FIEL asks for public’s help in search for missing Houston visitor Sydney Marquez

‘They are desperate for answers and feel as though their pleas are falling on deaf ears’

Sydney Marquez of El Paso, 24, was last seen on December 11 in Houston. Texas EquuSearch has joined search efforts alongside the family and the Houston Police Department. (Marquez Family, Texas EquuSearch)

Immigrant rights advocacy group FIEL has joined an El Paso family’s search for 24-year-old Sydney Marquez, who disappeared two weeks ago while visiting friends in southwest Houston.

On Tuesday morning, spokespeople with FIEL, Immigrant Families and Students in the Fight, joined the Marquez family at FIEL headquarters in Houston to urge anyone with information to come forward, regardless of immigration status.

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Sydney Marquez was last seen around midnight on Dec. 11 in southwest Houston.

According to investigators, surveillance video shows her walking away after leaving a friend’s car running in the street near the 9100 block of Bellaire Boulevard.

Witnesses later told her father she may have boarded a northbound METRO bus at the intersection of Gessner Road and Harwin Drive.

“The Marquez family still has many questions,” Cesar Espinosa, executive director of FIEL, said in a statement. “Like many families we work with, they are desperate for answers and feel as though their pleas are falling on deaf ears.”

Description of Sydney Marquez

According to the Houston Police Department, Sydney is:

5 feet 4 inches tall

Approximately 120 pounds

Short reddish-brown hair

Brown eyes

Wears glasses

Has a four-leaf clover tattoo on her left wrist

In an interview with KPRC 2, Sydney’s father, Raul Marquez, said his daughter lives and works in El Paso and had traveled to Houston to visit friends.

He believes she may have been experiencing a mental health episode at the time she disappeared.

“She was diagnosed with late-onset bipolar disorder with a bit of schizophrenia,” Marquez said. “Over the last two or three months, we saw changes in her behavior.”

Marquez has stressed the importance of surveillance video from that bus Sydney might have boarded, calling it critical to understanding what happened next.

“That footage is a matter of life and death,” he said. “It’s the last solid evidence we have.”

METRO Police confirmed this week that the requested bus video has been successfully retrieved and turned over to the Houston Police Department, which is leading the investigation. METRO Police say they continue to assist HPD as the search continues.

Texas EquuSearch is also helping look for Sydney. Founder Tim Miller says time remains a major concern.

“She’s a young woman who was walking late at night in an area she didn’t know,” Miller said. “We just want to get her home safe.”

In an emotional message, her father addressed his daughter directly.

“Sydney, you need to come home now,” Marquez said. “We miss you. We love you. Christmas is around the corner.”

Investigators are still searching for a 24-year-old woman who went missing over 10 days ago near a Houston shopping center, and newly reviewed surveillance footage appears to offer few leads.

Sydney Marquez, an alumna of Texas A&M, was last seen on Dec. 11 near a shopping center in the 9100 block of Bellaire Blvd, according to a missing persons flyer issued by Texas Equusearch—a nonprofit search and recovery organization. She was last seen wearing gray pants, a gray hoodie and tennis shoes.

Texas Equusearch recently conducted a day-long search in Houston alongside the parents of Marquez.

“She suffers from mental illness, which makes finding her quickly even more urgent,” the organization wrote in an updated post on Dec. 22. “No parent should ever have to spend day and night searching for their missing child—but this family refuses to stop hoping, and neither do we.”

New surveillance footage from the  Bellaire Blvd shopping center, reviewed on Dec. 21,  showed Marquez walking northbound down the sidewalk on Ranchester Drive, according to KHOU 11.

Tim Miller, founder of Texas Equusearch assisting in the search for Marquez, told KHOU 11 the footage appears to show Marquez walking normally, without signs of distress.

Sydney Marquez, 24, was last seen near a Houston shopping center on Dec. 11, 2025. Officials are asking anyone with information to contact the Houston Police Department.

Texas Equusearch / Missing Persons Flyer

“We’re back to square one and again it’s (a) process of elimination, this area is now eliminated, so we have to keep moving forward,” Miller said.

Chron contacted Texas Equusearch for comment on the search for Marquez but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

Marquez traveled from El Paso to Houston to meet with a friend, according to a Facebook post from The AWARE Foundation Inc.—another nonprofit organization dedicated to assisting families with missing loved ones. The 24-year-old reportedly left behind her phones, clothes and makeup, abandoned in her car near Houston’s Chinatown neighborhood.

“Her family is deeply worried after hearing she may have last been spotted at a bus stop, partially unclothed,” the Dec. 17 post read.

The Houston Police Department, the law enforcement agency investigating Marquez’s disappearance, was contacted by Chron for an update on the case. A spokesperson with HPD’s media relations team said Marquez’s disappearance is an ongoing investigation conducted by the department’s Missing Persons Unit and that no additional details could be provided at this time.

Officials are urging anyone with information in the case to contact HPD at 832-394-1840 or Texas Equusearch at 281-309-9500.