Whatever Happened to Doris Inzunza? Advocate For Sacramento Women Disappeared Nearly 20 Years Ago

RANCHO CORDOVA (CBS13) — She was the rock that kept her family strong.

But nearly 20 years ago, Doris Inzunza vanished from her Rancho Cordova home.

She stood about five feet tall and was around 100 pounds, but she stood even taller for women looking to escape an abusive relationship. She helped establish Sacramento Survivors of Stalking.

Investigators say she spoke through experience. Family members and co-workers say one of her ex-boyfriends was stalking her. He's a man who was roughly 20 years older than Doris and someone the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department was well aware of, according to documents found by CBS13.

Doris had filed police reports and even got a restraining order against him after the breakup. Her sister Lisa says she heard the threatening phone calls.

"Some of those messages included, 'You didn't marry me; you're not going to marry someone else,'" she said.

She had planned to marry someone else and was just two weeks away from her wedding when she disappeared. That was Aug. 26, 1997.

"She'd gone away for the weekend and somehow her spare refrigerator in the garage was unplugged," Lisa said.

The meat and other items in the fridge had spoiled, creating a smelly mess. Doris opened up the garage in her home to air it out. A friend and neighbor told CBS13 at the time she was cleaning out the garage that night.

The next morning her sister got a call from Doris' work saying she never showed up. Search teams on horseback, in the air and on the ground would find nothing.

In the months that would follow, friends and neighbors held candlelight vigils, keeping any flicker of hope alive.

It's been nearly 20 years, but retired Sacramento County detective Micki Links hasn't given up hope. She does more than just thumb through the pages of Doris' story, working on the cold case whenever she can. There's one conclusion she sees.

"There's nothing that supports anything but the fact that she was abducted and taken out of the house," she said.

But who did it?

Lisa feels her sister's abductor left a clue—the engagement ring her family says Doris never took off her finger was left on her bedroom nightstand.

Her family and law enforcement say Doris didn't fight because she was doing what she had always done—protect her loved ones.

"If she wasn't physically abducted--I believe that maybe somebody threatened her life or her kids lives--to make her go with him," Lisa said.

Detectives searched her ex-boyfriend's house and car at the time, but didn't find anything solid enough to make an arrest. To this day, investigators say he has not been ruled out. In putting this story together we made several efforts to contact him but haven't heard back."

Finding Doris' body isn't so much about finding justice for her family, it's about closure. The talk of the anguish took their mother to her grave after finding out what she told detectives.

After nearly two decades, nothing has erased the pain.

Doris had just turned 42 when she disappeared, so she would be in her 60s today. Her four boys are now successful adults, married with children. Doris' sisters say she would be proud.

Anyone with information regarding the case is asked to call the sheriff's homicide bureau at (916) 874-5057. Those who want to remain anonymous can submit a tip via the Sheriff's Department's tip line.