Police and the family of a 49-year-old woman who disappeared last week were seeking the public’s help on Saturday for information that might lead to the woman’s whereabouts.
Marta Michel, of South Los Angeles, was last seen by her family on Jan. 19 around 5 p.m. at her home in the 2800 block of South Maple Avenue, said Officer Sara Faden of the Los Angeles Police Department.
“If she's OK, if she needs help, if she's stranded somewhere, if someone kidnapped her, that's what runs in my mind …” said her son, Rigoberto Michel, 10.
Marta Michel told her children she was going to work last Saturday morning at what they thought was Casa India, a downtown Los Angeles restaurant.
But Sonia Nolaseo, a waitress at the restaurant, told NBC4 that Michel did not there, but was instead a regular customer who frequented the restaurant for more than a year.
Nolaseo said Michel had been having dinner with an unidentified male the night she went missing. Workers said they last saw her just after midnight Jan. 20 standing at a bus stop across the street from the restaurant at Fourth Street and Broadway.
“She drank a couple of beers, she left and like I told you, when we closed, at that time we saw her waiting for the bus,” said Nolaseo, who added that police had not interviewed restaurant employees about Michel.
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Michel is described as Latino with black hair and dark brown eyes. She is 4 feet 11 inches tall, weighs about 160 pounds and was last seen wearing a gray and white horizontal striped skirt and a gray blouse.
Authorities urged anyone with information regarding Michel's whereabouts to contact Detective Lydia Saiza of the LAPD Missing Persons Unit at (213) 996-1800 or 1-877-LAPD-24-7.
