Psychics, drones involved in massive community search for missing Fort Bragg teen Roy Mora
FORT BRAGG, CA., 12/16/24 — A massive public search for missing 15-year-old Roy Mora has been underway all weekend in Fort Bragg. Mora has not been seen since the evening of the Lighted Truck Parade on Saturday, Dec. 7.
The public is working separately from Fort Bragg police, who are also investigating and searching on overtime hours, this reporter has confirmed.
Drones were flying all over town. Searchers were literally beating the bushes from Gualala to Westport to Ukiah, looking for Mora.
Meanwhile, the search provoked quarrels and controversy. Outrage was aimed at the police for using Mora’s “dead name” (Mora is a trans boy). Others took culture war swipes at all trans people on the many online forums where the case is topic number one. A Facebook Listserv called “Let’s Find Roy” came together. After quarrels initially caused its organizers to put the list on standby, finally everyone agreed to focus on finding the missing child.
Psychics organized by the Facebook listserv have been consulted. On Sunday, people came together at Hare Creek Nursery and fanned out into the wooded areas nearby, where many homeless have historically lived.
KerryJane Garner, a local business owner who has been involved in the search daily, said she had seen fliers posted as far afield as Willits. And she was off to put up fliers and talk to people in inland areas of Mendocino and Lake counties.
While the police won’t reveal details of their ongoing investigation, they said they would listen to tips and investigate anything found that could help. They also said they would provide suggestions on how citizen searchers could help without compromising the investigation.
On the Facebook listserv, Nicole Orellana relayed some of those suggestions to searchers: “We need to write down everywhere we have had someone search. We need to have a list of where fliers have been put up. What part of the community we talked to. I am going to create sign-in and sign-out sheets to keep track of these places so we have a paper trail.”
She continued, “When you go out somewhere PLEASE go in pairs. Keep track of where you start and end, general vicinity. Take pictures of everything that can be relevant. Touch NOTHING without gloves, so we aren’t contaminating potential evidence.
Orellana is presently working on a map that people can use to help locate areas that could be searched again.
Some felt the police should be releasing more details to help searchers. “There hasn’t been any update from them since 12/10, and I haven’t noticed them searching alongside all of us,” said one of the active participants on the search list.
Police said some areas where searchers were working had already been searched. While nobody saw harm in continuing to search wooded and remote areas, the police were focusing on conducting interviews. The California Office of Emergency Services was helping comb through data recovered from Mora’s phone. No cell phone has been recovered, but data can be searched in the cloud after a warrant was granted last week.
A searcher named Mimi said on Facebook, “Hug your children. And does anyone want to search Hare Creek a little more?”
Please find related coverage about this subject from The Mendocino Voice below.
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