THE MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE OF ALEJANDRO ARZOLA

On the afternoon of June 20, Alejandro Arzola of Oak Cliff was driving along Northwest Highway toward the Interstate 635 onramp when he crashed and rolled his blue Dodge Ram truck in an apparent single-car accident. Afterward, he called his girlfriend and told her he’d been in an accident. He was OK, he told her, and he asked her to pick him up. According to 32-year-old Arzola’s family, the girlfriend did not have a car and could not reach him. He’d have to find another way home. When Dallas Police officers arrived at the scene, they found the wrecked truck but no Arzola. At first, everyone assumed he’d found another ride, but hours and days went by and no one heard from him. Arzola’s family is still searching for answers.

“It is not like him to disappear, and for over a month, it is just not something he would do,” sister Yadira Arzola says. He has two children, ages 13 and 5, and the eldest is worried to tears some days, she says. “We are trying to stick together and support the kids,” she says, “but it this really hard, and confusing.”

Arzola says her brother drinks alcohol occasionally but has no known history of substance abuse or mental problems. She says she “has no idea” if he was drinking the day he disappeared. She says she thinks he might have been shaken or shocked following the accident. During that last phone call, when his girlfriend asked where he was, he seemed initially confused, Arzola says.

He grew up in Dallas, in Oak Cliff mostly. The close-knit family has always lived around the central and northeast Dallas region, so he should be familiar with the area, she says. Anyone with information is asked to call Dallas police at 214.671.4268.

—Christina Hughes Babb

Armed robberies of pedestrians and cyclists carrying smartphones have taken place in the Lake Highlands vicinity in a span of just a few weeks

5-7 a.m.

Time the majority of the crimes occurred; two others happened at dusk 4

Arrests made in connection with the hold-ups, yet the robberies continue 2

Suspects in the latest gunpoint robbery of a woman walking near Hexter Elementary — described as young black men driving a Cutlass sedan — are still at large

SOURCE Dallas Police Department, Aug. 10, 2015