Janette "JJ" Pantoja, 29, and Juan Almanza Zavala, 36, were supposed to return home from the Hot August Nights car show on Aug. 7.
They broke up years ago but remained on friendly terms, according to her sister, Alejandra Pantoja, who said it was not unusual for them to go out to dinner or to events even though she’d since begun a new relationship.
Yuba City police said the pair’s phones last pinged in Nevada County, California, but a search of the area turned up nothing.
They were headed home from Reno, Nevada, to Yuba City in California. Reno is about 35 miles northwest of the Prosser Family Campground
in the Tahoe National Forest, where 16-year-old Kiely Rodni was last seen about 23 hours earlier. Pantoja and Almanza Zavala’s phones last pinged in Penn Valley, another 75 miles to the west.
Authorities have said they don’t think the cases are connected – but Alejandra Pantoja has taken issue with the massive public search effort for Rodni juxtaposed against her sister’s quieter case.
"I thought police were pretty rude," she said of a Yuba City detective. "I called them today because I wanted to know about my sister, and they were like we can’t keep in contact with you every day."
"They’ve been telling us they were going to send an aerial search and they haven’t done that," Alejandra Pantoja said of Yuba City. "I just feel like if something happened to them, or if he did something to her, they’re just giving [potential suspects] time to run."
"How is it that they’re doing a big deal for her but not making a big deal for our family member?" Alejandra Pantoja said. "It’s not OK."
A California woman and her ex failed to return from a road trip to Reno about 35 miles away from a massive search for missing Kiely Rodni, who vanished a day earlier.
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