Simi Valley police are working “around the clock” to find a young mother who vanished from her home last week, leaving behind her keys, phone and “a significant amount of blood.”
Worried relatives of Rachel Castillo, 25, summoned police Thursday evening after her sister discovered the disturbing scene at the apartment they shared on Country Club Drive. Based on the amount of blood and the presence of Castillo’s personal items, detectives have labeled her as potentially “at risk.”
“We want to locate her as soon as possible and we are hoping for the best-case scenario — that she is alive and well,” said Simi Valley police senior officer Casey Nicholson, adding that, “investigators are literally working around the clock.”
Castillo was last seen by her sister, Emily, at 9:30 a.m. Thursday at the apartment where they lived with Castillo’s two sons. Relatives told KABC that Castillo dropped the boys off with their father at some point during the day. When Emily Castillo returned home around 8:30 p.m Thursday, she saw the blood and called 911.
“I was running around the house to see if I could find her somewhere… I checked her bathroom, under her bed, her closet, my closet, the laundry room, my bathroom and my bedroom but she wasn’t anywhere in there,” she told KABC.
Police said Castillo’s relatives have been cooperative as has the father of her children. Court records show she initiated divorce proceedings earlier this year.
“My understanding is that he has been cooperative right from the beginning,” Nicholson said.
Police commander Ritchie Lew cautioned that authorities have not “even determined a crime has occurred.”
“We don’t even have a suspect because we don’t know what happened,” Lew said. “What the detectives are trying to figure out is what happened and where she is.”
Castillo is described as 5 feet 2 and weighing 105 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes.
Anyone with information regarding Castillo’s whereabouts is asked to call the Simi Valley Police at (805) 583-6950.
Harriet Ryan
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