A 14-year-old San Jose girl has been missing since late yesterday, last seen on foot near North Capitol Avenue and McKee Road wearing a black Raiders jacket and black sandals. Authorities activated an Endangered Missing Advisory for Angili Cortez SantaCruz, describing her as 5 feet 2 inches tall, weighing about 105 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes.
According to KRON4, Cortez SantaCruz was last seen around 11 PM near the busy North Capitol Avenue and McKee Road intersection, and the California Highway Patrol believes she is on foot. That intersection sits along a major East San Jose commercial corridor anchored by the Capitol Square shopping center and located near Interstate 680, according to Compass Real Estate. She was also wearing blue shorts when she disappeared.
The California Highway Patrol activated the Endangered Missing Advisory on behalf of the San Jose Police Department, which is leading the missing person investigation, per SFGATE. Authorities are asking anyone who sees Cortez SantaCruz to call 911 immediately.
How the Advisory System Works
Endangered Missing Advisories are issued under California Government Code Section 8594.11, enacted through Assembly Bill 946, which lets local police departments request the alerts when an at-risk youth or vulnerable person disappears under unexplained or suspicious circumstances that don't meet the stricter criteria for an AMBER Alert, per the California Highway Patrol. The advisories fulfill the federal Ashanti Alert Act of 2018, allowing agencies to push rapid public notifications through regional highway messaging and electronic flyers rather than waiting on evidence of abduction.
San Jose Police Department policy states that there is no mandatory waiting period to report a missing person, and the department instructs the public to call 911 immediately if the missing person is a child or if foul play is suspected. Under SJPD guidelines, missing person cases are generally investigated by the agency where the individual resides, though the department will file a courtesy report when a non-resident goes missing within San Jose city limits.
A Familiar Pattern in San Jose
This is not the first time this month that San Jose families have faced this kind of search. Earlier in August, an Endangered Missing Advisory requested by San Jose Police for a 13-year-old boy found safe was broadcast across five Northern California counties — Santa Clara, Alameda, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, and Sacramento — before he was located.
Santa Clara County residents can also receive localized emergency warnings through AlertSCC, a reverse 911 system that broadcasts alerts directly to landlines and registered cell phones across the county, according to the San Jose Police Department. It remains unclear whether that system has been activated in Cortez SantaCruz's case, or whether the search has been expanded beyond Santa Clara County using CHP highway signage. Investigators have not said whether they suspect foul play or believe Cortez SantaCruz left on her own.
The Broader Numbers Behind Missing Youth Cases
Statewide, the California Department of Justice maintains an automated Missing Persons System that averages roughly 20,000 active missing person cases at any given time, with agencies required by law to enter reports into the central database. Nationally, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children supported 32,167 missing children cases in 2025 and resolved 90 percent of them, with runaways accounting for 92 percent of all reports the organization received that year.
Child safety researchers caution that the stakes for missing teens can be serious: research compiled by San Diego Youth Services indicates that roughly 1 in 7 endangered missing runaways reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children were likely victims of child sex trafficking. Anyone who sees Cortez SantaCruz or has information on her whereabouts is urged to contact authorities right away.
