A 14-year-old girl from Amarillo, Texas, who mysteriously disappeared more than 13 years ago, has been found alive and well.
Jessica Delgadillo disappeared without a trace in October 2010, after leaving her home in the 1300 block of North Bolton.
He was supposed to walk to Palo Duro High School, where he was a student, but he didn’t show up. His family reported the teenager missing the next day.
The Amarillo Police Department opened an investigation but the case was frozen and six months later Sergeant. Brent Barbee told the Yellow Globe-News “We don’t know what happened to her.”
Jessica Delgadillo (pictured) disappeared in 2010 at the age of 14. Her disappearance was inscrutable: there was no evidence of a crime and she had no history of running away from home. Her case quickly went cold
The Amarillo Police Department searched for Delgadillo but the case was frozen. Pictured: An aged photograph that investigators used to try to find Delgadillo.
Sergeant. Barbee told the outlet there was no evidence of foul play. No money had been stolen and none of Jessica’s clothes were missing.
Making the case even more puzzling, he added, was the fact that Delgadillo had no history of running away or leaving home without permission.
In most elopement cases, the person who ran away usually returns home or is found within a few days or hours.
“The main difference (in Delgadillo’s situation) is that she has already been out for six months and we have not received any new information about her,” said Sgt. Barbee said.
A family member suggested Jessica could be in Dalhart, Lubbock or Port St. Lucie, Florida. Authorities also noted that Delgadillo had family in Mexico, which further complicated the situation.
Amarillo police officers enlisted the help of federal investigators, who monitored border traffic in hopes of finding the girl.
Jessica’s relatives also ventured across the border to look for her.
But she was not found and a year after her disappearance the police ran out of clues.
In 2023, the Amarillo Police Department established the Cold Case Unit and contracted the services of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Together, they examined three cold cases, including Jessica’s. Pictured: A tweet from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children celebrating Delgadillo’s discovery.
After disappearing for thirteen years, a woman claiming to be Jessica Delgadillo contacted the Amarillo Homicide Unit; In the photo: a missing person poster from Delgadillo. The image on the right is old age.
In 2023, the Amarillo Police Department established a Cold Case Unit.
They began by examining three cases, hoping to breathe new life into them and energize the investigations.
They requested help from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, who quickly sent two agents to Amarillo to assist with investigations.
Investigators pored over the details of each case. They updated old information and spread details of the disappearances on social media. Photographs of the missing people with advanced age also circulated.
Then, on Thursday, November 2, 2023, after thirteen years of searching, the Amarillo Police Department’s Homicide Unit received a call.
The woman on the other end of the line said she was Jessica Delgadillo.
She said she knew she had been reported missing. Authorities collected DNA samples from the caller and sent them to the University of North Texas, where they were compared to DNA from a known family member.
Months passed and then it was confirmed: the person calling was Jessica Delgadillo.
Delgadillo currently lives on the East Coast. He asked that the details of his disappearance not be released.
Jessica Delgadillo’s case has been closed, giving investigators the time and freedom to focus their efforts on the two remaining unsolved cases.
Amarillo’s two other unsolved cases involve the disappearances of Brandy Noble and Dorien Thomas.
Noble disappeared in 2002 at the age of 16. She was listed as a missing person/endangered fugitive. She had been absent for six months before a missing person report was filed.
In 2008, Thomas disappeared from his neighborhood near 9th Avenue and North Lipscomb. He was nine years old.
Brandy Noble (pictured) is one of three cases being examined by the Amarillo Police Department’s Cold Case Unit. Noble disappeared in 2002 at the age of 16.
The third case the Amarillo Cold Case Unit is examining is that of Dorien Thomas, who disappeared in 2008 at the age of nine. In late December, investigators responded to a tip and exhumed some bones from a field. It was later determined that the bones belonged to an animal, but Dorien’s family has vowed not to give up hope.
In late December, Amarillo investigators acted on a tip and unearthed pieces of bone in a field in Hastings and Smelter.
Investigators and Thomas’ family hoped the bones were Dorien’s and that they could bring some closure, no matter how tragic.
But in January it was reported that the bones belonged to an animal.
In an official statement, Brandon Thomas, Dorien’s older brother, said: “We are not giving up.”