The body of a missing California woman was found on Tuesday at the scene of a wrecked car that went off a cliff. The woman had gone missing two months ago.
Selma (Calif.) Police Department Chief Rudy Alcaraz told reporters at a joint news conference with the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office that the body of 22-year-old Jolissa Fuentes, who went missing Aug. 8, was discovered Monday in a ravine along with the smashed car and the woman’s belongings.
“We wish that we had better news,” he said. “I wish that we could have brought Ms. Fuentes home.”
The single-car accident occurred near Pine Flat Lake, a reservoir in the Sierra Nevada foothills of eastern Fresno County, Alcaraz said. No foul play was suspected. Tire tracks showed where the car sped off the road, and officers had to rappel 250 feet down the cliff to reach the vehicle and Fuentes’ body.
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Alcaraz was the first officer to spot the vehicle debris and tire tracks that helped search teams target the car.
“He promised me he was going to find my daughter,” Fuentes’ father, Joe Fuentes, said at the Tuesday’s news conference. “He’s my hero.”
The coroner’s office has yet to officially confirm the identity of the remains.
According to police back in August, Fuentes was at a family gathering the night of August 6 when she drove home in the overnight hours to get some belongings.
