On the evening of January 26, 2021, 16-year-old Juan Tomas Santos Bautista was found dead in his car at the northbound French Prairie Rest Area on Interstate 5 near Wilsonville, Oregon. His father traced messages after Juan went missing and located the body at the rest stop the following day. Juan had been driving from his mother’s residence in Salem to his father’s home in Washington and was traveling with an acquaintance, Cesar Soto Gama, also 16 at the time.

Investigators identified Cesar Soto Gama as the primary suspect. He was arrested on suspicion of second-degree murder, first-degree assault, and unlawful use of a weapon, taken into custody in Washington, and waived extradition to Oregon. Both Juan and Soto Gama had been students in the Vancouver Public Schools district in Washington. Juan’s family remembered him as loving and bubbly; his laptop and a satchel he carried were reported missing from the vehicle.

What details can anyone add about Juan’s movements that day or about witnesses who might have been near the French Prairie Rest Area?