May 20, 2020
Recently Engaged Couple Die in Car Crash; Why Did It Take 2 Weeks to Find Them?
READ TIME: 4 MIN.
The tragic end of a recently engaged North Carolina couple has led to questions being raised by their friends as to police behavior in the case.
On May 4, the Daily Mail reports, the bodies of Stephanie Mayorga, 27, and Paige Escalera, 25, were found in Mayorga's Toyota after disappearing on April 15.
"The newly-engaged couple who had been missing for three weeks before being found dead in their car were drunk and traveling at 103mph when they crashed, police say," reported the Daily Mail. Escalera's 2013 Dodge Dart was discovered on May 4 with the couple's decomposing bodies inside.
"Several open, empty beer bottles were discovered in the vehicle, and investigators were able to determine the women purchased a 12 pack of beer from a convenience store at 10.49pm, roughly one hour prior to the crash," The Daily Mail continues.
The couple died as a result of traumatic head and chest injuries.
Mayorga and Escalera were last seen leaving their Wilmington, NC, home on April 15. Their disappearance was reported three days later by a roommate. It would be three weeks before their bodies were found by the Wilmington police, in a wooded area.
But shortly before midnight on April 15, a 911 "dispatcher received a call from a man who said he witnessed a car that sped through the intersection, failed to turn at a stop sign at the end of Independence Boulevard, and 'disappeared inside the trees,' " .
"Wilmington Police and emergency crews arrived on the scene at 11:59 p.m., more than six minutes after the phone call began, according to dispatch recordings and call logs obtained by Port City Daily. At 12:07 a.m., a WPD officer identified as Unit 300 told dispatch, 'We are unable to locate any vehicle that appears to be crashed up and down River Road or near the intersections.' "
"You can clear all units off this," the officer said.
"A minute later, an EMS unit also reported that no car was found – the last communication recorded on the call log, apparently indicating that no police officers returned after sunrise to examine the scene in daylight."
On May 6, two days after the car was found, friends of the couple gathered at the accident scene, where a pink and white cross was placed, and "expressed anger towards the WPD for not finding the wrecked car after the 911 call."
On Thursday, May 7, Port City Daily "asked the WPD if there were any concerns of whether officers searched the scene thoroughly enough, if there were certain protocols in place to determine how extensive the search of an accident scene should be, and what led to the discovery of the vehicle on May 4."
WPD spokeswoman Linda Thompson said "the investigation is ongoing and we are able to answer all of those questions in the coming week," but could provide no comments at the time," the Port City Daily reports.
But the couple's friend maintain that "two roommates of the women have also suggested that the department did not seriously begin looking for the two women until nine days after a missing persons report was filed,"
One of the roommates, Natalie, said "Escalera's parents traveled from Fayetteville and demanded answers from the department, including why they hadn't yet been contacted.
"The mother told me that they had not assigned a detective to the case yet," Natalie said. "And, at this point, the girls had been missing for more than ten days. So she was furious."
"My biggest concern is why they didn't conduct a reasonable search that night,"
"I feel like the biggest help is an eyewitness, who they said stayed on the scene, and no one was still able to find them," she said. "They use the excuse of not being able to see signs of broken branches but they told our family that an officer who seen broken branches is what led him to find the car on May 4th, 19 days after the accident."
