas in 2020 & Locals Says the Area Where Botello Went Out Is Not Safe
Botello was just supposed to go to Dallas for the weekend, and since it wasn’t her home town, maybe she didn’t realize that the location of Deep Ellum is in an area some locals say is sketchy.
Several Reddit users posted that the area is not safe in response to a thread about the missing woman.
A person whose Reddit handle is Ishotbiggi wote, “This is a public service announcement for people that don’t live in Dallas… don’t come here and travel alone especially near our bars… this place has very high crime rate… I was literally just posting about this in a different thread.. this city has very active gangs and human trafficking is a real thing out here.”
Bobby6Kennedy wrote, “OK, Skillman and Audelia is literally one of the worst areas of the city. There are plenty of other areas where people are going to be fine going to bars.”
OptimalDisaster 819 replied, “Having grown up on Skillman and around Mockingbird, I have to agree with this. You have to be very careful about where you tread. Stay safe, everyone and I hope they find your friend.”
Dagoatmane214 said, “Facts man. If you go the wrong direction from either deep Ellum or the Knox Henderson are you’re literally in the f****** hood. Don’t be fooled cuz these areas are getting gentrified. I’m in my late 20s but not too long ago those areas were completely different.”
Overall, violent crime in Dallas has been up this year even from 2019, a year in which murders were higher than they’d been in any year in the preceding decade, according to DMagazine.
5. The Case Is Still Being Investigated as a Missing Person’s Case as There Is No Proof of a Crime at This Point
While Botello’s disappearance is suspicious and unsettling, as of December 28 the Dallas Police are treating it as a “Want To Locate” report. According to the department, a “‘Want to Locate’ is when a family member wants to find an individual that they have been unsuccessful with contacting, so they file a want to locate report with the police.”
The Dallas PD said, “The Youth Operations Unit is in charge of the investigation. Detectives from the Youth Operations Unit are actively investigating all workable leads into the report of Ms. Botello. Detectives are also actively communicating with Ms. Botello’s family and only family members about the investigation.”
Botello is a Hispanic/Latino woman with brown eyes and black hair. She is 5’2 to 5’4 and 120-130 pounds.
The Dallas Police Department is asking anyone with any information about the missing 23-year-old to call Dallas Police Department Youth Operations at 214-671-4268.
There is also a Go-Fund-Me set up to help the family with travel expenses.
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