Part of a "missing girl" poster for Isabel Celis from 88-CRIME.Listen
Three years after Isabel Celis was reported missing the Tucson Police Department is still investigating her case despite leads drying up.
Celis was 6 years old when her father, Sergio Celis, called 911 the morning of April 21, 2012 saying his daughter was missing from her bedroom.
In the days following Isabel’s disappearance, officers from the Tucson Police Department flooded the area where she lived, near East Broadway Boulevard and Craycroft Road, doing hundreds of interviews.
Three years later the search and investigation continue said Lt. Matt Rondstadt.
"Someone has seen something, heard something, that is going to prove to be that tiny little missing piece that helps tie all the pieces together," Ronstadt said. "And they may not even be aware that they have that information."
He said the department has received more than 2,000 phone calls and tips. The majority came shortly after the young girl went missing and have slowly began to happen less frequently, he said.
In 2012, investigators collected samples of what appeared to be blood on the missing girl’s bedroom floor and on other items shortly after her disappearance.
The case was initially treated as a suspicious disappearance. About a month later, it was classified as an abduction.
FBI agents were in Tucson during the early stages of the investigation, and police received thousands of phone calls with possible tips.
A few weeks after the young girl went missing, Child Protective Services asked the girl’s father, Sergio, to stay away from his two other children, Isabel’s older brothers. He was later allowed back in the home, but details of why he was temporarily separated from his sons were not revealed.
Rondstadt said he could not comment on whether the little girl's parents were still considered suspects in the case.
Sergio and Rebecca Celis, Isabel's parents, days after the then 6-year-old girl that went missing.
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