Missing Texas Woman Last Seen Leaving Party to Visit Boyfriend: Family

Zachary Stieber
By Zachary Stieber
February 12, 2019US News
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Missing Texas Woman Last Seen Leaving Party to Visit Boyfriend: Family
Brenda Lizbeth Montanez, 25, vanished from Log Cabin, Texas, on Jan. 27, 2019, officials said in a Feb. 8, 2019, update. (Henderson County Sheriff's Office)

A Texas woman who vanished in late January was last seen leaving a party to go see her boyfriend, her family said.

Brenda Lizbeth Montanez, 25, was last seen driving a maroon 2011 Mazda on Jan. 27, the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office said.

She vanished from Log Cabin, about 13 miles west of Athens, both of which are southwest of Fort Worth.

Officials and family members said that Montanez was at a friend’s house in Addison when she said she was going to see her boyfriend.

Montanez called the police after she arrived at his house, saying she refused to leave. The call was made at 2:45 a.m.

She was never seen by anyone else after leaving the party.

The boyfriend is cooperating with investigators, Henderson County Sheriff Botie Hillhouse told NBC DFW.

Montanez’s sister Jessica Montanez claimed that when her sister arrived at her boyfriend’s house, he wouldn’t let her in because another woman was inside his house.

“She was at a barbecue party in Addison. She left to see her boyfriend. He didn’t open the door because another female was at the home,” she told the Athens Review. “He told us that he wasn’t with her all weekend. But then he said that Brenda did go over to his house and that he didn’t open the door for her.”

She said that an investigator pinged her sister’s phone and that it was located in New York.

“He asked my mom if my sister had any reason to go to New York. She said, ‘No.’ She is very close to my mom. If she were going anywhere, she would have let my mom know,” she added.

Family members said that they’ve spent most of their time since Montanez vanished looking for her.

“It’s not normal for her to just disappear, for nobody to know anything about her,” Jessica Montanez told WFAA. “She’s never done that. No: never, never, never.”

Pablo Orlando, another family member, said that they’ve driven around the area where the boyfriend’s lake house is located, Cedar Creek Lake. “We drove every location and everywhere we can search and we have no evidence that she broke down on the road or had an accident,” Orlando said.

While investigators have been probing the missing person case, they said in an update late last week that there were no new leads so far.

Log Cabin Police Chief Todd Tucker told KLTV on Feb. 7 that officers followed up with Montanez’s family and also interviewed all the other parties involved. He said there’s not much else law enforcement can do unless new information becomes available and that there’s no evidence that a crime occurred.

But the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office said in the plea for help the next day that anyone with information should call the authorities, noting that it had joined the search for Montanez and was assisting the Log Cabin Police Department, the Henderson County District Attorney’s Office, and the Texas Rangers.

“We all want to see her quickly found, and I am hoping that once again the people of this county will answer the call and provide us with any information that could help in this all-out search,” Hillhouse said.

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