A 13-year-old girl and a 19-year-old man vanished from Santa Rosa days apart, and police now believe they are traveling together somewhere in the North Bay.
Quick Take
- Deanna Mendoza Pfoutz, 13, was reported missing October 1; Jaden Wilson, 19, was reported missing October 5, each under a separate Santa Rosa police case number.
- Witnesses reported seeing the pair together in Petaluma on October 4 and in Santa Rosa on October 5.
- Police say Wilson has a medical condition that requires treatment, raising urgency about his and Pfoutz’s whereabouts.
- Authorities have not said either person was the victim of a crime, but they are asking the public for tips.
Two Separate Disappearances That Became One Case
Santa Rosa police opened two missing-person files just days apart. Pfoutz, described as about 4 feet 11 inches and 120 pounds with brown hair and hazel eyes, was reported missing October 1. Wilson, roughly 5 feet 4 inches and 120 pounds, was reported missing October 5. The cases carry different numbers, 26-10877 and 26-11047, but investigators now treat them as connected.
What ties the two cases together is not guesswork. Police say they have reason to believe the teenager and the young man were seen together in public, not once but twice, in two different cities within 24 hours of each other. That pattern is what moved this from two routine files into one urgent search.
Sightings In Petaluma, Then Santa Rosa
Investigators say witnesses spotted the pair together in Petaluma on October 4, then again in Santa Rosa the following day. Multiple outlets, including NBC Bay Area, CBS News San Francisco, and the San Francisco Chronicle, reported the same chronology and police characterization, giving the public account unusual consistency across independent newsrooms.
Some early reporting noted that Wilson was last seen by family on October 2, two days before the Petaluma sighting. That detail does not contradict the police timeline so much as it separates “last seen by loved ones” from “last seen by a witness in public.” Either way, the trail investigators are following runs through those two cities.
A Medical Concern Adds Urgency
Santa Rosa police have stated that Wilson has a medical condition requiring treatment, which is a central reason officers are calling his location an immediate concern. The department has not disclosed what the condition is or how soon treatment is needed, which is typical given privacy rules around medical information. But the department chose to flag it publicly anyway, a signal that time matters here.
That single detail does a lot of work in this story. It explains why police escalated a routine missing-person report into a public appeal with phone numbers and a direct ask for sightings. A department does not usually broadcast a stranger’s health status unless withholding it would slow down a search that genuinely needs the public’s eyes.
What Police Are Not Saying
Authorities have been clear on one point: there is currently no indication that either Pfoutz or Wilson is the victim of a crime. That statement matters. It frames this as a welfare and locating case, not a declared abduction, and it should temper the instinct to assume the worst before investigators say otherwise.
National numbers back up why that distinction is worth keeping in mind. The FBI’s National Crime Information Center logged more than 533,000 missing-person entries in 2024, and the overwhelming majority were coded as runaway cases, with stranger abductions making up a tiny fraction. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children also reported recovering roughly 91 percent of the missing children it assisted that year. Those figures do not predict this outcome, but they explain why police lean on public tips before assuming criminality.
How To Help And What Happens Next
Santa Rosa police are asking anyone with information to call the department’s non-emergency dispatch line at 707-528-5222 for sightings within city limits, or 707-543-3595 for broader investigative tips. That is a specific, actionable request, not a vague plea, and it gives families and neighbors a clear way to act if they recognize either description.
For now, the facts on the table are straightforward. Two people from the same community went missing days apart, were reportedly seen together twice, and one of them needs medical care that only gets harder to manage while he stays off the grid. Police have a timeline, a medical urgency, and a public ask. What they do not have yet is Deanna Pfoutz or Jaden Wilson, and that is the only detail that will settle this case.
Sources:
nypost.com, nbcbayarea.com, cbsnews.com, sfchronicle.com, yahoo.com, hindustantimes.com
