SAN DIEGO- Christel Billingsly lives in Sacramento. She flew to San Diego to meet with TELEMUNDO 20 for an interview, hoping to draw more attention to her son’s somewhat forgotten case.
The meeting was in the VONS parking lot on Garnet Avenue in Pacific Beach. It is a place where his son, Wesley Billingsly, frequently shopped until his disappearance almost three years ago.
“Everything is connected to his son,” said Christel Billingsly. “People say, ‘Well, her birthday must be tough.’ Well, Christmas is tough, Thanksgiving is tough. Easter is tough. Summer is hard, it is constant, ”said the mother.
Wesley Billingsly disappeared on June 12, 2018, when he was 24 years old.
“There isn’t a minute that goes by that I don’t think about him. But I still have to get up, I still have to go to work, ”said the mother of the missing youth.
She was a single mother and was raising three children, including Wesley. She said her family unit was always very close.
A graduate of San Diego State University, Christel Billingsly described her son as outgoing, positive and intelligent. Wesley Billingsly had an apartment and a job at an advertising agency. When she asked him how he was doing, Wesley Billingsly told his mom that things were “going great.” He spoke with his mother and two brothers frequently, by phone or text message.
What Christel Billingsly didn’t know was that before he disappeared, Wesley Billingsly was sleeping on the couch at friends’ houses in Pacific Beach. Apparently the rent on his apartment was lost and his roommates asked him to leave. He also lost his job at the agency.
The day Wesley Billingsly disappeared, he was texting with his brother. After that, there were no calls, texts or social media posts from the 24-year-old, something his mother said is far from the norm.
TELEMUNDO 20 interviewed Christel Billings shortly after Wesley’s disappearance in 2018. She told us then: “He has never done this and now it is as if he has fallen off the face of the earth. And we are looking for it. I don’t know where he is, but I need to know where my son is ”.
In March 2019, the San Diego Police Department (SDPD) found Wesley Billingsly’s black Ford Expedition abandoned on a south county city street. Inside the vehicle, detectives discovered some of Wesley’s personal belongings but found him nowhere to be found.
Christel Billingsly returned to San Diego several times in the months after Wesley’s disappearance. She put all her energy into placing flyers in the Pacific Beach area and where her vehicle was located. The brochures feature the smiling face of Wesley Billingsly and a $ 10,000 reward offer.
“I want them to see Wesley’s face, I want them to know that I’m still looking for him, I want them to see him in the trees,” said Christel Billingsly.
She estimated that she has posted 5,000 flyers in the last three years. She said she never returns to the area where she places them, fearing someone has removed them.
Though unimaginable to many, Christel Billingsly’s heartbreak is not uncommon.
In 2020, approximately 1,100 missing adults were reported in the city of San Diego alone. Of these, 24 remain open cases. And of the 900 children reported missing, about 100 are still open.
The police department could not give TELEMUNDO 20 the exact number of people reported missing so far this year, only saying that the number is “on track to be the same” as in 2020.
But they said that as of now, there are 53 open cases of missing adults.
“In most cases, the person ends up being located because they return home. With a risky situation, the first two days can be critical; I’d even say the first 24 hours, ”said Joel Tien, a sergeant who heads the San Diego Police Department’s Missing Persons Unit.
Tien said San Diego’s proximity to the Mexican border influences his investigations.
“Since we are so close to the Mexican border, it is not uncommon for family members or loved ones to provide information about the person who is missing, who may have crossed the border,” Tien said.
Christel Billingsly said she never knew of her crossing to Mexico and cannot imagine her son doing so. Still, she didn’t want to leave a stone unturned, so she and her brother went to Tijuana, Mexico in November 2018. They went to hospitals and jails looking for Wesley with a translator. She said they spent hours at the local morgue looking at thousands of black and white photographs of unclaimed bodies, but Wesley Billingsly was not among them.
“The Billingsly case is currently open and we follow up on advice as it comes in,” Tien said. “The last notice we received was only a few months after Wesley’s disappearance. We therefore appreciate your highlighting the case. We hope to get good information in the near future. “
Our sister network, NBC 7 Investigates requested all missing persons data from all major law enforcement agencies in San Diego County.
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