Heather Lynn Mikel walked out of the Bexar County Adult Detention Center around 7:30 a.m. on Oct. 14 and hasn't been seen since. The 47-year-old had been arrested the day before by Helotes police on a criminal trespassing charge and taken roughly 25 miles from her family's home to the downtown San Antonio jail, where she was released the following morning into a city her family says she barely knows.
Her brother, Robert Clark, and sister, Bridget Graves, spent Sunday afternoon combing downtown San Antonio for any sign of her, handing out missing-person flyers at Travis Park, according to KENS 5. The family searched around the jail and then expanded outward.
Mikel is unfamiliar with San Antonio and has past mental health struggles, though she does not have any diagnosed medical condition. Information provided by the sheriff's office indicates she also has a history of substance use. Clark said his family simply wants to know whether she's okay, and he's expressed concern about her mental state and well-being in the days since she went missing.
A New Phone, No Saved Numbers
Complicating the search is a detail her family considers critical: Mikel recently got a new cellphone, and according to relatives, she may not have her siblings' phone numbers saved or memorized. That leaves her potentially stranded in an unfamiliar downtown with no easy way to reach the people looking for her, and no way for them to call her either.
Texas Commission on Jail Standards regulations address inmate release times, including 37 Tex. Admin. Code § 267.6, according to the Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute.
Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 16.22 sets out notice to a magistrate and an interview ordered after credible information of mental illness or intellectual disability, according to the Texas Judicial Commission on Mental Health. Mikel was released the following morning, and her family continued searching for her.
Volunteers Reach Out to Hospitals and Shelters
The nonprofit Search and Support San Antonio has stepped in to help the family, assisting with flyer distribution as the search continues.
Lori Wittmeyer, who is working with Mikel's family, has contacted hospitals and shelters around the city seeking any information about her whereabouts. So far, she has not received word on where Mikel might be.
Mikel is described as 5 feet 3 inches to 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighing between 120 and 130 pounds, with brown hair showing some gray and blue-green eyes. She was last seen wearing a black shirt and black pants, and she has earrings and a tongue piercing. Her family hopes she is somewhere safe and out of the elements.
County officials recently announced that 92 inmates have died inside the facility since 2020, as detailed in a San Antonio Express-News report.
County officials announced a process for earlier medical and behavioral-health evaluations of detainees.
The Bexar County Sheriff's Office asks anyone with information about Mikel's whereabouts to call 210-335-6000.
