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Missing Longmont mother: Crews search pond nearly a week after Rita Gutierrez-Garcia's disappearance

Missing Longmont mother: Crews search pond nearly a week after Rita Gutierrez-Garcia's disappearance
Posted at 1:27 PM, Mar 24, 2018
and last updated 2018-03-25 16:13:03-04

LONGMONT, Colo. – A mother of three who disappeared without a trace nearly a week ago is still missing following a search at a pond in Longmont not far from where she was last seen after a night out on St. Patrick's Day.

Crews with the Longmont Police, Fire and Emergency Unit departments were searching a pond at Golden Ponds Park near 3rd Ave. and Hover Street since approximately 9 a.m. Saturday with dive teams and search dogs, according to Longmont Police Department spokesman Jeff Satur.

The pond is about two miles west of where the woman was last seen early Sunday morning, police said during a press conference on Thursday. 

Satur saidwitnesses told them Gutierrez-Garcia was last seen in the parking lot of 3’s Bar at 333 Main Street after the group of friends got out of the Breakers Grill just a few hundred feet away.

Witnesses and friends who spoke with police said there were other people in parking lot at that time that saw Gutierrez-Garcia and talked to her.

“We do not know who all those people are and we are asking that anybody who was in that parking lot that night (Saturday into Sunday morning), we’re asking that they call the Longmont Police Department and tell us what they saw,” said Satur.

He said investigators know the woman was on the phone with somebody before she went missing, but they do not know who that person was.

Gutierrez-Garcia was last seen wearing a black long-sleeved shirt with black leggings.

She is 5-foot-7, weighs 140 pounds and has brown hair and eyes.

Her mother said Gutierrez-Garcia has tattoos on both arms, as well as on one of her shoulders and on her feet. She also has piercings on her ears and tongue. The missing woman's mother did not describe the tattoos in detail. 

An official with Longmont police said the department did not have plans to search the pond on Sunday. No other areas were considered to be searched in the near future, the official said. 

If you have any information about her whereabouts, you are asked to call the Longmont Police Department immediately at (303) 651-8501.