Twenty-seven years have passed since Karla Rodriguez, then seven years old, vanished in Las Vegas without a trace, and investigators still do not know what happened to her. No one has ever been arrested in connection with her disappearance, and this week, the FBI renewed its public appeal for information.
FBI Las Vegas marked the milestone with a social media post on Thursday, writing that “this month marks 27 years since seven-year-old Karla Rodriguez vanished without a trace,” and that “for nearly three decades, her family, dedicated investigators, and our community have refused to let her name be forgotten,” according to a post from FBI Las Vegas
. The bureau said her case “remains unresolved,” and asked anyone with information about her whereabouts to contact its office, any local FBI office, or the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, saying a single tip could help bring her home.
Rodriguez was last seen near 6th Street and St. Louis Avenue at around 7 p.m. on October 20, 1999, according to KTNV. Her disappearance was not reported to authorities until almost 12 hours later, the following morning. Accounts of her final movements that day differ: one report states she vanished after visiting a friend’s house, as reported by Fox5 Las Vegas, while the Las Vegas Sun has reported that her mother last saw her walking to school that same morning. The discrepancy has never been resolved.
A Massive Search That Turned Up Nothing
In the days after Rodriguez went missing, more than 100 volunteers searched her neighborhood multiple times over the following weekend, KTNV's report notes, while police deployed bloodhounds and a mounted unit in the effort. Despite that large-scale response, no trace of the girl was found, and the case has remained open for more than two decades. Investigators have said the file continues to be actively investigated rather than treated as cold, per the same Fox5 Las Vegas account.
Over the years, detectives have pursued leads that took them well beyond the neighborhood where Rodriguez was last seen. Investigators used ground-penetrating radar to search Nevada desert locations that had been marked on maps recovered from the jail cell of Curtis Dean Anderson, according to Fox5 Las Vegas. Those searches did not yield new information tied to her case.
DNA Testing Brought In to Chase New Leads
Las Vegas police have also turned to genetic genealogy in hopes of generating new leads. Karla's parents submitted saliva samples for DNA testing in October 2019, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported at the time. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department has also explored the technique to solve cold cases, with genetic genealogy testing then estimated to cost between $5,000 and $20,000 per case.
The scale of the challenge facing Metro's cold case unit is significant. Detectives were handling roughly 200 cold cases as of 2013, even as the department received approximately 6,000 to 7,000 new missing-person reports every year, according to the Las Vegas Sun. Against that backdrop, Rodriguez's case has remained a rare example of sustained, decades-long attention from both investigators and the public.
The FBI has also offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to Rodriguez, Fox5 Las Vegas has reported. Thursday's anniversary post from FBI Las Vegas reiterated that her family, investigators, and the broader community have continued efforts to keep her name remembered for nearly three decades, and that the case remains unresolved. Anyone with information has been asked to contact the FBI or Las Vegas police.
