Reprint from the Progress Times - SEptember 5, 2008
©Progress Times 2008 - All Rights Reserved

 

Mission woman missing

 

By David Rodriguez

The search continues for a Mission woman reported missing by her family two weeks ago Sunday, August 24. Josefina “Josie” Lugo, 68, was last seen at approximately noon on Friday, August 22.

Mission Police Department received a report through Lugo’s family at 11 p.m. Sunday and as the investigation has unfolded police have grown more and more sure foul play is involved.

“We’ve been working this case since it was reported,” said Mission Police Lieutenant Martin Garza. “We secured a search warrant for the home of Josefina Lugo after finding out that Josie’s husband, Pedro Lugo, had gotten into a bus on Monday and gone into Mexico.”

When authorities learned Pedro Lugo had received a ride from his son, to a bus station, the search became a full investigation and headed to the home of Pedro and Josie Lugo at Evergreen Manor in the 700 block of Bryan Road. The son’s name has not been released. 

The search warrant, executed Tuesday, August 25, revealed evidence that has led authorities to believe that a crime has been committed although the police department would not say specifically what was found.

On Thursday of last week, two days after searching the Lugo home, investigators executed a search warrant of the son’s home on 4 Mile Line and Doffing Road where more evidence of a crime was found and collected from inside the home and two of the vehicles belonging to the son.

Neither Pedro Lugo nor his son have been formally charged.

“We finally got in communication with Pedro Lugo,” said Garza. “We spoke to him over the phone on Friday when he told detectives he would be coming back to Mission. By Saturday, we picked up Pedro Lugo at his son’s residence. Both have been cooperating with police.

The case and the search continue.

“We’ve been meeting with the district attorney’s office regarding the case and we have an attorney who is a City of Mission attorney who will be processing this case,” said Garza. “They’re looking over the evidence and we’re looking at comparisons of the evidence to corroborate what detectives have found through testimonial evidence we received through interviews with several witnesses and family and friends.”