Home Scandal and Gossip Foul play? Newly engaged Wilmington female couple go missing 2 weeks

Foul play? Newly engaged Wilmington female couple go missing 2 weeks

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Stephanie Mayorga and Paige Escalera
Pictured, Stephanie Mayorga and Paige Escalera missing Wilmington, NC couple.
Stephanie Mayorga and Paige Escalera
Pictured, Stephanie Mayorga and Paige Escalera missing Wilmington, NC couple.

Paige Escalera and Stephanie Mayorga missing: Newly engaged Wilmington, North Carolina couple remain missing two weeks since last being seen in suspicious circumstances.

A newly engaged North Carolina couple have been reported missing for more than two weeks under circumstances authorities say are ‘suspicious.’

Stephanie Mayorga, 27, and Paige Escalera, 25, were last seen on April 15 in Wilmington, N.C., police said Wednesday during a press conference.

Their roommate filed a missing persons report several days after she last saw Mayorga and Escalera, Capt. Thomas Tillman said.

Tillman said surveillance footage showed the couple leaving their Wilmington home together and driving a gray 2013 Dodge Dart with South Carolina plates. He described their disappearance as ‘suspicious’ based on undisclosed information police have received.

‘It is not unusual for persons of this age group to be spontaneous. It was unusual that the roommates didn’t come back home and also that they had left all their property in the home,’ Tillman said.

‘Their departure from the apartment appeared to be entirely normal,’ Tilmon added.

Video surveillance showed the newly engaged female couple not leaving the home with much and their casual dress attire suggested that they were not planning on being away for any extended period.

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Paige Escalera and Stephanie Mayorga
Paige Escalera and Stephanie Mayorga. Photo: Wilmington Police Department

Friends blocked from social media but why?

Tilmon said investigators found no signs of foul play inside their apartment and much of their property was still there.

Tillman said investigators had spoken to friends and family members of both missing women ‘in an attempt to gather information of where they might have gone and where they went missing.’

‘We have no idea where they went,’ Tilmon said at another press conference WECT 6 reports. ‘All the normal investigative techniques we use to find where people have gone and find out their history and what their plans were aren’t bearing out. This is unusual.’

Tilman added that Escalera has a connection to Spartanburg, South Carolina and it’s possible the newly engaged couple were there. He said it’s possible they may also be in the North Carolina counties of Brunswick or Leland.

Of note, Escalera’s sister, Stevie Jenkins told Oxygen.com that the newly engaged couple hadn’t known each other long. She also mentioned the pair only just moving into their Wilmington residence.

But it was what she also told the media outlet that may have also put authorities on guard.

‘They had only lived there a week or so before they went missing,’ Jenkins told oxygen.

‘As I have been contacting her close friends, I have found that every single one of them had been blocked from her social media over the last week or two. It is normal for family to not hear from her, but not her closest friends. As I spoke with Stephanie’s friends, they say it isn’t normal at all that they don’t hear from Stephanie.’

Stephanie Mayorga and Paige Escalera
Stephanie Mayorga and Paige Escalera

Newly engaged couple according to phone records hadn’t reached out to anyone since going missing two weeks ago:

Tilmon revealed that a phone search revealed mostly normal activity. Since they vanished, he said it doesn’t appear they have been reaching out to anyone.

Of note, a previous report told of the couple’s new roommate (who reported them missing) finding one of their cell phones left behind on their bed. Also left behind were laptops and Ipad that were found at the couple’s new residence. Items that seemingly would be brought along were one planning on being gone for an extended period.

A close family friend of Mayorga says the two women were engaged to be married and had a lot to look forward to.

‘They were in the process of getting a new apartment, they were engaged. They were trying to finish up education. Things were looking good,’ Dana Jarman told via WECT 6. ” ‘They’re very loved, they’re very missed. If there’s anything to tell us…tell us if they’re okay. Anything. We just wanna know they’re okay.’

Investigators have reached out to other local, state and federal law enforcement agencies for assistance. Tillman said police are using a SABLE aircraft to search broad areas of interest in to find their missing vehicle.

Anyone with information is encouraged to contact the Wilmington Police Department at (910)-343-3620. Tilmon said if anyone sees the Dodge Dart, to immediately call 911.

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