Arelie Garcia texted her sister “good morning” on her way to work, but the 25-year-old Californian never arrived and has been missing ever since.
That was nearly two years ago, and her whereabouts are still unknown.
“We would text each other almost every day,” her sister Veronica Garcia said on the first episode of the new season of the Dateline: Missing in America podcast, which will air on Tuesday.
She remembered the last text she received from Arelie. “She pretty much said, ‘Good morning, I love you,'” she told me. “My little one – she says that’s her baby – so she would be like, ‘I love you and the baby.'”
According to Salinas police, security footage shows Arelie’s bright red 2013 Honda Accord leaving the apartment where she lives with her mother on Roosevelt Street at 6:30 a.m. Then, just before 7 a.m., she texted her sister a morning greeting and informed her that she was on her way to work.
Veronica claimed she was sleeping and didn’t receive the text until two hours later, but she wrote back and continued about her day. About an hour later, their other sister, Elizet Mendoza, called with bad news: Arelie had not arrived for work.
Arelie works as a service advisor at My Chevrolet in Salinas and was supposed to arrive around 7 a.m.
“I got a call saying, well, from the manager saying that she never arrived – and if I knew anything, because there was no sign of her,” Elizet recounted to Dateline. “And that is not something she would do.”
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For hours, the sisters called and texted Arelie, but there was no response.
Later that day, Arelie’s automobile was discovered abandoned along Highway 1 in Big Sur, more than an hour from her home. The sisters told Dateline that Arelie had no reason to be in Big Sur.
The sister had found the automobile using Find My iPhone, which alerted her to the location. The automobile was locked, but Arelie was nowhere to be seen.
When police arrived, they unlocked the car and discovered Arelie’s phone, wallet, keys, and other stuff inside.
Detective Edwin Cruz of the Salinas Police Department told Dateline that as she left the apartment in her bright red automobile, “no one approached her, and there is no indication that her vehicle was followed.”
He said detectives discovered footage of the car as it drove past the Carmel Highlands General Store, about 40 minutes from her home and on its way to Big Sur.
The police and the Monterey County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue Team performed multiple searches using airplanes, drones, and K9 units.
But Arelie has yet to be found, and her case remains a mystery to this day. A mystery that sounds disturbingly similar to another case.
“There is speculation about whether or not her case is connected to that of Kayeleigh Gammill,” Dateline correspondent Josh Mankiewicz mentions to the sisters during the podcast.
“The similarities are impossible to ignore,” he continued, referring to their age and the dates they went missing. “One person has been found and the other has not – that’s the big difference.”
Kayeleigh Gammill, 20, went missing on August 17, 2022, a few weeks before Arelie disappeared. Two weeks later, her body was discovered off Highway 1 in Big Sur.
Later that year, the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that her death was being investigated as a homicide.
However, authorities tell the family and Dateline that there is no evidence linking the two incidents, and Arelie’s disappearance remains under investigation.
Regarding Arelie’s case, Mankiewicz tells The Independent that “clearly something happened that day that she didn’t plan.”
“The circumstances under which she went missing are so hard to fathom,” he told me. “She left her home essentially too late to go to the gym and then to work, which was her normal routine.”
Six missing people, including Arelie, will be featured in the podcast’s third season. Tyler Goodrich, Shy’Kemmia Pate, Marcus Rutledge, Melanie James, and Terrence Woods, Jr. round out the group.
“They are the families of the missing in America,” Mankiewicz says in a promo for the new season. “Celebrating birthdays, but without the guest of honor. And they’re anxiously searching for answers.”
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Each episode will focus on a different missing individual and take the listener through the story as Mankiewicz speaks with their relatives, friends and the ones investigating the riddles.
“In each episode, we will focus on one missing person’s case, and hear from the families, the friends, and the investigators, all determined to find them,” the teaser quotes Mankiewicz as saying.
The podcast derives from Missing in America, an internet series that has featured more than 500 people over the last decade.
Meanwhile, Arelie’s family is still searching for her and using social media to help bring her home.
Arelie stands 5’5″, weighs about 150 pounds, and has brown hair and brown eyes. She was last spotted wearing a black hoodie with black leggings.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Cruz of the Salinas Police Department at 831-758-7393 or the anonymous tip line at 831-775-4222.
Mankiewicz emphasizes that for each missing individual discussed on the podcast, there is a phone number to call if you have information.
“There are almost certainly people out there who know something,” he told me. “If you know anything, please take advantage of it. The best thing you can do is provide answers to these families.
“There is no such thing as closure,” he explained. “But having an answer – even if it’s not the answer they want – can be a gift to the families of the missing.”
“The smallest detail might help solve a mystery,” Mankiewicz added.
“These families cling to hope, and what you know just might make a difference.”
He stated that the circumstances surrounding her disappearance are what makes it a mystery.
Interviews with Arelie’s sisters on the podcast reveal that they are devastated by her abduction but remain hopeful that she is alive.
The third season of Dateline: Missing in America will premiere on July 16, with new episodes airing twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, until August 1.