FORT WORTH, Texas — Missing posters hang on the trees, poles and benches all around an east Fort Worth park. More than a week of rain and sun has weathered them and worn them down – and that’s just how the Alvarado family feels.
“It’s not exactly that he’s gone that’s so stressful,” said Jazmin Alvarado. “It’s more so the fact that you don’t know where he is.”
Jazmin held her mother Blanca’s hand as they talked about 18-year-old Angel.
“If anybody knows anything. Anything – even if they don’t think it’s important,” said Blanca. “We will keep searching for him.”
They sat together in the library of Uplift Mighty Preparatory School, the charter school in Fort Worth, where Angel Alvarado was last seen.
He was walking through the school parking lot to his red Chevrolet Tahoe. He and the rest of the class of 2019 had just returned from an overnight senior camping trip.
“He seemed fine,” Jazmin said. “He even texted photos of him with friends and such.”
The day after the camping trip, Angel’s vehicle was found at Tandy Hills Park in east Fort Worth. Angel’s wallet, keys, and his graduation gown were inside. Jazmin said they also discovered haunting notes revealing a young man who was hurting but hiding it.
“We would always try to talk to him and he’d tell us he was fine,” Jazmin said. “But there was one student who said in private that Angel expressed being tired of life and just overall being sad.”
Jazmin said the classmate tried to cheer Angel up and thought he had.
His family had no idea he was struggling, and neither did teachers.
“Angel – a wonderful student,” said Davis Pratt, Angel’s math and study hall teacher. He was overcome with emotion, saying he was blessed to see Angel multiple times a day. He described him as witty and intelligent and said the conversations they had were unlike any he had with other students.
His distraught family and school family will hold out hope that Angel will be home soon.
“If we could just get him back,” Blanca said through tears.
“It’d mean so much to us,” Jazmin said.
His graduation is just weeks away.
The family set up a Facebook page dedicated to finding Angel. Anyone with information is asked to call 214-814-0090 or 817-392-4442.