Ava Grace Baldwin was last seen in San Antonio on September 17, 2015, when she was 6 years old. Eleven years later, on the anniversary of her disappearance, the Texas Center for the Missing is again asking the public to help bring her home, describing her as still missing alongside her mother, Kathryn Baldwin, who has an outstanding felony warrant.
The renewed appeal came in a post from the Texas Center for the Missing
, a Houston-based nonprofit, which linked to an NCMEC poster for Ava. An NCMEC listing identifies her under case number 1278435. The organization noted that Ava and Kathryn Baldwin may have traveled to Chicago, Illinois, possibly in a silver 2014 Ford Escape bearing Illinois plates Q29-2793 — the same vehicle later found abandoned in San Antonio. According to reporting by
KENS 5
in April 2018, Ava's father, David Hopper, lived seven hours away in Oklahoma while Ava lived with her mother in San Antonio.
A Custody Battle Preceded the Disappearance
KENS 5's 2018 reporting indicates Ava vanished almost immediately after Hopper filed court papers seeking full custody, citing concerns over Kathryn Baldwin's history of alcohol and prescription drug abuse and unmanaged mental health conditions. The two parents had previously shared joint custody before Hopper moved to change that arrangement, the station reported. Seven months after Ava went missing, in April 2016, San Antonio authorities located Kathryn Baldwin's Ford Escape abandoned in a parking lot on Whitby Road — but found no physical trace of either Ava or her mother, according to Light the Way.
The case has split the family along stark lines. KENS 5's reporting notes that Kathryn Baldwin's relatives believe both she and Ava are dead, while Hopper and his family maintain the pair are alive and hiding with help from acquaintances across Texas, Oklahoma, California, Florida, or Illinois. Law enforcement has characterized the case as a family abduction.
National Attention Once Focused on Shelters
The case drew national media attention, and San Antonio outlet MySA has reported on Ava's disappearance. Tips are managed alongside NCMEC, per the station's report.
Kathryn Baldwin is described as 5-foot-10 and 125 pounds, and law enforcement has advised she has an ongoing medical condition requiring treatment, according to the same KENS 5 reporting. Under Texas Penal Code Section 25.03, interference with child custody is a state jail felony punishable by six months to two years in a state jail facility and fines up to $10,000, according to legal analysis published by Varghese Summersett. The statute defines the offense as taking or retaining a child under 18 in violation of a custody order. Kathryn Baldwin has an active felony warrant for interfering with child custody.
Part of a Larger Missing Persons Pattern
Ava's case fits into patterns researchers have documented nationally. Family abductions account for roughly 200,000 of the estimated 260,000 child abductions that occur annually in the United States, according to data compiled by the Child Crime Prevention & Safety Center, which notes that such cases frequently stem from contentious custody battles.
Locally, San Antonio ranked among the top 10 U.S. cities for unresolved missing persons cases in early 2024 according to NamUs, as Hoodline reported in previous coverage of a Timberwood Park teen's disappearance. That ranking prompted Bexar County to allocate $370,000 in the fiscal year 2026 budget for a dedicated Missing Persons Unit, after deputies handled three to 10 missing-person reports daily and a backlog exceeding 600 cases, often alongside homicide duties.
Anyone with information on Ava Grace Baldwin's whereabouts is asked to contact the Bexar County Criminal District Attorney's Office at 1-210-207-7660, the Texas Center for the Missing, or the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
