Mystery Deepens: California Mom Vanishes After Two Bizarre Stops

A Southern California family is desperately searching for a mother who vanished while on her way to pick up her child from summer camp last week.

Angelica Brophy, 44, was last seen dropping her daughter off at the camp in Oceanside on July 6 before she failed to return later that day.

Surveillance footage showed her leaving the Harrah’s Resort Southern California casino, east of Escondido, at around 3:30 p.m. A parking slip placed her at Palomar Mountain State Park about 15 miles northeast about 50 minutes later.

Brophy, an emergency room nurse at the Kaiser Permanente Hospital in San Marcos, has not been heard from since failing to collect her daughter. Her husband reached out to Brophy’s brother, Ramon Fabregas, at the time to ask whether she had contacted him.

“Her husband called asking if I’d heard from her,” Fabregas said. “I said no.”

Her vehicle was discovered several days later at Palomar Mountain State Park.

At that time, her family contacted rangers, kicking off a widespread search. “We found the car Thursday afternoon, and as soon as we found it, we contacted the rangers,” Fabregas said.

The search has centered around Palomar Mountain State Park, where Brophy was known to hike.

Detectives have already tried pinging her cell phone, but the phone is either dead or turned off.

Search teams combed more than 1,800 acres of the park over the weekend but were unable to find her. Divers have now focused their efforts on a pond in the state park.

“They had the command post out there, they had drones, you know, dogs, search dogs, and there were about 40 to 50 volunteers on the last day,” Fabregas said.

“They searched the whole park, no trace of her,” he added.

Flyers for the missing mother describe her as standing 5-foot-5 and weighing around 130 pounds. She was last seen wearing black leggings and a gray T-shirt. Anyone with information on her disappearance is urged to contact the Oceanside Police Department, which is leading the investigation.

The family distributed the missing-person posters in the Palomar Mountain, Temecula, Rincon, and Pauma Valley areas on Sunday.

Oceanside Police Captain Nick Nunez told NBC San Diego that no evidence of foul play is suspected in her disappearance. But Nunez said police are checking with Harrah’s casino to see if anyone was with her or following her.

Nunez said he did not know whether she’d won a large sum of money at the casino.

Her family is desperate to see the mother again.

“She is one of the most wonderful, thoughtful women that I know,” Brophy’s sister-in-law, Lisa Fabregas, told NBC San Diego.  “She’s a very good mom. She will do anything for her children.”

“She loves life and we really just need her back,” she added.

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