Clues Sought in Disappearance of Vista Boy, 12

Sheriff’s Department investigators are baffled by the disappearance of a 12-year-old Vista boy who has been missing for more than two weeks.

“We’re unable to explain his disappearance and we have no leads as to his current whereabouts,” Sgt. Glenn Revell said.

Aaron Noe Ortega-Cervantes has been missing since Sept. 4 and investigators don’t know if he was abducted or went to Tijuana where his father lives, Revell said.

Aaron, who is called Noe by his family, is about 4 feet tall, weighs 85 pounds, and has black hair and brown eyes. He also has a small scar over his right eye and a scar on his right temple. He was last seen wearing a blue T-shirt, pink shorts and white tennis shoes.

On Sept. 4, the day he disappeared, investigators discovered that Aaron didn’t show up for class at Lincoln Middle School in the 100 block of Escondido Avenue as he had promised his mother.

Aaron had been shy about going to school because he speaks only Spanish, Revell said.

Investigators think Aaron spent the day in a nearby park before returning home at 3:30 p.m., when he left the house again to go out and play.

There has been an unconfirmed sighting of Aaron later that afternoon on Escondido Avenue just south of the school, Revell said.

He was apparently walking behind a woman about 30 years old who was carrying a baby and walking with another boy who was about 6 years old.

Aaron and his mother had been living near other relatives in a Vista neighborhood for about three months, Revell said.

“It is unusual to us that this child would leave. One of the complaints in the past was that he missed his cousins,” Revell said.

Some family members have gone back to Tijuana to find the boy’s father.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Sheriff’s Department at 940-4547 or Crime Stoppers at 235-TIPS.