An El Paso family is urgently searching for their daughter, who disappeared while visiting friends in Houston earlier this month. Investigators say 24-year-old Sydney Marquez was last seen in southwest Houston, and her father has been pleading for access to video from a METRO bus she may have boarded\u2014video that authorities now confirm has been retrieved.<\/p>\n
Sydney was last seen near the 9100 block of Bellaire Boulevard on December 11, according to investigators. Surveillance video shows her walking away after leaving a friend\u2019s car running in the street. Witnesses later told her father she may have boarded a northbound METRO bus at the intersection of Gessner and Harwin, on route 46 going northbound on Gessner towards the Little York area.<\/p>\n
Her father, Raul Marquez, says obtaining the bus video is critical to understanding what happened next.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe car was running. We have video of her going northbound on Ranchester. That\u2019s the last solid evidence we have,\u201d Marquez said. \u201cI have the exact time when she boarded that bus. That footage is a matter of life and death.\u201d<\/p>\n
METRO Police confirm bus video retrieved<\/p>\n
In an update, the METRO Police Department (MPD) says it is actively cooperating with the Houston Police Department (HPD) in the search for Sydney.<\/p>\n
According to MPD, while a remote download of the requested bus footage was initially unavailable, investigators were able to manually download the video from the METRO bus Sydney was reported to be on. That footage has since been turned over to HPD, which is the lead agency in the investigation.<\/p>\n
MPD says it remains hopeful for Sydney\u2019s safe return and will continue assisting HPD as the case moves forward. MPD officials say any additional questions should be directed to HPD.<\/p>\n
Mental health concerns and search efforts<\/p>\n
Sydney lives and works in El Paso and was visiting friends in Houston at the time of her disappearance. Her father believes she may have been experiencing a mental health episode.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was diagnosed with late-onset bipolar disorder with a bit of schizophrenia,\u201d Marquez said. \u201cOver the last two or three months, we saw some changes\u2014some behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n
Texas EquuSearch is assisting in the search. Founder Tim Miller says time remains critical.<\/p>\n
\u201cTime\u2019s not on our side,\u201d Miller said. \u201cShe\u2019s a young girl who was walking late at night, not knowing the area. We just want to get her home safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Description of Sydney Marquez<\/p>\n
According to the Houston Police Department, Sydney is:<\/p>\n
5 feet 4 inches tall<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Approximately 120 pounds<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Short reddish-brown hair<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Brown eyes<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Wears glasses<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Has a four-leaf clover tattoo on her left wrist<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
In a message to his daughter, Marquez said:<\/p>\n
\u201cSydney, you need to come home now. We miss you. We love you. Christmas is around the corner.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although not confirmed by police, a witness told Sydney\u2019s father that she may have boarded the bus with two men who allegedly stopped her from using a phone offered to her at the bus stop. Sydney\u2019s father says the retrieved bus video could help investigators identify those individuals.<\/p>\n
Anyone with information about Sydney Marquez\u2019s whereabouts is urged to contact the Houston Police Department at (832) 394-1840, or Texas EquuSearch at (281) 309-9500.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An El Paso family is urgently searching for their daughter, who disappeared while visiting friends in Houston earlier…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":460756,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5130],"tags":[4345,5429,97292,5425,358,3187],"class_list":{"0":"post-461627","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-houston","9":"tag-houston-police-department","10":"tag-metro-bus","11":"tag-missing-person","12":"tag-texas","13":"tag-tx"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115756054951177324","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}