By Andrea Cavallier -
NBC News
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, two Arizona sisters began to wonder what else they could do to help find their brother, Adam Castillo, who has been missing since 2008 after returning from a party in Arizona.
Although they were not frequent users of social networks, Adriana Castillo and Cassandra León told the Dateline program that they knew that was the way to spread the word about the disappearance of Adam Castillo.
And also the way, they hoped, to finally get answers.
A video on Sarah Turney's TikTok account was the first Ariana Castillo saw when she first opened that app.
Turney, a native of Phoenix, Arizona, began
using that social network to demand justice for her sister, Alissa, who disappeared in 2001
.
Her videos focusing on the case went viral and in 2001 her stepfather, Michael Turney, was charged with Alissa's murder.
Adam Castillo worked at a gas station and had broken up with his girlfriend when she disappeared. Capture via NBC
"I was inspired by everything she was doing to get justice for her sister," said Adriana Castilla, "I knew I had to do the same for Adán."
The two sisters created the TikTok account @JusticeforAdamCastillo and prayed for someone to give them answers.
Since then, her story has been shared on
The Vanished
podcast
and the
Voices for Justice
podcast
, which Sarah Turney had created to tell her sister's story, along with the stories of other people who have disappeared.
“
We are doing everything possible to make her story known,
” said Cassandra León, “we need
her story to be
told.
And we need someone to give us information.
Someone out there knows what happened that night. "
"We are doing everything possible so that his story is known"
That night began 13 years ago, on September 14, 2008. Adam Castillo, then 21, lived at his home in Willcox, Arizona, with his parents and two of his younger sisters.
His two brothers were older and had moved.
His sister Cassandra León lived in California.
Adriana Castillo explained that the brothers were very close and that the family spent a lot of time together.
“He was a great skater and that's how I got into it,” she said, “he was also the only person I could go to if I had a problem or was unhappy
.
He was that good brother who told me that he was better and stronger than any problem he had
.
That fall, Adam Castillo was the one going through a rough patch, his sisters say.
He worked at a gas station, fueling trucks.
and he and his girlfriend had recently broken up when she went off to college.
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Cassandra Leon, who had already moved to California, said she was trying to convince him to go there with her to start over.
“I thought it would be good for him,” he said, “the last time I spoke to him, he was seriously thinking about it.
I wish I could have brought him here before everything ... before he disappeared.
But then it just disappeared. "
According to the case file of the Cochise County Sheriff's Office,
Adam Castillo was last seen around 2 a.m. on Sunday, September 14, 2008, outside of Willcox, near the Kansas Settlement
, in a Party in the desert near the Blue Sky Highway, known locally as "the loop."
That night there were about 25 people at the party and everyone came home except Adam.
Her sisters Adriana and Eden Castillo had planned to go to that same party.
They invited him to come out of the house and cheer up.
[The police consider "strange" the disappearance of a young woman who was crossing the country with her fiancé in a van]
But as Adam Castillo and his sisters waited for a driver at his family's home in Willcox, he became restless and decided he really didn't want to go.
The brothers were playing video games until the young man's friends appeared and convinced him to go.
His sisters say that everything went so fast that he forgot his wallet and his phone.
There was no room in the car for the sisters and their transport never showed up, so they stayed home.
Hours later they realized that his brother had forgotten his things.
Then Adriana Castillo called Levi, the friend who had picked up her brother to go to the party.
Levi told him that he and another friend had to go home, but that they had left Adam at the party.
Conflicting reports
“He was a mother's boy”, said Adriana Castillo laughing: “He never wanted her to worry.
He always called and said if he was going from one place to another and what time he would get home.
This time it was not like that".
On Sunday morning, the woman said she was out when a truck approached her home.
One of the men in it was his brother's friend, Gary.
“At first I thought, 'Oh well, Adam is home,'” she said, “but then I saw Gary.
His face was burned from chin to nose.
Again, I felt bad.
Something had happened ”.
Gary's first question to Adriana Castillo was: “Where is your brother?
".
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“I was stunned,” she said, “I just remember repeating, 'No, she's with you.
My brother is with you.
What do you mean'".
She said that's when Gary stopped and looked at her strangely.
“He said,
'Well, if your brother comes home, thank him.
It may have saved my life, "
recalls Adriana," at that moment, I lost my mind. Something happened to my brother. I went in and told my parents. We had to find him. "
Adriana Castillo said her parents went to the party and found the remains of a bonfire with scattered beer cans.
But there were no traces of the young man or of any criminal act.
They would later learn from the partygoers that Gary's face was burned from the bonfire.
But there are conflicting reports that were given to investigators at the time, detailed in Adam Castillo's case file, on whether he fell or was pushed.
Within hours of his disappearance, rumors began to emerge about what might have happened to him.
According to reports in the case file, there are some partygoers who say he was seen leaving there with a girl in a Honda car.
Others say he was killed in a drug dispute.
More disturbing stories, according to the case file, detail a scenario in which his friend Gary was pushed to the stake because he owed money to someone at the party.
And when Adam Castillo allegedly pulled him out, saving his life, he was killed for his actions.
The stories would go on for years, but her family focused on finding Adam, whether he was alive or dead.
They filed a missing person report with the Cochise County Sheriff's Department the Monday following their disappearance.
Cochise County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Carol Capas said law enforcement conducted extensive searches at the party location, but there was no trace of the young man.
They interviewed all attendees and received multiple conflicting reports, which are detailed in the 78-page case file.
Throughout the investigation, there have been three men, named in the case file, who are considered by the Sheriff's Office as "investigative leads" and who were previously interviewed, but no arrests have been made and Capas said no details of the possible suspects could be given due to the open investigation.
The family believes that the men are involved in the disappearance of the young man, or at least know what happened.
More than a decade of searching
For more than a decade, Adam Castillo's parents have refused to abandon their search.
Armed with posters about the disappearance, Adam's mother has distributed them to as many people as she can in her small town of Willcox.
“We had to suppress it a bit because it was affecting him,” said Cassandra León, “there are people in that town who know what happened to Adam.
But they are too scared to show their faces ”.
In 2020, her mother underwent open heart surgery and finally had to stop her search for answers.
His daughters, then, decided to intervene.
“We just knew we had to do something,” Ariana Castillo said, “maybe someone on TikTok will see her story and want to help.
Maybe they have that information we need ”.
Multiple investigators have become involved in the young man's case, and each time they believe they are close to an answer, the family is delusional.
"Every time, our mother prayed that it was time to find Adam," said Cassandra Leon, "she said, 'bring Adam home to me.'
The sisters say he was loved not only by his family, but also by his friends and the community.
"He was the life of the party," says Adriana Castillo, laughing.
“He was always doing things to show off to girls: handstands, jumping backwards.
He was the
cool
guy
everyone wanted to date.
He loved to have fun and make people laugh. "
According to the family, Sergeant Tal Parker has taken over the case, but has not yet contacted them.
Capas said the case has been transferred to Sgt. John Gjerde and he plans to contact family members this next week.
Cochise County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Carol Capas said Adam Castillo's case is active and open and is being investigated.
She urged the public to call the Sheriff's Office with any information that may help in the case.
Although Willcox is a small town and many people in the area have heard of the young man's story,
his sisters told Dateline they are often met with confused reactions from people when they say they are still looking for their brother
.
“They think that Adam's body was found years ago or that this case was already solved,” said Adriana Castillo, “they have no idea that we are still living this nightmare.
It's like something out of a horror movie that you never think is going to happen.
But it happened to us ”.
She said the hardest thing is not knowing what happened to Adams.
"We want answers and we just want to bring it home," he said, "that doesn't make things better, but it will give us some peace, some closure."
Adam Castillo was 21 when he disappeared. He had brown eyes and brown hair, which was cut short at the time. He has a scar on his forearm at least two inches long
and a scar on the back of his head on the right side.
Anyone with information on Adam's case is urged to call the Cochise County Sheriff's Office at 520-803-3280.