Investigators found two Yuba City, California, residents dead on Wednesday, 10 days after they were reported missing. Juan Almanza Zavala and Janette Pantoja attended the Hot August Nights music and car festival in Reno, Nevada, and never returned home.
Zavala, 36, and Pantoja, 29, attended the festival together and planned to return home the same night. Reports show Almanza Zavala and Pantoja dated for eight years and were no longer together, although both families said they maintained a good relationship. However, Pantoja had recently started seeing someone new, and her sister, Alejandra Pantoja, told NewsNation that Almanza Zavala wasn’t pleased.
“A couple of family members had seen that at these apartment buildings in front of our house, he was parked at, and one time in the middle of the night he was outside sitting in front of the garage,” she told NewsNation.
Both were found dead after a man called 911 when he saw a car that appeared to have crashed near Highway 20 and Poker Flats Road in California on Wednesday. Both bodies were found outside the car.
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The Nevada County Sheriff’s Office (NCSO) posted the news on its Facebook page. NCSO said that because of the nature of the injuries, the male body was only tentatively identified as Almanza Zavala. The female was confirmed to be Pantoja.
KFOR in Oklahoma reported that the car was not visible from the highway and that investigators had searched rural areas for the last two weeks. However, both families felt police weren’t doing enough to find the couple.
Investigators searched rural areas in Nevada County, which is where the couple’s last-known cellphone pings were tracked. They also searched rural residences in the area but didn’t find anything. According to NewsNation, families of both Almanza Zavala and Pantoja believed the police department never acted on a promise to conduct an aerial search.
After the couple left the festival, KCRA in Sacramento reported that Pantoja’s younger sister spoke to her when Pantoja was on her way home around 11:30 p.m. Pantoja’s current boyfriend also spoke to her around the same time, when Pantoja told him she was 30 minutes from home. The couple never returned home, and their phones were turned off.
After both families reported Almanza Zavala and Pantoja missing on August 7, investigators searched their cellular data for leads. Pantoja’s sister said the family last tracked her phone to Poker Flat Road, which is the area where their bodies were found.
NCSO said the California Highway Patrol was conducting a vehicle accident investigation.