Jose Javier Cruz was 34 years old when he was last in contact with his family at his home in the 10300 block of Huntington Place, Houston, on May 19, 2006, telling his ex-wife he was heading out to pick up their children from school. He never arrived. Twenty years later, his family and investigators still have no answers about what happened to him that day.
Hours after Cruz disappeared, firefighters found his ex-wife's 2005 Chevrolet pickup truck — which Cruz had borrowed — engulfed in flames at around 4 a.m. on May 20, 2006, in Katy, roughly 30 miles west of Houston, according to The Charley Project. Investigators believed the fire had been deliberately set and that an accelerant may have been used. Officers searched nearby and found nothing. Investigators said foul play was possible, as KHOU 11 reported.
A Family Name Tied to Houston Baseball
Cruz's disappearance carried extra weight in Houston because of his family's ties to the Astros. His father, Jose Cruz, was an Astros coach. At the time his son went missing, Cruz's brother, José Cruz Jr., was an active MLB player for the Los Angeles Dodgers, per background from the same source's report.
Investigators also noted that Cruz had a prior criminal record involving theft and assault convictions, and that he was facing active criminal charges in Puerto Rico at the time he disappeared. Police did not know whether the Puerto Rico charges were related to his disappearance.
Case Numbers Span Three Agencies
The investigation has never belonged to a single department. The Houston Police Department logged Cruz's missing-person report under incident #84671106, while the Katy Police Department opened its own investigation under case #2006-845, according to documents cited by Crime Solvers Central. Volunteer search group Texas EquuSearch also opened its own search case, #06-569, after Cruz went missing.
The Texas Department of Public Safety still lists Cruz's case on its Missing Persons Clearinghouse under case number M0606005, with an official classification of “Endangered - Foul Play Possible.” The listing includes contact information for Texas DPS.
Houston's Broader Missing-Persons Burden
Cruz's case is one of thousands that pile up in Texas law enforcement systems every year. In 2025 alone, agencies across the state logged 40,309 missing persons reports into the National Crime Information Center, including 12,080 involving adults 18 and older, according to the Texas Center for the Missing. That same year, Harris County recorded 3,327 missing adult cases, and the 14-county Houston-Galveston region accounted for 34% of all adult missing persons reports statewide — a concentration that underscores how common, and how often unresolved, cases like Cruz's remain in the region.
State and local agencies have built dedicated units to chip away at the backlog of cold cases like his. The Texas Attorney General's Office established a Cold Case and Missing Persons Unit in March 2021 to help local law enforcement with long-unsolved homicides and disappearances, at a time when the state had more than 20,000 unsolved homicides on the books.
Two decades after Cruz failed to show up at his children's school, his case has been referenced by multiple agencies, and investigators have not announced any new leads. Anyone with information is asked to contact Texas DPS or local police.
