Seven-year-old Karla Carolina Rodriguez was last seen on the evening of October 20, 1999, in her Las Vegas neighborhood near the Stratosphere Tower. She had gone to a neighbor’s house to play, was told it was late, and was later seen playing alone for about fifteen minutes before leaving on her bicycle and never returning home. Her family did not report her missing until the next morning when she failed to arrive at school and the principal alerted police.

Investigators with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and the FBI pursued multiple leads. A family-relative theory was later dropped. Two bloodhounds independently tracked Karla’s scent to a nearby apartment occupied by two brothers; officers found blood spatter in the apartment bathroom but no DNA profile could be obtained and no direct link to Karla was established. Convicted serial killer Curtis Dean Anderson was also investigated after a receipt placed him in Las Vegas the day she vanished, but searches of sites he had marked produced no evidence tied to Karla.

No one has ever been charged. The case remains open and Karla’s family continues to seek answers. If anyone knew Karla, where she spent time, or saw anything in that neighborhood the night of October 20, 1999, please come forward.