Arelie Garcia’s family marks one year since her disappearance -- with little progress in finding her.

In the year since Arelie Garcia’s disappearance, her family has organized marches and rallies urging authorities to do more to bring her home. They’ve held fundraisers and started GoFundMe pages to raise money for a billboard and a $10,000 reward for anyone who helps find her. Her friends have made car magnets and flyers bearing her face, in the hope that someone may have recently recognized the missing young woman.

Still, there’s been no sign or word of Garcia’s whereabouts. Friday, Sept. 22 marks one year to the day since Garcia was reported missing. After leaving her Salinas apartment at around 6:30am, she texted her sister that she was on the way to her job at a local car dealership. But she never arrived at work, and her two sisters used the Find My iPhone app to locate her red Honda that same evening – pulled off to the side of Highway 1 in Big Sur, with her phone, keys and purse inside.

The Salinas Police Department enlisted the help of the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office in the initial search for Garcia; helicopters, drones and search parties scoured the surrounding Big Sur area to no avail. A year later, authorities say there’s been little progress.

“We have exhausted every lead we had,” Salinas Police Cmdr. Brian Johnson says. “Nothing new has come up.”

The Garcia family says they were initially frustrated by police efforts. It was Garcia’s own sisters who located her car using a phone app, and the family says their own sleuthing turned up a Google Maps image of her car parked off of Highway 1. “We were very unhappy in the beginning,” says Veronica Garcia, Arelie’s sister. “It felt like we didn’t have any answers.”

“We weren’t sure if cameras were looked at, if steps were being done,” adds David Torres, Veronica’s husband. “The vehicle was found by her sisters; everything they came across, [the family] found out themselves.” Torres says the family eventually “got tired” of leaving it to the police, began doing more media interviews and started organizing rallies around Salinas.

The family has been more satisfied since Salinas Police Detective Edwin Cruz took over the case: “He’s been helping us way more – we’re very grateful for him,” Veronica notes. Johnson says he understands the Garcias’ frustrations and appreciates their efforts to help find her. “It’s a grieving family – they’re doing the only thing they can to help the case and help us,” he says. “They need closure, and I think it just wears on them.”

On Thursday, Sept. 21 – on the eve of one year since they last saw Garcia, whose 26th birthday was in July – the family will hold a candlelight vigil at Closter Park in Salinas, followed by a 7pm mass at St. Mary of the Nativity Catholic Church.

“I feel in my heart that she’s still alive,” Veronica says. “I just hope God gives her the strength she needs to come back home.”