On April 21, 2012, just after eight in the morning, a father’s voice came over the 911 line, urgent and breaking. He reported a missing person, his six-year-old daughter. He believed she had been abducted from their home on East 12th Street in Tucson, near Broadway and Craycroft. The dispatcher asked for details.

The father, Sergio Celis, explained that they had woken up that morning and he had gone to get his daughter up for her baseball game, but she was gone. He woke his sons, and they had searched everywhere in the house. His oldest son noticed that her window was wide open, and the screen was lying in the backyard. He said his sons were running around the house looking for her.

The dispatcher asked for the girl’s name. Isabel, he said, with the middle initial M. She was fair-skinned, Hispanic, with light brown hair and green or hazel eyes, about 40 inches tall and 40 pounds. The night before, she had been wearing little navy blue shorts and a pink tank top.

Sergio said they had gotten home late from his son’s baseball game, around 10:30, and everyone had taken their showers and gone to bed. He had been in the living room watching the Diamondbacks game at midnight and fell asleep, never hearing anything strange. His bedroom was just on the other side of the wall from hers. The dispatcher asked about other children.

There were two sons, 14 and 10 years old. The 14-year-old, also named Sergio, was outside the property wall looking for his sister. The youngest was in the garage waiting for his mother. Sergio said his wife, Becky, had left for work that morning.

He had called her and told her to get home. As the call continued, his wife walked in, and she was hysterical, freaking out. A second call came in from the 14-year-old son, who told the dispatcher that someone had broken in and grabbed his sister. He pleaded for them to hurry.

The mother, Rebecca Celis, also got on the phone, giving a few more details. Her daughter’s hair was braided into little ponytails from the night before. She wore an Old Navy shirt with a flag and shorts. The mother corrected the girl’s age: she was only five.

She said she had gone to work at seven that morning without checking on her daughter, and she was overwhelmed with guilt. She said the window had been taken out of the house, and the doors were locked, so whoever did it jumped over the fence. Officers arrived quickly, and a massive search began. Nine hours later, there was still no sign of the little girl.

Police were scouring the neighborhood by air and ground, checking every car that went in and out of the Eastside neighborhood. Officers conducted a grid search, and bloodhounds were brought in to pick up any scent of the child. Isabel’s uncle, Justin Mastromarino, spoke to the press, describing the family’s shock. He said you never think something like this will happen to you, and then you wake up one morning in that scenario, full of confusion, anger, and frustration.

He described Isabel as shy, not the kind of child who wanders off, a sweet little girl with all the ambition in the world, close-knit with her family and wise beyond her years. By seven in the evening, twelve hours had passed since the parents discovered her missing. The family believed there was foul play and that she had been abducted, but police were not going that far. They hadn’t declared an Amber Alert.

For now, they called it a missing child situation, and they were conducting an active search and rescue, not just within a three-mile radius, but wherever the tips took them. As the investigation continued, detectives developed additional details that led them to return to the family home. The family was moved elsewhere so police could obtain a search warrant and look into those specific areas. The search expanded, with friends, family, and coworkers canvassing the area, handing out flyers business to business, person to person.

Volunteers worked through the night, determined to keep searching until she came home. On day three, police had expanded the search zone and were preparing to search the family’s home again. The K9s had alerted on a few things, and investigators were working with FBI handlers to interpret what that meant. The house was secured based on the information discovered from the K9s.

The open window with the removed screen was a potential point of entry that had interested them from the beginning, but there were other circumstances that kept them from calling it definitive. The timeline of that night was established. The mother was home during the night and had gone to bed. The little girl went to bed around 11.

The father went to bed sometime later. At eight in the morning, the mother had left for work, and the father discovered Isabel missing. TPD, the FBI, and US Marshals continued to scour the area, covering a three-mile radius with more help added each day. The focus was on new evidence the specialized FBI dogs had uncovered in the home.

Detectives had interviewed seventeen sex offenders who lived within three miles of Isa’s home. Search teams scoured Tucson’s desert and the city landfill, but came up empty-handed. A statement was released from Isabel’s parents, who called their daughter Isa, thanking all those who had searched for the missing first grader. They said they were cooperating fully with authorities and focused only on her safe return.

Investigators now called the home a crime scene because of something an FBI dog had picked up inside. The alert caused them to seek a second search warrant, which a judge granted. They went through the house for hours, took a number of things out, and also searched the trunk of a car parked next to the home, which they believed belonged to a family member. At a press conference, the family made an emotional plea.

They expressed tremendous gratitude toward Detective Segovia and his elite team, the community, the Little League community, and the millions of people around the world who continued to pray and volunteer their time. They said they didn’t want the focus to be taken off Isabel by them being in front of the cameras. They pleaded for the safe return of their baby girl, appealing to the person or persons who had Isabel to tell them their demands. They said they would do anything for her.

They told Isabel they were looking for her, loved her, missed her, and would never give up. Isabel was last seen in public one week earlier at Freedom Park on 29th between Craycroft and Swan, a few miles from her home, watching her brother’s baseball game. Her father, who was coaching, remembered she was playing by the dugout. They left the park close to ten.

He wondered if somebody had followed them home from the park that Friday night, but he didn’t know if it was someone they knew. Police asked anyone who had taken their own cameras or video cameras to the event to come forward so they could evaluate the footage. A family member who did not want to speak on camera said they had a family gathering and a small service with a priest from the family church, something to strengthen their faith as the long search dragged on. A neighbor told reporters that on the morning of the disappearance, she was woken by her dogs barking their heads off.

She noticed two male voices outside her bedroom window. It was very early, and she checked her cell phone to see the time. It was 1:28. She noticed the Celis family’s dogs were going crazy, too.

She didn’t think anything of it because it was light outside, assuming someone was going for a walk having a conversation. She noticed there were multiple male voices, but she went back to bed. She was woken at eight by Isabel’s uncle and a police officer telling her the little girl was missing. Twenty days in, with over twenty investigators and thirty support personnel on the case, police still had very little information.

Some of it was tentative and being confirmed. They had every hope that by continuing to investigate, they would locate her, bring her home safely, and prosecute the person who did this. Then the announcement came. Police in Tucson said she was abducted.

There was no indication whatsoever that Isabel just got up and left the house on her own. She left through the power, through the assistance of someone else. Either somebody took her or enticed her out of the residence in some way. For that reason, they could not say she got up and walked out.

Police had interviewed more than five hundred sex offenders and investigated over a thousand tips. Police in Mexico had searched locations like hotels and bus terminals, given Tucson’s proximity to the US-Mexican border. Authorities were also looking in remote desert areas. There were darker developments.

Isabel’s father was barred from having any contact with his two sons. State officials didn’t explain why. Tucson police confirmed Child Protective Services had been involved with the Celis family before Isabel’s disappearance, though they wouldn’t say when, in what capacity, or under what circumstances. It was not a TPD-initiated investigation.

On the 27th day of searching, Sergeant Maria Hawk said fifty officials, including the FBI, continued the investigation. The hope was that she was still alive, and they operated under that guise, putting forth every effort to locate her. Rebecca Celis, almost a month later, was still without her daughter. She said she knew in her heart Isabel was somewhere out there, it was just taking longer than she hoped.

Crowds gathered at a candlelight walk to keep that hope alive and support the family, a family that had been split up in recent days as the investigation continued. Rebecca defended her husband, calling him a great father who loved their boys and his daughter. She said when Isabel came home, all of everybody’s questions would be answered. Sergio was noticeably absent, forced to watch from afar, from the wall behind his home.

His sister spoke on his behalf, asking for compassion and understanding for the entire family. Investigators released nearly six hundred pages of documents revealing potential evidence. In Isabel’s bedroom, a forensic investigator found what appeared to be blood on the floor. Outside the home, 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. Police said there were items only a perpetrator might know, and they didn’t want to put that information out until they had exhausted its usefulness. On Mother’s Day, Rebecca said she was happy she had her two boys, but sad that she couldn’t really celebrate without Isa there.

She described the pain of walking in and expecting her daughter to come around the corner. At a Padres game at Kino Stadium, volunteers weren’t there to cheer. Isa’s mother was there to work to bring her home. Two months after she was first reported missing, the question remained: where is Isabel Celis?

Becky’s message to people watching was not to forget. She felt in her heart that Isabel was out there somewhere, and they just had to make the right person see her. More than four months passed, and her birthday made things even tougher. The family received flowers from friends and family, but it was hard to want to celebrate when she wasn’t there.

Instead of a celebration, it was a remembrance. Rebecca spoke of praying the rosary, begging God to help them find her, and dreaming of her at night, praying she would come home quickly and safely. Over six months later, the search continued. Sergio put up missing persons posters of his little girl while family and friends ran a car wash to raise awareness and funds.

He said his hope was higher than it had ever been, though he wished the investigation was more transparent. The family had hired private investigators who continued to work the case. More than sixteen months passed, marking the passing of two birthdays, as Isabel turned eight. Her room remained untouched, with polka dots on the wall, stuffed animals, toys, and letters on her bed, unopened presents from Christmas and her birthday.

Sergio said they couldn’t be broken down, weak, and crying when Isabel came home. They had to be strong. Nearly three years after she vanished, her parents gave a detailed account of the last day they saw her. The day before she went missing, she was at Freedom Park with her little group of friends, the sisters of other players on Julian’s team.

Sergio was coaching, and Becky was sitting in the bleachers, watching the girls play right in front of her near the snack bar. Becky remembered that Isabel fell and hurt her knee, and came crying. She told her to stop playing so hard and sit down to watch the game. The girls sat for about five minutes before they were up and playing again.

When the game was over, Isabel said she was going to get sandwiches, and Becky told her she was taking Isa home to get her showers done and her hair done before it got too late. They got home around ten or ten-fifteen. They went first into Isabel’s room and got all her baseball stuff, because she had a game the next morning. They laid out her pants, her shirt, her shoes, and socks.

Isabel took her shower and took forever, as always, and then came back out. Becky combed her hair, and Isabel started getting sleepy. She was particular about how her hair was done, picking out the color of rubber bands she wanted and insisting her mother do it exactly as she was told. Sergio remembered that Isabel was a daddy’s girl.

Whenever he took the boys to the park or to do things, Isabel was coming along. Julian would protest, asking if it could just be them, and Sergio would answer that Isa was coming with them or they weren’t going. He remembered teaching her to ride her bike at the park, taking her swimming and teaching her to jump off the diving board, and Julian teaching her jump roping with the same nitpicky attention to fundamentals. She didn’t want to be left behind.

She was going to be with the boys always. Becky remembered that when Isabel was sick, Sergio was the one she wanted. He stayed home with her, and they watched Mamma Mia three times in a row, singing along to Dancing Queen, Sergio getting her going until she was dancing around even though she was supposed to be sick. Becky worked in the ER, and in Isabel’s mind, her mother’s job involved giving popsicles to kids.

They had their girl time when the boys went to Phoenix for opera practices, doing their nails, putting facial stuff on, having pizza, and watching movies on Becky’s bed. That final night, Becky was already in bed. She had done Isabel’s hair, and Isabel was falling asleep. Becky told her it was time to go to bed and asked for a kiss.

Isabel gave her a kiss and hug, walked out of the room, said good night to the boys, and went into her room. That was the last time Becky saw her. Sergio was in the living room with the boys, watching Dumb and Dumber, which got over right at midnight. He saw the replay of the Diamondbacks game was on and started watching that.

Julian was arguing to stay up later, but Sergio said no, they all had to wake up early, Isa had a really early game. He said he was just going to watch a little while, not the whole thing. He fell asleep watching the game, woke up around five, looked at the clock on the cable box, turned the TV off, and went up to the bedroom. Becky had gone to work that morning.

She remembered the details of that morning vividly, in contrast to the blur of everything that followed. She said she thought someone took her. That was exactly what she thought happened. The private investigators were still on the case, but everything they found had to be turned over to police, and they could only go so far because of legalities.

Sergio expressed frustration that pertinent information they gave to police seemed to go nowhere. He mentioned surveillance cameras in the alley behind the house that had been snapped out. He said someone told them the company that owned them sold the footage, and because of that, police couldn’t use it. On the third anniversary, Sergio said it was like a never-ending nightmare.

The dreams he had were of her being found, of her being with them, and then waking up to the realization it was only a dream. He said the nightmare was not when one was asleep; it was waking up to it. Finally, in April 2017, five years after she disappeared, Tucson Police Chief Chris Magnus called a press conference. He announced that earlier that month, human remains had been uncovered from a remote area in Pima County.

A portion of the remains was sent to an out-of-state, independent lab for DNA analysis. The results confirmed the remains were those of Isabel Celis. Law enforcement had found them under a mesquite tree, not far from where the dirt road forks near Trigo Road and Avra Valley Road. The family released a statement through the Tucson Medical Center, thanking the community for their continued support and for refusing to give up hope.

Now, they said, is our time to mourn. The story of how they found her began years earlier. In February 2017, a call from Melissa Starks tipped off the FBI that her boyfriend, Christopher Clements, knew where Isabel Celis was. Clements, a registered sex offender and career criminal, was in custody on unrelated charges.

He told agents he would give them information if his two pending burglary charges in Pima County were dismissed. He wanted his vehicle, a bus, released to his fiancée. He said he wasn’t doing this to be a good Samaritan. He was involved with some people, and that’s how he knew.

Clements demanded full immunity for anything he said about Isabel. The agents worked with the Pima County Attorney to get his burglary charges dropped and his car released, but by February 28th, immunity still wasn’t on the table. Clements was frustrated, insisting he was 100% sure he could give them closure. On March 2nd, despite not having full immunity, Clements gave agents a location: Avra Valley and Trico Road.

He led them to the middle of the desert, to a remote area. Not far from where the dirt road forks, law enforcement found human remains under a mesquite tree. He said he did not kidnap or kill the girl but would not say how he knew where to find her. He admitted he poured bleach on her remains to repel animals.

Documents later revealed that during that search, they walked right by where 13-year-old Maribel Gonzalez had been found. Maribel, a 13-year-old who lived with her mother, had gone missing on June 3rd, 2014, while walking to a friend’s house. Three days later, her body was found in the desert near Avra Valley Road and Trico Road, 35 miles from her home, in the same general area where Isabel’s remains were found. Clements’ girlfriend told the FBI he knew where to find Isabel.

His computer contained Google searches for “Isabel Celis,” “Arizona cold cases,” and “body found in the desert,” as well as hundreds of images of child pornography, many of which he appeared to have taken himself. He had also made a business of buying, fixing, and selling Hondas and Acuras. Police said 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. In the summer of 2017, detectives interviewed Clements about Maribel Gonzalez. When asked if he’d seen her before, he said he couldn’t answer that question.

He denied having anything to do with any homicide. A DNA match tied him to Maribel. At his trial for Maribel’s murder, cell phone expert Si Ray testified that on the night Maribel disappeared, Clements left his house after an argument with Melissa Starks, returned about midnight, demanded bleach, took her car to get it, returned, then got back in his car and disappeared until early morning. A little after midnight, Clements’ phone was on the move again, heading north-northwest, then slowing down around 12:45 while connected to a cell tower that covered the part of Avra Valley where the body was found.

He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. In the Isabel Celis case, the first trial in 2023 ended in a mistrial, with 11 jurors to convict and one to acquit. In a second attempt, prosecutors put on evidence that 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 that showed collections of young girls and evidence that he had searched for the terms “Isabel Celis sexy” and “trace evidence on body.

” Police had discovered a photo on one of his devices that they argued bore a striking resemblance to Isabel. Rebecca Celis told police she thought the girl in the picture looked like Isabel, but she couldn’t be sure because the image quality was so poor. The defense argued it was a happy, smiling one-to-two-year-old child, Clements’ own son. When investigators showed the photo to Melissa, they said she started shaking, but did not identify the child as her own.

After 12 long emotional years, a jury found Christopher Clements guilty on all counts in the disappearance and murder of Isabel Celis. At the sentencing hearing, Rebecca Celis addressed the court, describing the pain and suffering this man had caused to so many children and families, including her daughter, her boys, her husband, and herself. She said Isabel’s favorite place in the world was home, and he ruined that for her. He took her childhood and her boys’ childhood.

They would never see her grow into a beautiful woman, graduate high school, go to college, or get married. She asked for natural life with no parole, quoting from the Bible: “If anyone abuses or hurts one of these little children, it would be better for him to have a heavy boulder tied around his neck and be hurled into the deepest sea than to face the punishment he deserves. ”

Sergio Celis told the court that they had both been asked how they felt about the death penalty, which was initially on the table, and they felt they didn’t have the say of who lives or dies. He said his family was going to serve a life sentence of an unescapable, never-ending nightmare.

He said until the day he died, he would feel responsible for not doing his job and protecting his little girl from the evil that lurked outside her window. The prosecutor read a letter written by Julian, Isabel’s ten-year-old brother, written in the early days after her abduction. In it, he told Isabel he loved her with all his heart, missed her, and wanted her to come home. He apologized for being mean to her, saying he wanted her to come home so he could treat her with more respect and kindness.

He wished this had never happened, and he wished he could tell her how sorry he was. He said that when he found out she was kidnapped, he cried so much, and he hoped they would find her soon. The state asked for a term of natural life, consecutive to the life sentence already imposed for Maribel Gonzalez’s murder, arguing there was no mitigation that could outweigh the aggravation, the defendant’s criminal history, and the emotional impact on the family. Clements, in his allocution, gave a long speech accusing the judge of running unfair trials, comparing the proceedings to Stalin’s show trials.

He quoted the judge’s own words back at him, saying, “We are lost. ” He maintained his innocence. The judge sentenced him to natural life in prison without the possibility of commutation, parole, release, or any other relief for the first-degree murder. For the kidnapping of a minor, he ordered the presumptive term of 17 years, and for second-degree burglary, the presumptive term of 3.

5 years, to be served concurrently with the life sentence. All sentences would run consecutively to the life sentence for Maribel Gonzalez’s murder and the sentences imposed in Maricopa County. As a mother, Rebecca said, that’s what’s really hard, because they have a life sentence. Their lives will never be the same again.

They will never have their daughter. To hear them mention all the things they’re going to miss, her growing up, her getting married, her having a family, is so hard to hear.