‘We’re just holding on to hope’ | Two years later, West Coast mother refuses to give up on daughter last seen in San Antonio

Annie Salcido says her daughter was staying with a man in the days leading up to her disappearance.

SAN ANTONIO — Two years after 34-year-old Jeanie Chavez disappeared from San Antonio, her family says they refuse to give up hope of bringing her home.

Chavez was last seen in July 2024 on Aganier Avenue, north of downtown. According to her family, she was preparing to enter a rehabilitation program in Houston after struggling with addiction but never made it there.

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Her mother, Annie Salcido, who lives on the West Coast, has spent the past two years traveling to Texas and other states, following up on tips, speaking with people experiencing homelessness and searching for any sign of her daughter.

“I’m not going away,” Salcido told KENS 5. “I believe that she’s lost. I believe that there are people that know where she is.”

Salcido said she continues to receive reports from people claiming they’ve seen Chavez in different parts of San Antonio.

“So many people have written me on Facebook saying they’ve seen her,” she said. “Then, not too long ago, I was told that she was in this certain area off 410 and Roosevelt.”

Salcido said Chavez was staying with a man in the days leading up to her disappearance. She said he told her Chavez left a detox facility because she was embarrassed to continue with treatment.

“My daughter has never been embarrassed to tell me a thing, especially when it came to her addiction,” Salcido said.

According to Salcido, staff at the detox facility told her Chavez was picked up by the man she had been staying with – something she says he denied.

A week later, Salcido said the man mailed Chavez’s belongings to her home.

“I felt at that point that that was like an indirect threat to me and to my family, letting us know basically he knew where we lived,” she said.

Among the belongings, Salcido said, were family photographs, Social Security cards and other personal items she believes Chavez never would have voluntarily left behind. Calls to her daughter’s phone also went to voicemail.

As the investigation has continued, Salcido says she has developed her own theory about what happened.

“I feel she was sold for drugs. For some money,” she said. “As disgusting as that is to know, it hurts my heart to no end.”

San Antonio police continue to investigate Chavez’s disappearance as a missing persons case. Salcido has also hired a private investigator and contacted Gov. Greg Abbott’s office, which she says connected her with an investigator through the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Despite years without answers, Salcido says she remains committed to finding her daughter.

“I’ve done just about anything and I will continue to do just about anything to find her, to bring her home to our family, her kids,” she said.

“I cannot see just giving up and not doing everything I possibly have to do to know if Jeanie is alive or just still struggling with addiction in the streets.”

Chavez is the mother of two children. Her youngest daughter, 4-year-old Charlie, still recognizes her mother’s photo, while her older daughter, 11-year-old Leah, says she continues to hold onto hope.

“I love you to the moon and back,” Leah said. “I just wish that I could give her a hug one last time. It’s sad not to.”

Anyone with information about Jeanie Chavez’s whereabouts is urged to contact the San Antonio Police Department’s Missing Persons Unit at 210-207-7660.