Police have not yet identified the body of a woman in her 20s found Wednesday in a wooded area in far Northwest San Antonio near Helotes Creek under an overpass at the intersection of Braun Road and Mustang Ranch.
Search and rescue teams found the body and a weapon while searching for 28-year-old Mariadelis Labrador Siles, who was reported missing in the area on Monday when she didn’t return from her usual walk.
Labrador Siles migrated to the U.S. from Cuba just more than a year ago.
On Thursday, her family, still in Pinar Del Rio, Cuba, made a tearful public plea for anyone to come forward with information to find her.
“To the entire community of San Antonio, please help us with any information so they can find her and bring her home. She’s the sweetest girl in the world for something to have happened to her,” her father said, in tears in a video recorded and posted to social media. “Secondly, I ask all Catholics and Christians to light a candle to help us and [for] God [to] bring her home to our family.”
The body found by search and rescue dogs Wednesday had signs of trauma — not gunshot wounds — Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said at the scene on Wednesday afternoon, but it is unclear if the trauma was self-inflicted or the result of a homicide or assault.
Officials are not disclosing information about the weapon discovered.
“The body that we found does seem to match, but we have to wait on the Medical Examiner to make a definite determination of identity,” Salazar said.
Investigators are treating the scene as a possible homicide and a possible suicide because the nature of the injuries, the sheriff added.
“We don’t have any indicators that the body was dragged here. What we have is that the person died here on scene,” Salazar said.
Labrador Siles was last seen at 9 a.m. Monday when she went for her walk. Officials believe she was wearing a blue light jacket with black Puma shoes that have pink soles.
She is described as a fitness and walking enthusiast, known to enjoy her daily walks. She is known to leave her belongings, including her phone, Salazar said.
In Cuba, she left her job as a primary school teacher where she loved working with children. Her entry to the U.S. was sponsored by her boyfriend, who is also Cuban, through the humanitarian parole program.
The area where the body was found and where Labrador Siles went missing is a wooded area under a bridge with what has become a natural walking path through the brush.
Labrador Siles’ cousin, Ismel Labrador, flew into San Antonio on Thursday from Florida with a family friend to help with the search.
His face was pale as he arrived at the scene where the body was found. He silently walked the area, looking for any clues of his cousin.
A family friend who lives in Houston, Pablo Mesa, said it’s normal for people in Cuba to walk or hike in wooded areas, but not like the area where she went missing.
“It’s no place to walk,” he said in Spanish, looking around.
Her romantic partner was the last person who saw her alive and has been fully cooperative throughout the investigation and he is not currently a suspect, Salazar said. He told deputies she may have walked to Wildhorse Sports Park, and that she left the house without her wallet or cell phone.
“It is possible that the woman who disappeared was going through a mental crisis. … If we can figure out what happened to this woman, we could find out about any problems that escalated to the point of her self-harming, or someone hurting her,” Salazar told some reporters in Spanish.
Labrador Siles’ family and friends disagreed with the idea that she may have harmed herself.
“I want to reiterate that she was a happy girl who socialized with people, who always fit in, who had great self-confidence, she was a good girl. I don’t think she would ever try to harm herself,” Mesa said.
The Medical Examiner’s Office will now work with her family in Cuba to attempt to identify the remains.
Missing in San Antonio
Labrador Siles’ disappearance is just one of many such stories: Nine people are reported missing every single day in San Antonio.
In September, another woman went missing after she didn’t return from her usual walk.
She was later found dead in a wooded area near Dafoste Park on the city’s far East Side with blunt force trauma to the head. The suspect is still out there.
If someone you know goes missing, San Antonio law enforcement recommends filing a police report as soon as possible, and to be prepared with images to help identify the missing person.
Read more:
Missing in San Antonio is a multi-part series by the San Antonio Report on people who go missing and the people who work to find them.
Read the first story that reveals just how many go missing here.
We share the stories of eight local missing persons cases here.
Here’s a guide on what to do if a loved one goes missing.
The most recent story details a possible solution to help keep track of older people with dementia.
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