A missing daughter’s family is raising questions about her investigation

By Julian Paras

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    ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (KOAT) — Natalie Padilla has been missing her daughter, Anastasia Ferriera, since May 15, 2023.

Anastasia is now 20.

“Just trying to get through every day and continue to look for her,” Padilla said.

More than 400 days have passed. Yet nothing haunts her mother like day number one.

“It doesn’t feel real,” Padilla said. “It seems like a dream. It honestly feels like a dream. I don’t feel like it’s been that long.”

The New Mexico Department of Safety’s website lists nearly 800 New Mexicans as currently missing. Anastasia Ferriera’s name is still floating among them.

Even though Padilla is her mother and has complied with everything asked of her by local police, she says detectives aren’t telling much about what they’ve found.

The Albuquerque Police Department has been investigating Anastasia’s disappearance since last May. Her family says all police have told them is that her phone was last pinged at 8011 Central Avenue NE on March 16, 2023. The family didn’t find out until nearly a year later.

Target 7 asked APD why they don’t tell families more. APD Deputy Chief George Vega said gathering cellphone data, tracking social media activity, or getting reported sightings takes a lot of time.

“When you look at missing person cases, it’s not necessarily a crime to go missing. And so there’s a lot of different things that these detectives are having to look at,” Vega said. “They’re going through all their checklists and trying to determine where the person is, and then they either reach a fork in the road where this person wants to be found, not want to be found, or if this person is endangered.”

In cases like Ferriera’s, detectives are also looking for any traces of suspected foul play or an abduction. However, investigators don’t have substantial evidence to back that up.

“It’s every parent’s worst nightmare, but the reality still is that’s just a fact when it comes to law enforcement involvement in these roles and in these investigations,” Former APD Cmdr. Paul Szych said.

Szych knows about the ins and outs of these investigations. He says his one concern with missing persons units is how they are staffed. The missing persons unit may have fewer officers because there are other crimes with more evidence to investigate.

“They are going to be usually staffed, those units, that would be in charge of these investigations with a very low amount of investigators because there may be absolutely no additional information,” Syzch said.

The department of Public Safety’s missing persons list includes 233 people from Albuquerque. For them, APD’s Missing Persons unit has five officers. By comparison, the Crimes Against Children unit has nine officers. The homicide unit has 16 officers.

Target 7 asked Vega if there is a need to beef up the missing persons unit. He said he’s confident that the five people’s experience in the unit share are able to do the work needed to solve cases like Anastasia’s.

“As the deputy chief, I’m comfortable where they are at,” Vega said.

Meanwhile, a mother is still missing her daughter months after she was last seen. Padilla says others have the same frustrations she does.

She said police have told her they’ll consider the case to be cold unless they get more information soon. The family is taking matters into their own hands, hanging more than 500 flyers from Belen to Santa Fe. As the case for Padilla’s daughter grows colder by the day, she’s pleading with the community and with law enforcement to not forget about Anastasia.

She said there are hundreds of mothers like her suffering in silence.

“She doesn’t deserve to not be looked for,” Padilla said.

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