Fairfield Woman, 36, Vanished Weeks Ago — Police Only Now Seek Help

Fairfield Police are asking the public for help finding 36-year-old Chantel Brooks, who has been missing since the early morning hours of July 17 after leaving her San Francisco job and driving toward home in Solano County — only to disappear again minutes after stepping into a Fairfield CVS. Brooks, a Fairfield resident described as 5-foot-6 and 180 pounds with black hair and brown eyes, was last seen wearing gray sweatpants, brown furry boots, a red zip-up sweatshirt and a brown multi-colored brimmed hat. Her black 2021 Infiniti QX50, bearing California license plate 9SBB134, has also not been located.

According to a post from the Fairfield Police Department, Brooks was captured on surveillance footage leaving her place of employment in the 700 block of Eddy Street in San Francisco and was last seen approaching her vehicle in the business's parking lot. She then turned up again on camera leaving a CVS store in the 300 block of East Travis Boulevard in Fairfield, still wearing the same clothing she'd had on in San Francisco. Investigators have not said what happened between those two sightings, and Brooks has not been seen since.

A Three-Week Gap Before the Public Alert

The distance between the two locations is roughly 45 to 50 miles via Interstate 80 East across the Carquinez Bridge, a drive of about 50 to 60 minutes in late-night traffic, according to SFGATE. That outlet reports Brooks left her San Francisco workplace around 12:20 a.m. on July 17 and appeared at the Fairfield CVS around 1:45 a.m., a timeline consistent with the overnight drive up I-80.

SFGATE and ABC10 both began reporting on Brooks' disappearance Thursday, noting that Fairfield police did not put out their public appeal until Wednesday — nearly three weeks after she was last seen. Police are urging anyone with sightings of Brooks or her vehicle since the early morning of July 17 to come forward.

License Plate Cameras and a Reported Sighting in East Oakland

Community missing-person alerts shared on Facebook identify Brooks by the nickname  "CiCi" and claim automated license plate readers later picked up her Infiniti in East Oakland after she left Fairfield, though police have not confirmed that detail. Oakland significantly expanded its own camera network in December, when the City Council approved a $2.25 million contract with Flock Safety for more than 300 additional plate readers citywide, per The Oaklandside.

Fairfield runs comparable technology out of its own Real-Time Intelligence Center, which pairs plate-reader data with a Drone as First Responder program that monitors city streets, including Travis Boulevard, as KTVU FOX 2 reported in April. The overlapping camera networks in both cities give investigators a way to trace vehicle movement across municipal lines, though it's unclear whether that capability has produced any confirmed leads in Brooks' case.

What State Law Requires, and How Rare Suspicious Cases Are

State law leaves no room for delay in situations like this one. Under California Penal Code Section 14211, law enforcement agencies must accept missing person reports immediately regardless of jurisdiction and are required to prioritize them over property-crime investigations, according to the California Department of Social Services. Statewide, the California Department of Justice logged 39,561 missing adult reports in 2025, including 15,682 involving women; only 380 of those cases statewide were formally classified under suspicious circumstances, a designation that triggers specialized investigative resources.

Cases like Brooks' typically fall to the Special Victims Unit and Major Crimes Unit within the Fairfield Police Department's Investigations Division, according to the City of Fairfield, which oversees high-profile disappearances, suspicious deaths and cold cases. Fairfield has faced high-profile searches for missing residents before; Hoodline previously covered the case of Jason Arriola, a Fairfield man whose disappearance last fall drew a community search that ended in tragedy near Paradise Valley Road in December.

Tips Sought From the Public

Anyone with information about Brooks or her vehicle is asked to call the Fairfield Police Department at 707-428-7300, or to reach the Investigations Division's anonymous tip line at 707-428-7600. Tips can also be emailed to [email protected], per the department's post. Police have not said whether they consider foul play a possibility, and as of Thursday, Brooks' whereabouts remained unknown.