25-year-old Arelie Garcia was last seen leaving her Salinas, California apartment on September 22, 2022. Later that day, Arelie’s bright red Honda Accord was found abandoned in Big Sur on Highway 1. Dateline’s Josh Mankiewicz speaks with her sisters Veronica Garcia and Elizet Mendoza, and Detective Arras Wilson of the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office. Arelie is 5’5” and about 150 lbs. She has brown hair and brown eyes. When she was last seen, she was wearing a black hoodie, black leggings, and sneakers. Anyone with information about her case is asked to call Detective Edwin Cruz with the Salinas Police Department at 831-758-7393 or the anonymous tip line at 831-775-4222. Get more information and see pictures of Arelie Garcia here: https://www.nbcnews.com/datelinemissing
Tucked between the Pacific and the mountains on California's central coast, Big Sur is a 90 miles stretch of breathtaking beauty.
The author Henry Miller said, it was here in Big Sur that I first learned to say amen.
I.
To see what he was talking about, you'll need to brave highway one.
Its two lanes wind above steep cliffs with waves crashing below.
There are places to pull off to soak in the views.
It's the vista of a hundred tv commercials.
On September 22, 2022, something happened here that you'll never see on any postcard of this slice of paradise.
On that morning, a bright red Honda accord cruised south down highway one and pulled over just past mile marker 56.
Who was in that car?
And what happened before and after that moment are questions that haunt a family.
The Honda belonged to 25 year old Arelli Garcia, and she hasn't been seen or heard from since that morning.
It's been like a scary movie since the day it happened.
Like it's just been a nightmare.
And we pray every night that she comes home.
Veronica Garcia and Ellie Mendoza are Areli's sisters.
Is there any reason why your sister would be in Big Sur?
No idea.
It's still a mystery to this day.
A mystery that, to Arelli's family and others, sounds eerily similar to another case.