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() Authorities in Ojai, California, will be hosting a first-of-its-kind missing persons event next month to raise awareness of the 235 active missing persons cases in Ventura County between 1969 and today.
One of those people missing is Zyanya Valora, a Hispanic woman with autism, who disappeared last June after leaving her parents’ home.
Valora snuck out of her parents’ home in Ojai, California, in the early morning hours of June 25, 2024.
“Probably she went for a hike or something, but she was planning on coming back at some point,” said her mother, Damaris Valora.
Zyanya Valora struggled with mental health
Then 21, Zyanya Valora had been diagnosed with autism and has also been diagnosed with anxiety and depression.
It wasn’t the first time Valora disappeared.
In 2017, the sheriff found her standing in the middle of a busy highway. Valora was then taken to a hospital for psychiatric treatment. Damaris Valora said it went well.
“She got rehabilitation at a place, and she was good for a while, for three years,” Valora said. “They did a good job with her confidence, and her depression was controlled by pills. It was a really good combination of therapy and psychiatry medicine.”
Zyanya Valora disappeared in 2020
Then COVID hit. Medical support for non-COVID illnesses was in short supply everywhere.
In 2020, Zyanya Valora wandered from home in the middle of the night. She was found hours later, huddled outside a church, carrying a Bible.
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Zyanya Valora previously disappeared. (Damaris Valora) -
Zyanya Valora disappeared in 2024. (Damaris Valora) -
Zyanya Valora disappeared from her parents’ home. (Damaris Valora) -
Zyanya Valora had autism, anxiety and depression. (Damaris Valora) -
Search dogs found Zyanya Valora’s trail that stopped at a baseball field and parking lot. (Damaris Valora) -
Zyanay Valora’s parents fear someone took her. (Damaris Valora) -
Zyanya Valora had previously been treated at a psychiatric facility. (Damaris Valora)
Valora had another medical stay and then went home. Her mother said things seemed fine for a while, but by 2022, Valora developed an eating disorder. She skipped meals, sometimes for days, and only went to high school once a week.
Meanwhile, her depression and anxiety continued to increase. In February of 2024, she withdrew from school altogether.
Searching for Zyanya Valora
The day Valora disappeared, her mother was awoken at about 1:30 in the morning by their dog barking. At the time, she didn’t think anything of it.
But the next morning, when she was looking to install an air conditioning unit in the back of the house, she noticed something different in her daughter’s window.
“The curtains were always open, and this time they were closed. And I was like ‘OK, what is going on?'” Damaris Valora said. “I put my hand like that to open the curtains, and the screen was missing. I pushed the curtains all the way, and I was like ‘OK, Zyanya is not in her bedroom.’”
After calling her husband and doing a quick search, including checking the church where her daughter had been found years before, Valora called 911.
Detectives and search and rescue teams arrived right away.
“The lady that found her in 2020 was here on the team, and she introduced herself to me and said I found her last time, and I’m going to find her this time,” Valora said. “And I said thank you, and they went on her way. And I thought for real that they will find her.”
What happened to Zyanya Valora?
Zyanya Valora’s cell phone pinged once that night, at 2:42 a.m., about two blocks from home. Search dogs tracked her scent on a trail about five blocks away, ending at a baseball field and parking lot.
“My first thought was that she got into the baseball field,” Damaris Valora said. “But probably somebody bad was there at that time, and they got her from the parking lot.”
The fact that her daughter wasn’t prepared for being away strengthens that belief for Valora.
“She didn’t plan this whole thing like I’m going to take a hike and I’m going to grab my backpack and some snacks and I’m going to go out and have fun,” Valora said. “I don’t think that she did something like that. She was barefoot and she didn’t have any change of clothes.”
Now, the family continues to search and wait while also advocating for other missing people in the area..
“I was thinking that night that somebody had to have her. It’s the only way that she’s not coming back,” Valora said.
