Have you seen them?
Enrique Rios, 17: Hispanic male, 5-foot-7, 140 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. Last seen wearing black shirt and black basketball-style shorts
Elijah Moore, 17: African-American male, 5-foot-11, 190 to 200 pounds, with black hair, brown eyes and a scar across his right hand. Last seen wearing yellow T-shirt with NCCT logo, tan work pants and tan steel-toed boots
Anyone with information about Enrique or Elijah’s whereabouts is urged to call Woodland police at 530-661-7851, the Yolo County Sheriff’s Office dispatch at 530-666-8282, or the FBI at 800-CALL-FBI (800-225-5324) or online at https://tips.fbi.gov. All tips may remain anonymous
WOODLAND — A year has passed since two Yolo County mothers last saw their teenage sons, neither of them suspecting their boys would suddenly vanish into thin air.
Today, both Lola Rios Gutierrez and Alicia Moore say they are no closer to knowing their sons’ whereabouts than they were 12 months ago, adding frustration to their pain and worry.
More than 50 relatives and friends of Enrique Rios and Elijah Moore, two 17-year-olds who have been missing for a year, gather for a candlelight vigil and balloon release on Oct. 17 in Woodland. Sue Cockrell/Enterprise photo
“We don’t have any new information, no matter how many times I call,” Gutierrez said of her contacts with the law-enforcement agencies investigating her son Enrique Rios’ missing-person case. “That’s really hard, because I would like to know how the investigation is going.”
Alicia Moore, whose son Elijah Moore disappeared 17 days after Enrique, acknowledges that she now fears the worst.
“It’s pretty clear with this length of time that they’re deceased. That’s my conclusion,” Moore said. Still, she’s hopeful the investigation someday will bring answers about what happened to her son.
“I want to know. I want justice, and I’m not going to quit until I get it,” she said.
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Enrique Rios. Courtesy photo
Both 17, the boys were friends — classmates at César Chávez Community School in Woodland and students in a local construction training program that taught them carpentry and life skills.
It was Enrique who went missing first, his last contact with his family on Oct. 16, 2016, when he said goodnight to his mother and little sister in their Esparto home.
Gutierrez awoke the next morning to find Enrique gone, his clothing and other personal belongings left behind. He apparently took his cell phone, but calls to it went straight to voicemail, and none of its data was used.
The nightmare recurs daily whenever Gutierrez passes by her son’s empty bedroom, or when her daughter, who idolized Enrique, asks where he is.
“Every single day it’s the same thing. It’s getting harder and harder,” Gutierrez said.
Elijah vanished less than three weeks later, disappearing on Nov. 4, 2016, the day after his 17th birthday. He’d just cashed a work check at California Check Cashing on Main Street in Woodland and told his mother over the phone that he’d be home soon.
Alicia Moore believes her son was somehow “set up,” targeted by a gang he had stood up to and and refused to be intimidated by.
“I’m going to do something real quick,” Elijah said in that final call, according to Moore. “There was no strain, no stress or anything in his voice, no sign that he was in any kind of danger.”
Both mothers have been critical of the police investigations, saying that neither case was given high priority until weeks after the disappearances. Gutierrez said her family at one point hired a private investigator to aid in the search, but that authorities discouraged that effort.
Elijah Moore. Courtesy photo
“Sensitive time was lost,” Alicia Moore said of her son initially being labeled a runaway. “If it was their children, it would be all over the news.”
The missing-person cases are being jointly investigated by the Woodland Police Department, the Yolo County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI, which joined the probe in February by offering $10,000 in reward money — $5,000 in each case — for information that would solve the mysteries.
A GoFundMe account has been established by the families to augment the FBI reward fund: www.gofundme.com/EnriqueandElijah.
“Someone knows where Enrique and Elijah are or has other information that will help us find them,” FBI Special Agent Monica M. Miller said when announcing the rewards. “The families of these two young men desperately want to know where their sons are and we all are doing everything we can to return these boys to their homes.”
Woodland police and Yolo sheriff’s officials say they also continue to vigorously investigate the cases.
“We have interviewed dozens and dozens of people, served numerous search warrants and seized many items of potential evidence that are still being analyzed by the FBI laboratory in Quantico, Virginia,” Woodland police Sgt. Dallas Hyde said last week.
“Investigators are confident that someone in the public has more in
Enrique Rios and Elijah Moore’s family and friends watch balloons sail away after their Oct. 17 vigil in Woodland. Sue Cockrell/Enterprise photo
formation that will lead to more evidence in this case. We have and continue to ask for anyone with information to please come forward and contact our department,” Hyde said. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of Elijah Moore and Enrique Rios.”
“The case continues to be a priority for our office,” sheriff’s Sgt. Matt Davis added, but said his agency has no new information to release.
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On Oct. 17, the one-year anniversary of Enrique’s disappearance, more than 50 of his relatives and friends gathered on the street corner outside the Sheriff’s Office in Woodland for a balloon release and candlelight vigil, their presence reminding passersby that they haven’t given up hope.
“It’s emotional. You really feel for the families,” said Rebecca Macias, a teacher at Tafoya Elementary School in Woodland who taught Enrique as a child and has been active in publicizing the ongoing searches.
“It’s important that people still remember that they’re out there, that their families need them to come home,” Macias said.
A similar gathering for Elijah will take place on the evening of Friday, Nov. 3, at Woodland’s Purity Plaza, 9 Main St.
The date holds double significance — it’s Elijah’s 18th birthday, in addition to the nearly one-year anniversary since he vanished. Moore plans to serve birthday cake and release balloons in the colors of her son’s beloved San Francisco 49ers.
“This is a perpetual state of grief. It’s been traumatic, really,” Moore said of the past year. “Not just for myself, but for my other children,” who are 7, 20 and 27 years old.
Both mothers say that, until they get the answers they desperately need, they’ll continue to do whatever it takes to keep their sons’ disappearances in the public eye.
“I hope it stays alive,” Gutierrez said. “We don’t want people to forget, because that’s the worst thing that could happen.”
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene