Authorities in Las Vegas are working to reconstruct the final known movements of an Australian tourist who disappeared while visiting the city.
Sally Grace Contarino, 26, was last seen on June 20 near Sky Canyon Drive, on the edge of Las Vegas, leaving investigators still searching for answers more than a week later.
Contarino had been travelling alone on a two-week holiday in the United States. She spent time in Palm Springs, California, before arriving in Las Vegas on June 15 and checking in at the Bungalows Hostel on South Las Vegas Boulevard.
Two days after her arrival, she appeared in unusual circumstances on a livestream filmed by a pickup artist outside a 7-Eleven on the outskirts of the city, where he recorded himself asking for her phone number.
‘Sorry, I saw that you were very beautiful and I was wondering if I could get your number, by chance?’ he said to her.
Ms Contarino responded with a polite smile and declined the approach, telling him: ‘I have a boyfriend.’ There is no suggestion that the pickup artist was involved in any wrongdoing.
On June 19, Contarino texted a friend to say she was ‘about to hike up Lone Mountain’, a day before she was due to fly home to Australia.
Surveillance footage later placed Contarino at Timbers Bar and Grill, where she was seen gambling between 8:30pm and 10:30pm that night, before returning to the Bungalows Hostel in the early hours of June 20.
Contarino was on a solo two-week vacation to the US and arrived in Las Vegas on June 15. Two days later, she was seen on the live stream (pictured) of a pickup-artist outside a 7-Eleven on the outskirts of the city, who filmed himself asking for her phone number
Police hold grave fears for Contarino, seen in the final known CCTV footage of her on June 20 in a mall boarding a bus on her way to a hike
Contarino checked out of the hostel on the morning of June 20 but left her luggage, and she had breakfast at a nearby cafe.
In her last known location, she was seen on the outskirts of Las Vegas near a Starbucks on Sky Canyon Drive at 1pm on June 20.
She was due to fly home to Melbourne from Los Angeles and purchased a Greyhound bus pass from Las Vegas to California, but the ticket was never used.
She is believed to have boarded a bus to Mount Charleston, a hiking area in the north-west area of Red Rock Canyon National Park, before vanishing.
Fears have been raised over what caused Contarino to vanish, with locals noting that the Bungalows Hostel is a one-star rated hotel in one of the seedier parts of the city.
Staff at the Timbers Bar and Grill recalled that she was in ‘good spirits’ the night before her disappearance, and said she gambled a small amount before leaving around 10:30pm.
However, staff also said the Bungalows Hostel was located in a neighborhood that is ‘not great for a girl alone.’
Contarino seen leaving the Timbers Bar and Grill on June 19, where staff said she was in ‘good spirits’ and told them she staying at the Bungalows Hostel
Contarino, seen withdrawing cash from an ATM machine before she vanished, moved throughout Las Vegas to a number of locations in the days before her disappearance
On the night of June 19, she returned to the Bungalows Hostel, a one-star accommodation
The Las Vegas Metro Police Department has now declared her ‘missing and endangered’, and said it is urgently searching for any information as to her whereabouts.
‘She might possibly be in severe emotional distress and in need of medical assistance,’ a police spokesman said.
Contarino’s unusual movements around Las Vegas in the days before she vanished prompted fears among locals that she may be a victim of human trafficking.
The dark criminal industry is a significant problem in Nevada, where authorities have estimated there are as many as 58 victims per 100,000 people.
Human trafficking expert Mike Bartel confirmed she matched the profile of victims, and a local told the Daily Mail of her fears when she saw Contarino’s movements were far from the usual tourist haunts on the Las Vegas casino strip.
‘It seems she was getting all around town which is odd in itself and she may have already been trafficked,’ said the woman, whose high-school aged daughter had been targeted by traffickers.
‘The areas she was seen in… that’s not normal behavior or safety measures for someone who usually travels alone.’
Sally Contarino was in Las Vegas when she last spoke with family members on June 20 before they lost contact with her
Authorities say they are urgently searching for any information as to her disappearance
Daily Mail understands Ms Contarino’s sister Amy travelled to the US several days ago, and her other sister Lauren, based in Queensland, has been raising awareness online.
She told US-based true crime forum Websleuths that her sister only had ‘a little bit of money’ and suffered from ‘mental health struggles’.
Another local, commenting on a true-crime forum, said: ‘I live in Las Vegas and know the area well. There’s absolutely no reason to be at a 7-Eleven in that part of town, unless she got lost, or got taken there by someone she met or knows.’
‘That’s a very bad area, heavy drug use and sex trafficking in that part of the city, arguably even worse than where she was staying,’ they said.
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department has now opened a missing persons case for Ms Contarino and is seeking public assistance to locate her.
Local hospitals have also been alerted and asked to review records in case she has been admitted.
Ms Contarino was last seen wearing a grey or blue sweatshirt, denim shorts, black and white shoes and a bag.
She has brown hair and brown eyes and a slim build.
It is understood police have recovered Ms Contarino’s luggage, used search dogs with her clothing and undertaken a grid search of the areas where she was last seen.
