Newly engaged lesbian couple missing in North Carolina

[left-of-center2012]

A newly engaged couple, Stephanie Mayorga, 27, and Paige Escalera, 25, disappeared in mid-April under "suspicious" circumstances, the police in Wilmington, North Carolina, said Wednesday at a news conference. Their roommate filed a missing persons report several days after the women were last seen on April 15.

Capt. Thomas Tillman said surveillance footage showed the couple leaving their Wilmington home and driving a gray 2013 Dodge Dart with two stickers on the back windshield and South Carolina plates. Tillman described the disappearance as "suspicious" based on undisclosed information received in the past week.

He said detectives had spoken to family members, friends and coworkers of both missing women "in an attempt to gather information of where they might have gone and where they went missing."

In an interview with Oxygen, Stevie Jenkins, Escalera's sister, said that Escalera and Mayorga had only recently met and had moved in together at the beginning of March. Jenkins also said that close friends of her sister had been blocked from her social media over the last week or two. "It is normal for family to not hear from her, but not her closest friends," Jenkins told Oxygen.

Capt. Tillman said the coronavirus pandemic is partly to blame for the more than two-week delay between the couple's disappearance and the news conference. "Life is not going on at the Wilmington Police Department as simply as it did before the COVID-19 pandemic," he said.

https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/newly-engaged-lesbian-couple-missing-north-carolina-n1196426

[Faux pas]

1. And

the intolerance and ignorance just keeps on keeping on.

[Mike 03]

2. I wonder if either one is accessing her bank accounts?

This is a peculiar detail:

Jenkins also said that close friends of her sister had been blocked from her social media over the last week or two.

[dewsgirl]

3. Very peculiar.

[Mike 03]

4. At first, I thought that might be a good sign, but I can also think of

a reason or two why it might not be a good sign. (Good sign in the sense they left of their own volition and didn't meet with foul play).



But here's a detail from another article that says Ms. Escalera left behind important possessions:

Paige Escalera’s sister, Stevie Jenkins, spoke to WWAY on Tuesday. Jenkins said Paige had left home without her phone.

“It just doesn’t make sense to leave town and leave all your things. Your phone on your unmade bed. Your iPad, your charger, your laptop, these watches, I mean…these things that I know that are so important to someone. If they’re leaving town, they’re taking them with them,” Jenkins said.

https://www.wwaytv3.com/2020/04/29/wilmington-police-provide-new-details-in-disappearance-of-two-women/

[dewsgirl]

5. Very disturbing.😞 I hope they are ok.