Maria Dolores Rosales Pacheco, a 31-year-old mother of four known as Lola or Lolita, was last seen on July 7, 1996, in Modesto, California. She spent that day visiting friends in Ceres, attending church in Modesto, and shopping at a Wal-Mart before returning home around 11:00 p.m. and making a phone call. She arranged for a friend to call at 4:00 a.m. the next morning so she could get up for a 7:00 a.m. shift at the Valley Fresh Inc. Plant in Turlock, but the friend reached no answer and Pacheco never showed up for work or collected her final paycheck.

Pacheco had separated from her husband the month before. He told police he saw her at 6:30 a.m. on July 8 in a parking lot near Crows Landing and Hatch roads in Modesto and said she handed him their young daughter; that sighting has not been confirmed. A few days after she was reported missing, Pacheco’s red 1987 Hyundai was found abandoned on the 2000 block of Seattle Street in Modesto and her identification was inside, but there was no sign of her. The Modesto Police Department is investigating.

If anyone knew Maria, her routines, or observed her car around July 7–10, 1996, please share information with investigators.