One year after her disappearance, search continues for missing Yucca Valley woman Carla Ruth Reyes

“We are lost and we don’t know where to look. I miss her. We love her, and I just wish we had a lead.”

Crystal Sunday spoke those words as she tried to fight back tears while she talked about her missing mother, Carla Ruth Reyes.

“My mom loved us, and it is hard for us to know she is not celebrating life with us,” said Crystal.

Since Carla Reyes was first reported missing a year ago, the few leads that have come in have turned up nothing.

Carla’s car is nowhere to be found

No financial transactions to track her down can be found, and there are no signs of the mother of three and grandmother of one.

“I don’t know how to do this without her, and it is not getting any easier. We just want some closure,” said Carla’s sister Charlotte Finn.

Carla’s family gathered at Christ Desert Park in Yucca Valley late last week to talk about her disappearance, and to plan what they might do next in their efforts to find her.

The family contacted CBS Local 2, asking us to do a story to coincide with the one year anniversary of Carla’s disappearance, hoping new coverage might lead to a break in the case.

Family members say it was Sunday February 3rd, 2013 when Carla left her home on Skyline Ranch Road in Yucca Valley. It was somewhere between the hours of 7:30 and 9:00 in the morning.

Carla’s family believes she drove away from her home, and she did not take her cell phone with her.

Following her disappearance, volunteers and investigators from the San Bernadino County Sheriff’s Office conducted searches on the ground, and from the air.

They searched the area around the home Carla shared with her common law husband, who was the last person to see her that Sunday morning, before he left the home to pick up some groceries.

When he returned, Carla was gone.

They searched nearby Joshua Tree National Park and they looked in the Landers area.

The family has also distributed 3,000 flyers around the high desert.

“From a personal standpoint, if that was someone in my family, I would want to have some closure to know what the circumstances were. It is hard for anybody to move on, if they don’t know what happened to their loved one,” said San Bernadino County Sheriff’s Detective Corey Emon, who is the lead investigator on the case.

Prior to her disappearance, Carla was dealing with some health issues, and was depressed, and the family and the lead detective say there is a chance Carla took her own life.

Despite her struggles, Reyes is described as someone who was “always giving, always there, and who always put others first”.

“She is a kind soul. She is always doing things for other people. If I wasn’t living it on a daily basis, I wouldn’t believe it, but she is out there somewhere,” said Crystal’s partner Maya Brand.

They’re pinning their hopes on finding Carla’s red, 2002, 4-door Mitsubishi Galant, with California license plate 5N0L847.

They believe they’ll find Carla if they find her car.

“I don’t know what else to say, but if anyone knows anything, please help us find my mom,” said Crystal.

Carla’s family is currently raising money to pay for a billboard to raise awareness about the case.

They’ve also set up this Facebook page to share and collect information.