Important update in the Jolissa Fuentes case as the body of a missing California woman has been found after tire tracks led to a horror discovery

A California woman has been found dead after being missing for more than two months.

Jolissa Fuentes was last seen around 4 a.m. on August 7 when surveillance video at a gas station in Selma, California, recorded her getting out of her car to buy snacks.

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Officials said Tuesday they found Fuentes’ body in her car, which crashed off a cliff in the Sierra Nevada foothills about 30 miles east of Fresno.

Selma Police Chief Rudy Alcaraz found the crash site after leading the investigation into Fuentes’ disappearance.

Alcaraz said he stopped his squad car near a bend in the road near Pine Flat Lake when he noticed tire tracks leading into the thick undergrowth.

“I was just lucky to find the spot where her car went off the road,” Alcaraz said on Tuesday.

Investigators then used drones to track the vehicle’s likely path down the heavily forested cliff.

After locating the car, officers had to rappel down two cliffs to reach the actual crash site using a 475-foot rope, according to CNN.

The area is so heavily forested that officers lost the rappels during the mission, they said.

“As a woman of faith, I believe he was directed by God to this area,” Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims said of Alcaraz’s luck in discovering the tire tracks.

Alcaraz doesn’t think there’s a foul involved and says Fuentes probably fell asleep while driving.

Joey Fuentes, Jolissa’s father, called Alcaraz “my hero” after he collapsed while thanking law enforcement officers who led the search for his daughter.

‘I’M EXHAUSTED’

In August, Fuentes’ mother, Norma Nunez, exclusively told The US Sun that no one had seen or heard from the 22-year-old woman since 3:30am on August 7, when she appeared to disappear.

The woman was last seen on surveillance video at a gas station in Selma, California, around 4 a.m. the same morning.

Fuentes tried to FaceTime her sister at 3:59 am, but her sister was asleep and didn’t respond.

“Why did she FaceTime? Did she want to show us something? Was something wrong?” said her worried mother.

“Everything went through our heads.”

About an hour and a half later, Fuentes tried to call her sister at 5:25 a.m. and again at 5:26 a.m., which her father said was her last known activity.

“I know she’s alive. I can feel it. I’m desperate. I’m broken,” her mother continued.

“I just want someone to return our Jolissa.”

‘I LONG FOR YOU’

On Monday evening, Nunez posted a message to her daughter on Facebook.

“Night 65: Good night my little girl, I send you kisses and hugs, we love you baby and will keep looking for you, high and low. Today we met a nice man who wants to help find you,” the note begins.

“We’ll look for you everywhere, baby. Although every day takes us in a different direction and our feelings are everywhere, you are always our main priority.

“We love you baby.”

That note came just hours after Nunez shared another message with her daughter, as she has frequently done since August.

“Day 65: With every day that goes by and without Jolissa, our hearts break a little more,” Nunez began.

“If I could have held you just a little bit longer, the last time I saw you, I would have told you how much you mean to me… oh my little girl, how my heart aches for you, I must find you, my.” muddy girl.

“I ask that like I do every day. Please pray for my baby. 65 days without her just seems so long. We need her home where she belongs but I believe in miracles and I feel you will be, thanks to those who are helping and to those who are going out and looking for her, you are appreciated.”

THE SEARCH FOR FUENTES

A community had gathered around Fuentes’ family as they searched for her disappearance for weeks.

The entire Fuentes family, along with the Good Samaritans, have been distributing posters with her picture and checking doorbell cameras for clues.

Some have used their drones and communicated via Facebook groups to coordinate their efforts – but nothing concrete had come up in the search prior to the discovery of Fuentes’ body.

Adventures With Purpose (AWP), an Oregon-based volunteer dive search team that found the truck and body of Kiely Rodni in the water, joined the search Wednesday, August 24.

Since 2019, the group has helped solve 23 missing persons cases.

“I am anxious. I don’t know what they will find. I’m nervous about what they’re going to find,” Nunez said.

“JOLISSA WOULD BE SO HAPPY”

Just a few weeks ago, Los Angeles Rams safety Taylor Rapp recorded a one-minute video urging everyone in the Selma, California area to look for Fuentes and gave a description of her gray Hyundai with license plate number 8MPU766 .

“Everyone please keep an eye out for Jolissa Fuentes,” Rapp said in the video. “Let’s take her home.”

Fuentes’ mother Norma Nunez posted the video to Facebook and told The US Sun that she was “moved to tears” that the Rams’ starting safety helped her family.

“Jolissa would be so happy. She absolutely loves the Rams,” Nunez said. “Having him do that for her was so touching. People are looking for her and want her found, so I was touched.”

Nunez had believed “someone had her” and police had treated her disappearance as a criminal matter.

Her family turned to a private investigator and upped the reward to $15,000 for information gathered through raffles and a GoFundMe campaign.

“We’re not waiting for the police to find them,” Nunez said in a previous interview.

“We’ll take her home.”

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