Angelica Brophy, 44, was meant to collect her daughter from a summer camp on Monday, July 6, but the emergency room nurse never showed up
Credit: Family Handout
NEED TO KNOW
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A “wonderful, thoughtful” mom of two from Oceanside, Calif. has been missing for more than a week
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Police are searching for Angelica Brophy, who was last seen on Monday, July 6, when she visited a casino and then drove to Palomar Mountain State Park
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Her husband reported her missing after she didn’t pick her daughter up from summer camp as planned, and then didn’t return home that evening
Police are searching for a California mom of two who has been missing for more than a week.
Oceanside resident Angelica Brophy, 44, was last seen on Monday, July 6, when she visited her local Harrah’s Casino and then drove to Palomar Mountain State Park, about a 15-mile drive away, where she often hiked with her loved ones, according to NBC affiliate KNSD.
Per ABC affiliate KGTV, she was expected to pick up her daughter from a summer camp that afternoon, but didn’t appear. Her husband filed a missing person report with the Oceanside Police Department at about 9:30 p.m. local time that night, after she didn’t return home, the North Coast Current reported.
Credit: Family Handout
Officers tried locating her cellphone two days later, but it was either switched off or the battery had died, per the outlet. On Thursday, July 9, her car was found in a parking lot at Palomar Mountain State Park, but she wasn’t inside.
Search and rescue teams spent the following four days looking around Palomar but couldn’t find Brophy, an emergency room nurse at Kaiser Hospital in San Marcos, per KNSD.
California State Parks divers searched a pond at the state park on the weekend, while divers from the San Diego Harbor Police Department joined them on Monday, July 13, per the North Coast Current.
Credit: Alamy
Martin Fabregas, one of Brophy’s brothers, told KNSD that the family is trying to stay positive, while another brother, Manny Fabregas, said they’re “all in a state of limbo.”
Brophy’s sister-in-law, Lisa Fabregas, called her a “wonderful, thoughtful” woman and a “very good mom” who would do “anything” for her children.
“She is funny and kooky, and will sing at the top of her lungs and will not have one note in tune, but she does not care,” Lisa told the outlet. “She loves life and we really just need her back.”
The family has been busy putting up missing person posters in the area and sharing them on social media in the hope that someone will have potential information to share.
A Bring Angelica Home Facebook page and group have been set up, and family and friends in the group are planning to search the Palomar area on Tuesday, July 14.
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Oceanside Police Captain Nick Nunez told KNSD that officers are not suspecting foul play. He added that detectives are speaking to security staff at the casino to ascertain whether anyone was with Brophy or was following her, or whether she may have won a large sum of money during her visit.
Police urged anyone who may have information to call them at 760-435-4900.
PEOPLE reached out to the Oceanside Police Department for updates but did not immediately hear back.
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