Camila Mendoza Olmos remembered: Family speaks out as community honors her life
A tree in her honor will be planted in the Davy Crockett National Forest.
San Antonio teen Camila Mendoza Olmos, 19.
Details on a wake honoring Camila Mendoza Olmos, a San Antonio teen who was found dead on Tuesday, December 30, have been released.
The public is invited to attend a balloon release on Saturday, January 3, from 5 to 9 p.m. It will take place at Wildhorse Sports Park, where the Olmos family had created a search station.
In a Wednesday, December 31 statement, a member of the Olmos family gave a “humble and heartfelt thank you” to members of the community for their support during the search for the missing teen.
“Our beloved Camila Mendoza Olmos is now with the Good Lord,” the statement reads. “We kindly ask that you please respect our pain and, most importantly, keep my cousin Rosario — Camila’s mom — and my nephew Carlos — Camila’s brother — in your prayers during this incredibly difficult time. Thank you, and God bless you all.”
What happened to Camila Mendoza Olmos
Camila Mendoza Olmos, 19, disappeared from her Northwest Side San Antonio home on the morning of Christmas Eve, Wednesday, December 24. She had last been seen around 6:58 a.m., and video obtained by the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office showed an individual believed to be Olmos walking around 7 a.m. along Wildhorse Parkway, a street that intersects with Caspian Spring, on which she lived.
Olmos’ story went national as the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and Texas Equusearch joined efforts to locate the Northwest Vista College student. It would be six days after her disappearance that search efforts were concluded. Around 4:45 p.m. on Tuesday, December 30, a body and a firearm were found in an area of tall grass near Burning Bush Landscaping Company at Bent Cyn and FM 1560 — only a few hundred yards from Olmos’ home.
The Bexar County Medical Examiner positively identified the body as Camila Mendoza Olmos on Wednesday, December 31, and determined the cause of death to a suicide by a gunshot wound to the head.
As the community honors Olmos this weekend, the Youth Peace and Justice Foundation has announced that a tree will be planted in her memory in the Davy Crockett National Forest in East Texas. The foundation is also accepting donations for the family’s funeral and other expenses pending the creation of an official GoFundMe.
If you are in crisis, please call, text, or chat with the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988, or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741.
