Did You Know...

It’s been more than a month, but my family hasn’t given up hope and hasn’t stopped looking for my missing cousin, Marizela Perez. Many volunteers across the country have joined us in this search. We can’t thank them enough for their dedication, energy, generosity, expertise, and commitment to finding Marizela.

America’s Most Wanted, John Walsh’s ground-breaking Fox television show, is now featuring Marizela’s story on its website here. Their appeal for help:

“Detectives with the Seattle Police Department say 18-year-old Marizela Perez left her home in Rainer Beach around noon on Saturday, March 5, 2011, en route to the campus library at the University of Washington.

A few hours later, surveillance cameras caught her shopping inside of a Safeway in Seattle’s University District. With her green Starbucks mug in-hand, she walked right by a camera, and exited the store a short time later. She hasn’t been seen since….If you know where Marizela Perez might be, you’ve got to call our Hotline right away at 1-800-CRIME-TV.”

Marizela is one of several young women who have gone missing in the Pacific Northwest over the last year.

I heard last week from a relative of Alexandra Xua, a 20-year-old college student who vanished from the Oregon City, Oregon area in January 2011 and is still missing:

And Kathy Chou, a 19-year-old Renton, Wash. student has been missing for nearly a year:

Please look carefully at their photos and click on the links to their stories — and if you have any information about any of these cases, contact law enforcement and AMW immediately. Every pair of eyeballs, every set of boots on the ground, makes a difference.