About two dozen volunteers braved Santa Margarita Preserve’s wilderness in a renewed effort to find an 84-year-old Fallbrook grandmother who has been missing for nearly five months.
“It's been awful, it's been hell, heartbreaking,” said Dorene Swart, Elena Roy’s granddaughter. “We don’t know where she is, we haven’t heard anything, we need to find out what happened to her.”
Elena Roy was last seen by her husband Chris Cataldo leaving her home on the afternoon of Nov. 3.
Cataldo told NBC 7, the two argued about the placement of a picture frame before she stormed out of the house and didn’t come back
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“We want to keep looking for her, we’re not going to give up,” said Swart.
The family has held several searches throughout Fallbrook since Roy's disappearance and now the Fowler-O'Sullivan Foundation is looking to help intensify those efforts.
“It means so much that people are taking time out of their lives, out of their day to come and support our family,” said Swart.
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The foundation assists families of missing hikers across the U.S. While Roy went missing from her home, her family thinks there is a chance she’s somewhere within the preserve.
“About a year and a half ago, I think, she was found wandering around in this area,” said Swart. “So we thought she may have ended up back here.”
Unfortunately, the search was fruitless. Still, the family isn't giving up hope that one day they'll find her.
"We have no closure, this mourning is ongoing,” said Swart. “There’s no closure because we don’t know what happened. We don’t know where she is if she’s alive if she’s diseased. It just makes you sick.”
The San Diego Sheriff’s Department is offering a $10,000 reward to anyone with information that could lead to Elena Roy’s whereabouts.
