FALLBROOK, CA (KGTV)- Elena Roy, who also goes by Elena Lorea, was reported missing on Nov. 3, weeks later, and she has yet to be found.
“She is a very classy lady, very charming, social butterfly,” said granddaughter-in-law Dorene Swart as she described Roy. “We miss her so much; her birthday was yesterday, her 84th birthday was yesterday, it’s just heartbreaking that none of us got to… that she’s not here with us, we don’t know where she is.”
The family is doing whatever it takes to bring her back home.
“She’s the matriarch of our family; we really just have always just wanted to take care of her, be there for her,” Swart said.
An organized search on Sunday covered a lot of ground in Fallbrook as community members showed up to help out.
“We’re also really thankful for the Sheriffs as well; they’ve been really helpful,” Skip Swart, Roy’s son-in-law, said.
The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department said she was last seen in the 900 block of Woodcreek Road. That's where she lives with her husband Chris Cataldo.
“It’s really been hard on the entire family; it’s been super hard on me,” Cataldo said. “We’ve been together for 14 years, and she was the love of my life, plain and simple.”
Cataldo tells ABC 10News Roy has early onset dementia and the two argued on Nov. 3 about the placement of a picture frame. He said she stormed out of the house around 1:30 PM; when she didn’t return hours later, he said he called to report her missing, then notified her family.
Roy is 5’4 about 110 to 120 pounds, with graying blonde hair and brown eyes. Cataldo said she was wearing a light, tri-colored sweater the day she left home.
“It was a white, mid blue, dark blue at the bottom, sweater shirt,” he explained.
Dorene Swart said Roy was seen wearing the same sweater in surveillance footage from the day before.
“We do have a photo of her going into the grocery store, shopping around with her husband, and then leaving the grocery store with her husband, and that was on the second,” she explained. “And she was wearing the same clothes that she disappeared in as well.”
Family members are now planning another search for Saturday, hoping more volunteers will join them. They’ve created the Facebook group Missing Woman: Elena Roy where they will release the finalized details.
“If we can get volunteers to help us scour the area, that’ll just heighten the chances that we’ve looked everywhere for her,” Dorene Swart said.
The family also plans to search areas outside of Fallbrook soon.
“There are places she’s lived in the past that are nearby like Murrieta, Menifee; she did grow up in the Brea/Ontario area. She also owned a house in Ramona with her late husband,” Swart said.
The Sheriff's Dept. said this is still a missing persons case, but because it has been weeks the investigation was transferred to the Homicide Unit, which is standard procedure.
