Community bands together to help find missing woman

The family of a missing Woodhaven woman has amped up their search by asking Queens residents, “busco mi hermano,” or “have you seen my sister?”
On Saturday, July 7, relatives of Reyna Isabel De Los Santos, who they said has been missing since the evening of Tuesday, June 19, and volunteers canvassed the neighborhoods of Woodhaven, Ozone Park Richmond Hill and Jamaica, handing out flyers and hanging posters.
Corona resident Nancy Cruz, a mom of two kids, said she signed on to help because she “feels for another mother.”
The volunteers’ goal is “to make sure that we get to the bottom of where Reyna is,” said City Councilmember Hiram Monserrate, who was called in by the family to assist with the search.
On Friday, July 6, Monserrate met with relatives, including De Los Santos’ sister Marisol Pantaleon, at the Corona National Community Center, which has become the Queens headquarters of the search.
Enrique Lugo, the Center’s Director, said that a dedicated phone line will be manned seven days per week from 9 a.m. until 8 p.m. Anyone with information about De Los Santos is asked to call the number — 718-429-0527 or the police at 1-800-577-TIPS.
De Los Santos is Hispanic, 5’4”, and 130 pounds. She has blond hair, light skin, and hazel eyes.
De Los Santos’ husband, Edwin Fuentes, known as Erick, told police that he and his wife had an argument and she either left their home on Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning, or perhaps had traveled to the Dominican Republic to visit family, relatives said. However, De Los Santos’ sister said that the 42-year-old hard-working home health aide would not have left home without making arrangements for her two children, a nine-year-old girl and a 15-year-old autistic boy.
And the family has not yet told De Los Santos’ father, who is in the Dominican Republic and has a heart condition, that his daughter is missing.
“She was a good mother who worked 12 hours a day because she had no support from anyone,” Monserrate translated for Pantaleon, who said that her sister was supposed to work for her on Wednesday morning but never showed up.
“When she promises to do something, she would always do it,” Pantaleon said.
Right now, the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) is making sure that the children are cared for in their mother’s absence, Monserrate said.
“So far everything seems to be in order,” he said.
According to Pantaleon, her sister often said, “In case something happens to me, take care of my children,” Monserrate translated.
Police are investigating the incident.
Monserrate, a former police officer and also the father of an autistic child, said, “For them [people with many family obligations], to abruptly disappear usually means that there was some sort of foul play.”
Still, the family remains optimistic that De Los Santos will be located.
“We want her back,” said relative Maria Altagracia Pantaleon.