Amada Abundez

Amada’s story

Amada Abundez left her home in San Juan Capistrano on the morning of Saturday, June 12, 2010. She was last known to be shopping at the Marshall’s store at 31878 Del Obispo Street. She had turned 35 three days earlier. She has never been seen or heard from again. [1][4]

A note on her name

The Sheriff’s Department’s web page lists her as Amanda Abundez, but its own bulletin, the California Department of Justice and the federal NamUs database all give her legal first name as Amada. She has also been known by several other names: Amada Trinidad, Amada Castaneda, Amada Abundez-Castaneda, Amanda Abondez-Castaneda and Yaritza Rosales-Quintero. Searching under “Amanda” alone will miss most records. [1][2][5]

Who Amada was

Amada was born on June 9, 1975. She was 5’4”, about 140 pounds, with long black hair and brown eyes. She had several distinctive tattoos: the name “Yovani” on the back of her neck, Our Lady of Guadalupe across her back, a flower on her lower left leg, and the letters “E” on her right forearm and “S” on her left. [1]

What happened

What’s public is very limited. Amada was last seen at her residence that Saturday morning, and the last known information about her is that she was shopping at Marshall’s on Del Obispo Street. The official wording is careful: it says she was “last known to be shopping” there, not that anyone saw her in the store. The public record doesn’t say how that information is known, for example from a receipt, a card transaction or a witness. Nothing has been published about a vehicle or phone. [1][5]

What investigators have said

The Sheriff’s Department lists Amada as a missing person. Her case was entered in NamUs in November 2016, six years after she vanished. No dental X-rays are available, so a family DNA sample would be the main way to match her to unidentified remains. [2][5]

Where accounts differ

• Last seen where? The Sheriff’s Department and NamUs say she was last seen at home and “last known” to be at Marshall’s. One secondary listing says she was “last seen shopping at Marshall’s,” which goes further than the official wording. [1][3][5]

Open questions

• How is it known that she went to Marshall’s that morning?
• Did she have a car or phone with her?
• Where do her other names come from?

What you can do

• If you knew Amada, under any of her names, or were at the Marshall’s on Del Obispo Street on the morning of June 12, 2010, contact the Sheriff’s Department.
• Her tattoos are distinctive. If you work in forensics, or follow unidentified-remains cases in California or Mexico, a neck tattoo reading “Yovani” and a Guadalupe back piece are strong comparison points.
• Research: search Spanish-language media and the Capistrano Dispatch for June–August 2010 under “Amada.”