Katharina Buczek
So, it was not until Kristen’s father, Bob Modafferi, called the home in search of his daughter that her disappearance came to light. After he left a message asking Kristen to call him back, one of the teen’s roommates called Bob to let him know that no one had seen Kristen for three days.
Bob and his wife, Debbie, immediately became alarmed and ultimately hopped on the next flight to San Francisco. Then, upon arrival, they headed straight to Oakland police headquarters.
“When we found out that she had disappeared, we were just shocked. We couldn’t eat. We barely spoke. We just were even having trouble breathing,” Bob said.
Unfortunately, though, Kristen’s parents tried to report her missing on a Friday afternoon– meaning that the investigators assigned to her case were heading home for the weekend. The desk officer reportedly did not seem concerned about this, either, and viewed the 18-year-old as another runaway.
This led to a delay in the launch of an investigation into Kristen’s disappearance, and by the time authorities began working on her case on Monday, June 30, the 18-year-old had already been missing for nearly a full week.
The first clue investigators uncovered pertained to the conversation Kristen had with the unidentified blonde woman after she finished work on June 23. According to the teen’s coworker, who spotted the interaction, this was out of character for Kristen.
“He [the coworker] thought that was kind of strange because she never really stuck around after work. As soon as she checked out, she would be gone,” recalled Oakland Police Department Officer Patrick Mahanay.
Kristen’s father, Bob, was also determined to uncover the woman’s identity– even though her relation to the teen has never been determined.
“They were hanging out together, talking together, definitely with each other. And so we’ve made a lot of effort to try to get the blonde woman to come forward, identify herself,” Bob explained.
“We appealed a number of times through the media, but we’ve never got a response.”
Once Bob and Debbie personally searched through their daughter’s room, they also found a Bay Guardian newspaper in the trashcan. One of the personal ads had been circled.
