Key facts
- Name: Reina Carolina Morales Rojas
- Age at disappearance: 41
- Last seen: November 26, 2022, around 9:00 p.m., getting into a silver van on Bennington Street, East Boston, Massachusetts
- Location: East Boston / Somerville, Massachusetts
- Description: 5’5″, 145 lbs, brown hair; last seen wearing a black shirt, gray zip-up hoodie, black leggings, dark sandals, and a knit hat, carrying a black backpack
- Status: Still missing
- Investigating agency: Boston Police Department, A-7 Detectives — (617) 343-4324; CrimeStoppers — 1-800-494-TIPS (text TIP to 27463); Massachusetts State Police (assigned to the Middlesex DA) — (781) 897-6600
The phone calls that stopped
Reina Carolina Morales Rojas video-called her children every day. She had two, back in El Salvador with her sister Alicia. She had come to the United States in May 2022 — paying a coyote $10,000, a debt she repaid within months through sheer work — and she was building the life she’d crossed a continent for: a food-service job at Logan Airport, a room in East Boston, daily calls home.
She had been a municipal police officer in El Salvador before she left. She knew how to read a dangerous situation. Which is part of what makes the night of November 26, 2022, so hard to understand.
Around 9:00 p.m., Reina was seen getting into a silver van on Bennington Street in East Boston. She was dropped off on Allston Street in Somerville. Just after midnight on November 27, both of her cell phones — the birthday phone she’d gotten in October and her old one — went dark. Both of them. At once.
Her landlord filed a missing-person report on November 28. And then the Boston Police Department did nothing public for forty-five days.
The 45 days
Reina’s case became a case about the case. The BPD didn’t publicize her disappearance until January 12, 2023 — a month and a half after she vanished. When the department finally did put out an alert, it misspelled her name.
For her family, her advocates, and Boston’s Latino community, the delay was the story. Lucy Pineda and the group Latinos Unidos en Massachusetts pushed for answers. Deputy Superintendent Victor Evans addressed it directly on PBS NewsHour: “It’s a misstep that happened. And we as a police department own it.”
A misstep. Forty-five days. In a missing-person case, the first hours matter most; forty-five days is an eternity. Would an immediate alert have found the silver van? Would it have found the driver? Nobody can say. What can be said is that Reina Morales Rojas — an immigrant, a mother, a former police officer — did not get the urgency her case deserved, and the department admitted it.
The Boston Globe’s Hanna Krueger and Tiana Woodard covered the case, columnist Marcela Garcia wrote about it, WBUR reported on it, and the Dark Downeast podcast devoted an episode to Reina (re-released in November 2025 for the third anniversary). The Bluf (thebluf.news) has also covered her story.
The silver van
The known facts are few and specific. November 26, 2022, 9:00 p.m.: Reina gets into a silver van on Bennington Street, East Boston. She is dropped off on Allston Street in Somerville. After midnight, both phones go dark simultaneously.
Two phones dying at once is not a dead battery. It’s a decision — hers, or someone else’s. A woman who video-called her children every single day does not turn off both phones and never call again because she felt like it.
Who was driving the van? Was it a rideshare, a friend, a stranger? Did she know the driver? These are the questions the investigation has had nearly four years to answer. No answers have been made public.
The advocates and the admission
Lucy Pineda and Latinos Unidos en Massachusetts refused to let Reina’s case be a quiet one. They organized, they spoke to media, they kept showing up — and they made the Boston Police Department answer for the 45 days. When Deputy Superintendent Victor Evans sat down with PBS NewsHour and said, “It’s a misstep that happened. And we as a police department own it,” it was a remarkable moment: a police commander admitting, on the record, on national television, that the department had failed a missing woman.
But admissions aren’t answers. The misspelled name on the first alert — a small error that revealed a larger inattention. The 45 days of silence — during which the silver van, its driver, and any forensic trail went cold. The advocates’ underlying question was never really about the delay’s mechanics; it was about whether Reina Morales Rojas got the same urgency a missing white suburban mother would have gotten. The department’s admission didn’t answer that either.
The coverage kept the pressure on: the Boston Globe’s Hanna Krueger and Tiana Woodard, columnist Marcela Garcia, WBUR, the Dark Downeast podcast (re-released for the third anniversary in November 2025), The Bluf. Each story repeated the facts that should have been shouted in November 2022: silver van, Bennington Street, 9 p.m., both phones dark after midnight, a mother who called her children every day and then never called again.
Reina had been a municipal police officer in El Salvador. She knew what investigations were supposed to look like. She paid a coyote $10,000 to get here and repaid it in months — the kind of determination that doesn’t abandon children, jobs, and a new life on a Saturday night in November. Someone knows about the van. The advocates are still asking.
Theories
Foul play connected to the van
The last confirmed sighting is Reina getting into a vehicle; both phones go dark hours later; she never contacts her children again. Evidence level: The van is the central unanswered fact. No driver has been publicly identified, no one charged. Any living person connected to this case is presumed innocent.
She met with harm in Somerville
The drop-off on Allston Street is the last location associated with her. Evidence level: No witnesses, no forensic findings have been made public.
She left voluntarily
Evidence level: Incompatible with everything known about her — daily calls to her children, a job she worked hard to get, a $10,000 debt she’d just finished repaying to build this life. No evidence supports it.
Have information?
Contact Boston Police Department, A-7 Detectives at (617) 343-4324, CrimeStoppers at 1-800-494-TIPS (or text TIP to 27463), or the Massachusetts State Police (assigned to the Middlesex DA) at (781) 897-6600.
In an emergency, dial 911.
Timeline
- May 2022 — Reina Carolina Morales Rojas arrives in the U.S. from El Salvador, having paid a coyote $10,000; she repays the debt within months and begins food-service work at Logan Airport.
- November 26, 2022, ~9:00 p.m. — Reina is seen getting into a silver van on Bennington Street, East Boston; she is dropped off on Allston Street, Somerville.
- November 27, 2022, just after midnight — Both of her cell phones go dark.
- November 28, 2022 — Her landlord files a missing-person report.
- January 12, 2023 — 45 days later, Boston police finally publicize the case; the first alert misspells her name.
- 2023 — Deputy Supt. Victor Evans tells PBS NewsHour: “It’s a misstep that happened. And we as a police department own it.” Coverage by the Boston Globe, WBUR; advocacy by Lucy Pineda and Latinos Unidos en Massachusetts.
- November 2025 — Dark Downeast re-releases its episode for the third anniversary.
- Today — Still missing.
FAQ
Is Reina Carolina Morales Rojas still missing?
Yes. As of October 2026, Reina remains missing. She vanished in November 2022 and has never been found.
Was Reina Morales Rojas ever found?
No. No trace of Reina has been found in the nearly four years since she disappeared.
What happened to Reina Carolina Morales Rojas?
She was last seen getting into a silver van on Bennington Street in East Boston on November 26, 2022, and was dropped off in Somerville. Both of her phones went dark just after midnight. She never contacted her children again.
Why did it take Boston police 45 days to publicize the case?
The reasons for the delay were never fully explained. Deputy Superintendent Victor Evans acknowledged on PBS NewsHour: “It’s a misstep that happened. And we as a police department own it.” Advocates including Lucy Pineda and Latinos Unidos en Massachusetts pushed for accountability.
Who was Reina Carolina Morales Rojas?
A 41-year-old mother of two from El Salvador who came to the U.S. in May 2022, worked in food service at Logan Airport, video-called her children daily, and had formerly served as a municipal police officer in El Salvador.
What did Reina Morales Rojas look like?
She was 5’5″, 145 pounds, with brown hair. She was last seen wearing a black shirt, a gray zip-up hoodie, black leggings, dark sandals, and a knit hat, carrying a black backpack.
Sources
Official / law enforcement:
– Boston Police Department, A-7 Detectives — (617) 343-4324
– Boston Police CrimeStoppers — 1-800-494-TIPS (text TIP to 27463)
– Massachusetts State Police (assigned to Middlesex DA) — (781) 897-6600
– PBS NewsHour — Deputy Supt. Victor Evans: “It’s a misstep that happened. And we as a police department own it.”
News:
– The Boston Globe — reporting by Hanna Krueger and Tiana Woodard; column by Marcela Garcia
– WBUR — coverage of the case and the BPD delay
Reference:
– Charley Project — case file: Reina Carolina Morales Rojas (charleyproject.org/case/reina-carolina-morales-rojas)
– The Bluf — coverage (thebluf.news/p/reina-morales-rojas)
Media:
– Dark Downeast podcast — episode on Reina Carolina Morales Rojas (re-released November 2025)
Found an error? Tell us via the About page and we will fix it promptly and note the change here. Last verified October 2026.