Yasmin Gonzalez Benitez, missing Santa Ana, California mom willfully abandons 4-year-old daughter after telling roommate she would return home later that evening during over the border trip to Mexico only to disappear and refuse to answer roommate’s calls.
A California mother who was reported missing after telling her roommate she was taking a short trip to Tijuana, Mexico has been found safe.
The missing woman’s discovery comes after the parent leaving her 4-year-old daughter with her roommate, after assuring her she would return later that evening only to fail to show up.
Yasmin Gonzalez Benitez, 21 according to a Tuesday release from the Santa Ana Police Department was ‘voluntarily in Mexico.’
Orange County mom assured roommate she’d return later that evening after leaving 4-year-old daughter behind
In a previous release, the department said the Orange County mom told her roommate that she was traveling to Mexico to visit family and would return hours later on the evening of March 15.
At the time, Benitez had gotten into a car with relatives and headed across the border to visit her brother assuring the roommate she would return later that evening.
Benitez’s actions were described ‘out of character.’
Uncooperative family
With authorities unable to locate Benitez, her daughter was placed in the custody of Child Protective Services, where she remains as of Tuesday.
Authorities made multiple attempts to contact Benitez’s mother and brother, who according to police were ‘uncooperative’ in assisting locate the 21-year-old in a bid to reunite her with her child according to CBS LA.
The roommate had tried a number of times to contact Yasmin only to receive no answer from the mom.
Santa Ana mom continues to remain in Mexico
Police called Benitez’s disappearance ‘very suspicious,’ because the 21-year-old was someone who ‘would take her [child] to preschool.’
‘She would come home,’ police told CBS LA. ‘She would work, but she always had someone in the care of her daughter. She never left for more than a couple of days with the daughter, so this is very suspicious to us.’
It remained unclear if the mother would now face charges should she return to the U.S.
