The 911 call came in just after eight in the morning. A man’s voice, urgent but controlled, told the dispatcher his six-year-old daughter was gone. He believed she had been abducted from their house. He gave his name as Sergio Celis.

He said he had woken up to get her ready for her baseball game, and she was not in her bed. His sons had looked everywhere. His oldest boy, fourteen-year-old Sergio, noticed her window was wide open, the screen lying in the backyard. The dispatcher asked the questions methodically.

The girl’s name was Isabel Mercedes Celis. She was about forty inches tall, roughly forty pounds, fair-skinned Hispanic with greenish-hazel eyes and light brown hair. The father said she had gone to bed in navy blue shorts and a pink tank top. He had been in the living room watching the Arizona Diamondbacks game at midnight, just on the other side of the wall from her room, and had heard nothing unusual.

His wife Becky had just left for work at TMC. He had called her and told her to get home. The mother came on the line, hysterical. She told the dispatcher she had braided Isabel’s hair into little ponytails the night before.

She had gone to work at seven that morning and had not checked on her daughter. She said it over and over, that she should have checked on her. The dispatcher told her officers were on the way. The mother said the family believed someone had taken the window out of the house, that the doors were locked, that whoever did it must have jumped the fence.

She begged to hang up. Hours later, nine hours after the parents discovered her missing, six-year-old Isabel Celis was still gone. Police scoured the Eastside neighborhood by air and on the ground, checking every car that entered or left the area. Bloodhounds worked the streets, trying to pick up any scent of the little girl.

The search radius covered three miles. Isabel’s uncle, Justin Mastromarino, stood outside the family home and tried to put words to what had happened. You never think something like that will happen to you, he said. Then you wake up one morning and you are in that scenario.

Everything goes through your mind. Anger, frustration, confusion. The family was being kept away from the house while police worked. They were trying to stick together, piece it together.

At seven that evening, there was still no sign of Isabel. Her uncle described her as shy, not the kind of child who wandered off. Sweet little girl, six years old, all the ambition in the world. She did not really like strangers.

She was very close-knit and wise. Twelve hours had passed. Family members believed strongly that foul play was involved, that she had been abducted. Police were not going that far.

They had not called it an Amber Alert. For now, it was a missing child situation, an active search and rescue operation. Over the following days, the investigation developed. Detectives felt the need to go back into the home, to look into specific details.

The family was moved elsewhere while police obtained a search warrant and combed the house. Friends, family, and co-workers joined the search for information, handing out flyers business to business, person to person. Her mother did not think twice. She posted flyers at the registers, handed them out with every bag.

On day three, police expanded the search zone and prepared to search the family’s home again. K9 units had alerted on a few things. FBI handlers were being brought in to interpret what that meant. Over a hundred investigative leads had been received.

The house was secured based on the information discovered from the dogs. The open window with the screen removed was a potential point of entry, but police would not call it definitive. There were other circumstances they were looking at. The mother had been home during the night, already in bed.

The child went to bed around eleven. The father went to bed sometime later. By eight in the morning, the mother had left for work, and the father found Isabel missing. Detectives interviewed seventeen sex offenders living within three miles of the Celis home.

Search teams scoured Tucson’s desert and the city landfill. Nothing. Investigators began calling the home a crime scene because of something an FBI dog had picked up inside. They sought a second search warrant, which a judge granted.

They went through the house for hours, took several things out. They also searched the trunk of a car parked next to the home, believed to belong to a family member. The parents, who called their daughter Isa, released a statement through the Tucson Medical Center thanking all who had searched for the missing first grader. They said they were cooperating fully with authorities and focused only on her safe return.

At a later appearance, they pleaded directly to whoever had her. Tell us your demands. Tell us what you want. We will do anything for her.

We are looking for you, Isabel. We love you and we miss you so much and we will never give up looking for you. Isabel had last been seen in public exactly one week earlier at Freedom Park, a few miles from her home, watching her brother’s baseball game. She was playing by the dugout.

The game ended close to ten. Her father did not know if someone had followed them home from the park that Friday night. They did not know if it was someone they knew. A neighbor told reporters she had been woken by her dogs barking furiously around one in the morning, and heard two male voices outside her window.

She checked her phone. It was 1:28. The dogs next door were going crazy too. She thought nothing of it because it was light outside.

She went back to bed. At eight, her uncle and a police officer knocked on her door to tell her Isabel was missing. The family home was surrounded by a five-foot wall. The window was about forty to fifty feet from the street.

The father’s bedroom was directly across from Isabel’s. Dogs were both inside and outside the house when the first grader vanished. Both parents took polygraph tests. Police would not discuss results.

The police chief said the family was fully cooperating. Everyone is a suspect until we find out otherwise, he said. We look at everyone, to include the family. It is not that we are saying the family is responsible, but we are also not saying the family is completely clear.

In their first live television interview, Sergio and Becky Celis described their daughter. She was a girly girl who loved makeup and painted nails, but also played hard in the dirt with her brothers and came back in to get herself girl’d up again. She was very caring, always coming to give mom and dad hugs. Sergio described the last time he saw her.

She had just gotten her hair done. Becky had braided it for her early baseball game. He asked if she was hungry. She had that little sleepy look as she walked by and said, No, daddy.

I’m tired. Questioned about the scrutiny on them, Becky said it was necessary. If it was anything close to getting Isabel home safely, then whatever it took. It was nothing they could not handle.

Asked directly whether they had anything to do with her disappearance, Sergio said they were frustrated trying to understand why this had to happen. To whomever did this, please look at her. She’s beautiful. She deserves to be home.

There had been no ransom demands, no communication. They had the reward ready. The investigators kept them at bay, Sergio said, and it was frustrating. We understand they can’t bring false hope, but we are desperate.

Sometimes it does feel that they are wasting time with us. Even though we know we have to be under the closest scrutiny. My goodness, she’s still out there. Forensic psychologists consulted by media outlets concluded the parents were not telling everything they knew.

Asked if she knew where Isabel was, Becky said no. We don’t. I’m sorry that we’re not breaking down in front of you every five seconds. I cry by myself.

I break down by myself. I don’t even break down in front of my kids and my husband. That’s my thing. My private.

Asked why they had not been more present in the search, Becky said this was not where they wanted to be. The first week, all she wanted to do was hide and cry. I didn’t want to be in front of you guys and maybe that’s where we were supposed to be, but I couldn’t. I wanted to be sitting in my room crying.

The two boys were wearing down. The youngest was crying more. The oldest hid it, did his crying on his own. They had intended to get the boys back into school, but it was taking a toll.

Each had gone back to play one game with their Little League teams. Julian’s father was coaching when he returned. It was extremely difficult. Twenty days in, with twenty investigators and thirty support personnel on the case, police had very little information.

Some of it was tentative, being confirmed. Some of it was more confirmed, but they had to keep it close to the cuff. Then came the announcement. Police in Tucson said Isabel Celis had been abducted.

There was no indication whatsoever that she just got up and left the house on her own. She left through the power and through the assistance of someone else. Either somebody took her or enticed her out of the residence in some way, shape or form. Police had interviewed more than five hundred sex offenders and investigated over a thousand tips.

They searched locations in Mexico, hotels and bus terminals, because Tucson was close to the border. They searched remote desert areas. Then, abruptly, state officials barred Sergio Celis from having any contact with his two sons. They would not explain why.

Tucson police confirmed Child Protective Services had been involved with the Celis family before Isabel’s disappearance, but would not say in what capacity or under what circumstances. Almost a month after she vanished, Rebecca Celis stood at a candlelight walk. Her husband was noticeably absent, forced to watch from afar, from the wall behind their home. He said he wanted to be there, but his son wanted to be there instead, so his son came out, and Sergio’s sister spoke on his behalf.

We ask that you please maintain compassion and understanding for the entire Celis family. Investigators released nearly six hundred pages of documents revealing crucial evidence. In Isabel’s bedroom, an investigator found what appeared to be blood on the floor. Outside, a detective photographed several shoe impressions on and around an electrical box behind the house.

During a search of a car outside the Celis home, police collected a hat and a vinyl shower curtain with dark red-brown or brown stains. Another document referred to photographs taken of handwriting on the wall and inside Isabel’s closet. There are some items that only a perpetrator may know, an official said. We don’t want to put that information out until we’ve exhausted any usefulness of keeping that to ourselves.

On Mother’s Day, Rebecca Celis said she was happy to have her two boys, but sad she could not really celebrate without Isa there. Longing for her to come around the corner. That’s what is hard, but that’s every day. It’s nothing different today or yesterday.

Four months after the disappearance, on Isabel’s birthday, the family held a remembrance instead of a celebration. They had received flowers from family and friends, all really sweet, but it was really hard to want to celebrate when she was not there. Becky prayed she would even see her daughter in her sleep. I always dream about her.

Mainly I pray that she comes home quickly and safely so that we don’t have to live another day of this nightmare. Six months passed. Isabel’s father put up missing persons posters while family and friends ran a car wash, raising awareness and funds. They had hired private investigators who continued to work the case.

We just feel that she is coming home, Sergio said. More than sixteen months passed. Isabel turned eight. Her bedroom remained as it had been, polka dots on the wall, stuffed animals, toys, letters on her bed.

There were unopened presents from Christmas and her birthday. Her brothers, when they saw something at the store, would get it and put it in her room. Her father said they could not be broken down, weak, and crying when Isabel came home. We have to be strong.

Nearly three years in, Becky Celis agreed to walk through the day before Isabel went missing. They were at Freedom Park. Isabel had her little group of friends, sisters of other players on Julian’s team. Becky was sitting in the bleachers.

They were playing right in front of her. Isabel fell and hit her knee. She came crying. Becky told her to stop playing so hard and come sit and watch the game.

They sat for about five minutes and then were up and about again. When the game was over, Becky said she was going to take Isa home so she could get her showers done and her hair done before it got too late. At home, they went into Isabel’s room and got out her baseball stuff for the next morning. Becky had it all laid out, shirt on top, then pants, shoes, socks.

Isabel took her shower and took forever, as always. Becky combed her hair. Isabel started getting sleepy. She had picked out the color of rubber bands she wanted and insisted Becky do it exactly as told.

Don’t do it like you want. Like I told you. Becky said she was a daddy’s girl. When she wanted to be spoiled, she went to him always.

Sergio remembered her constantly being with them, doing everything they did. They taught her to ride her bike at the park, ran alongside her. They taught her to swim, watched her jump off the diving board. She did not want to be left behind.

She was going to be with the boys always. The last time Becky saw her, Isabel gave her a kiss and a hug, walked out of the room, said good night to the boys, went into her room. That was the last time I saw her. Sergio was in the living room watching Dumb and Dumber.

It ended right at midnight. He started watching the replay of the Diamondbacks game. Julian argued to stay up later. Sergio told them all to go to bed, Isa had an early game.

He fell asleep watching the game. He woke up about five, turned off the TV, went up to the bedroom. At eight, he went to get his daughter for her game. Becky said the details of that night never went away.

The police coming, all the chaos afterward, that was blurry. But her going to bed, getting up in the morning, going to work, getting the phone call, those things were very vivid. Asked what she thought happened, she said nothing more than what happened. Someone took her.

She is gone. That is exactly what I think happened. The private investigators had found a lot. Everything they found had to be turned over to police.

But Sergio felt they crumpled it up and threw it away. There were surveillance cameras in the alley behind the house that had all been snapped out. Someone said the company sold the video to a television personality, and because of that, police could not use it. There were a lot of strange little aspects about this investigation that he was completely blown away by.

This is finding my little girl. Three years in, he described it as a never-ending nightmare. Living the nightmare. Surviving the nightmare.

The nightmares were not bad dreams. They were good dreams of finding her, of her being with them, and waking up to the nightmare. The nightmare is not when one is asleep. It took forever just to get to normal sleep because you did not want to sleep.

He asked the public to keep her picture out there, to keep remembering, keep praying. Don’t ever lose hope. We’ll never lose hope. On an earlier date, Tucson Police Chief Chris Magnus stood before reporters.

In April of 2012, six-year-old Isabel Celis went missing from her East Side home. The department had reviewed and followed up on over twenty-two hundred leads from the day she was first reported missing. Earlier that month, human remains had been uncovered from a remote area in Pima County. A portion of those remains was sent to an independent out-of-state lab for DNA analysis.

The results confirmed the remains were those of Isabel Celis. It was the middle of the desert, a remote area near Trico Road and Avra Valley Road. Not far from where the dirt road forked, law enforcement found human remains under a mesquite tree. The family released a statement.

We want to thank the community for the support they have continued to show for Isabel over the years and for refusing to give up hope. Now is our time to mourn. But the story did not end there. In early 2017, local FBI agents were contacted about an individual named Christopher Clements.

They were advised that Clements possibly had information relating to the disappearance of Isabel Celis. The FBI immediately contacted the Tucson Police Department. Clements was a registered sex offender and career criminal. He was in custody on burglary charges in Pima County.

He told agents he would give them information if his charges were dismissed and his vehicle released to his fiancee. He insisted he was not directly involved in the kidnapping. I didn’t do this, okay? he said.

I didn’t have any direct involvement with her kidnapping. Asked if the information could lead them to her that afternoon, he said yes, within twelve hours. He was not doing it to be a good Samaritan, he said. I was involved with some people.

And that’s how I know. His demands expanded. He wanted full immunity. By February 28th, immunity was not on the table.

He told agents they would have found closure in the case if they had taken the deal. By March 2nd, despite not having full immunity, he gave them a location. Avra Valley and Trico Road. Are we talking now about a grave site versus a location where she’s alive?

an agent asked. As far as I understand, she’s not, Clements said. She’s not alive. Clements led agents to the middle of the desert.

Not too far from where the dirt road forked, they found human remains under a mesquite tree. DNA analysis confirmed they were Isabel Celis. The manner of death was determined to be homicide. The Tucson police homicide unit and the Pima County Sheriff’s homicide unit began working together.

Detectives obtained additional information and recovered additional evidence. A DNA match tied Clements to another girl. On June 6th, 2014, just over two years after Isabel went missing, thirteen-year-old Maribel Gonzalez went missing not far from the Celis home. She was first reported as a runaway.

Days later, her body was found in the desert near Avra Valley Road and Trico Road. The autopsy revealed she had been murdered. Clements’ girlfriend told the FBI that Clements knew where to find Isabel Celis. In March of 2017, Clements rode with investigators and led them to her remains.

He said he did not kidnap or kill her, but would not say how he knew where to find her. During that search, they walked right by where Maribel Gonzalez was found. Sheriff’s detectives had DNA evidence linking Clements to Gonzalez. His computer contained Google searches for Isabel Celis, Arizona cold cases, and body found in the desert.

It also contained hundreds of images of child pornography, many of which Clements appeared to have taken himself. In prison, Clements reportedly told an inmate that Isabel had been taken out of her home through a window, and that he was worried about evidence left in the trunk of the car used to kidnap her. Strands of hair never go away, he said. He told the same inmate that Isabel was strangled and that chemicals were poured on her body.

He showed the inmate developed photos of Isabel’s family’s home, hidden inside a Bible kept in his cell. Police reports explained how Isabel may have attracted his attention. Clements made a business of buying, fixing, and selling Hondas and Acuras. He went to the Celis house at least twice asking to buy an old Acura there.

He made four short phone calls to a Celis family phone. His phone locked onto a cell tower near the Celis house the day Isabel disappeared, and soon after locked onto a cell tower near the Avra Valley site where she was found. The day after Isabel disappeared, Clements got a new phone and a new phone number. On Friday, September 14th, 2018, thirty-six-year-old Christopher Matthew Clements was indicted on multiple felony charges, including the murders of Isabel Mercedes Celis and Maribel Victoria Gonzales.

The indictment included kidnapping, burglary, and sexual exploitation of minors. He was held on a two million dollar cash-only bond. Clements pled not guilty. He appeared in court sporting what appeared to be a black eye.

An inmate who had been in a fight with him said Clements bragged he had gotten away with it before and would get away with it again, something in Oregon. Law enforcement sources said investigators were actively looking into Clements for specific missing children cases in Oregon, Washington, Florida, and other places in Arizona. He had lived in all of those states and had a criminal record in each. The first trial in 2023 for the murder of Isabel Celis ended in a mistrial, eleven jurors to convict, one to acquit.

In the second trial, prosecutors said cell phone tracking put Clements’ phone near where the remains were on the night Isabel disappeared. They described a secret locked folder on his iPad with collections of young girls and evidence he had searched for the terms Isabel Celis sexy and trace evidence on body. Police discovered a photo on one of his devices they argued bore a striking resemblance to Isabel. Rebecca Celis told police she thought it looked like Isabel but could not be sure because the image quality was so poor.

The defense argued it was a happy, smiling one-to-two-year-old child under a blanket, Clements’ own child with his fiancee. Investigators showed the photo to the fiancee. When she saw it, investigators said she started shaking. What she did not do, prosecutors argued, was identify the child as her own.

The jury found Christopher Clements guilty on all counts in the disappearance and murder of Isabel Celis. At sentencing, Rebecca Celis addressed the court. The actions of this man have caused so much pain and suffering to so many children and families, including my daughter Isabel, my boys, my husband, and me. Isabel’s favorite place in the world was home, and he ruined that for her, for her brothers, for us, her parents.

He took Isabel’s childhood from her, along with my boys’ childhood. His punishment should be natural life with no parole. Sergio Celis spoke. They had been asked how they felt about the death penalty when it was on the table.

They did not feel they had the say of who lives or dies. The death penalty was off the table. He said his family would all serve a life sentence of an unescapable, never-ending nightmare. Myself, until the day I die, I will feel responsible for not doing my job and protecting my little girl from the evil that lurked outside her window.

Please hear my wife’s words. Let justice prevail, judge. The prosecutor read a letter written by Julian, Isabel’s ten-year-old brother, in the early days after her abduction. Dear Isabel, I love you with all my heart.

I really miss you, and I want you to come home to us. I’m really sorry for being mean to you. I wish that this never happened. I cried so much.

I hope you come home safe, and I will hug you and make sure that nobody comes and takes you again. Christopher Clements addressed the court at length, accusing the judge of presiding over unfair trials, comparing them to Soviet show trials, and maintaining his innocence. I still maintain my innocence even if such innocence has never been presumed by anyone in this court. The judge found him guilty of first-degree murder, kidnapping a minor under fifteen, and second-degree burglary.

The court ordered a term of natural life in prison without the possibility of commutation, parole, release, or any other relief on the murder count. The sentences were to run consecutively to the natural life sentence imposed for the murder of Maribel Gonzalez and the sentences imposed in Maricopa County. Rebecca Celis said afterward that as a mom, that was what was really hard. The family had a life sentence.

Their lives would never be the same again. They would never have their daughter. To hear them mention all the things they were going to miss, her growing up, her getting married, her having a family, was so hard to hear.