Friends, Church Search For Missing Oakland Woman

Where is Erica Maskaleris?  The 31-year-old Oakland woman has been missing since March 7. 

On Monday, family, friends and volunteers fanned out near 34th Street and Telegraph Avenue where she was last seen about 8 a.m. They're showing her face to passersby, hoping it may jog a memory of seeing her.

They also were out canvassing bus stops and the MacArthur BART station.  Members of the First Congregational Church in Oakland held a vigil for her over the weekend. 

Maskaleris was last spotted by a surveillance camera at a corner bakery, A Taste of Denmark, at 3401 Telegraph Ave.

NBC Bay Area obtained a copy of that video, which shows Maskaleris power walking by the shop at 8:09 a.m. She is wearing gray leggings and a black headband.

To see the surveillance footage, click here.

 

Gloria Torres, Maskaleris' mother, is worried. She traveled Fresno to help in the search.  She said her daughter owns an Information Technology company and did a computer search recently on San Francisco parks. What's also odd is that Maskaleris was supposed to have flown to Texas on March 7 to visit a brother, which she never did. He came to Oakland instead.

"Right now we should be in Dallas we should be going to a museum or driving to Austin and she had every plan of doing that. She was looking forward to it. I was looking forward to it," Steve Torres said Monday afternoon. "I just want to know where she is. She's my sister, she's my best friend in the whole world. I love her so much," he said tearfully.

The family said Erica has been through a lot.

“Erica lost her husband suddenly to cancer last year,” Gloria Torres said. “She has endured quite a lot for a young woman.  We just want her to come home to us.”

Maskaleris is 5 foot 3,  220 pounds, and a Latina with long dark brown hair.

One of her friends,  Jon Jackson, said the entire ordeal is very overwhelming.  "It's hitting us hard...breaking into tears."

If anyone knows anything about Maskaleris, they are asked to call Oakland Police at 510-777-3333.

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