Daughters, 4 and 7, Gone When Mother Returns Home

A La Mesa woman reported her two young daughters missing after she returned home early Wednesday morning from picking up her car, police said.

The girls, ages 4 and 7, were last seen sleeping in their bedroom by their mother, Ester Silva, and a friend who left for Hillcrest to pick up Silva’s car, which was being repaired, police Lt. Allan Joslyn said.

He said that 7-year-old Olivia Silva is about 4 feet, 4 inches tall, weighs 60 pounds and has brown eyes and long brown hair. She has large dimples and is missing her front teeth. She was wearing a floor-length pink gown with white sleeves.

Her sister, 4-year-old Carolyn Silva, is about 3 feet, 4 inches tall, weighs 40 to 50 pounds and has brown hair and brown eyes, Joslyn said. She was last seen wearing a floor-length pink gown with a cartoon character on it.

Silva, 34, and the woman friend gave conflicting accounts of the time they left the residence on Lake Murray Boulevard, said La Mesa Police Capt. Wayne Beatty.

Silva told police they left the condominium at 4:30 a.m. to pick up the car from the home of a friend who was repairing it, and returned at 5:30 a.m., Beatty said. But the friend told investigators they left at 2:30 a.m. and returned at 5:30 a.m, he said.

Silva told authorities that, when they returned, the doors were still locked and there were no signs of forced entry, Beatty said. He said Silva told police that the friend is the only other person who has keys to the home.

Silva called several friends asking if they knew where the girls were, Beatty said. At 8 a.m., someone called police, who took Silva and the woman in for questioning about 11 a.m.

In an interview at the residence, Silva’s friend, who declined to give her name, said they left at 2:30 a.m. and returned at 3 a.m. She did not say why the two left the girls alone or why they had chosen that time to pick up the car.

She said that whoever took the girls is probably someone who was owed money by Silva’s husband, Anthony, who was killed in July.

According to Beatty, Anthony Silva, 33, was shot and killed in Clairemont in the garage of his home on Mt. Herbert Avenue on July 26 in a dispute over a drug deal, according to a coroner’s report.

Ester Silva declined to talk to a reporter.