Joseph Hurtado - Missing Baby - El Paso, TX 9/9/74

[lostwithoutyou]

Joseph Hurtado

http://www.charleyproject.org/images/h/hurtado_joseph.jpg http://www.charleyproject.org/images/h/hurtado_joseph_ap.jpg



Vital Statistics at Time of Disappearance

Missing Since: September 9, 1974 from El Paso, Texas
Classification: Non-Family Abduction
Date Of Birth: January 5, 1973
Age: 1 year old
Height and Weight: 2'6, 22 pounds
Distinguishing Characteristics: Hispanic male. Light brown hair, brown eyes. Hurtado has a birthmark near his right kidney.
Clothing/Jewelry Description: Brown orthopedic shoes.
Medical Conditions: Hurtado had club feet at the time of his 1974 disappearance. He was wearing the above-mentioned orthopedic shoes at the time he vanished to help correct the problem. If left untreated, club feet can lead to severe intoeing (pigeon-toes) later in life.




Details of Disappearance
Hurtado was last seen walking to his grandmother's house in El Paso, Texas on September 9, 1974. Hurtado's mother was washing the family's car in their driveway at the time; when she looked up, Hurtado had disappeared. A neighbor reported seeing an unidentified blue car in the area at the time Hurtado was last seen. The vehicle disappeared at the same time Hurtado vanished. He has never been seen again.


Investigating Agency
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
El Paso County Sheriff's Office
915-546-2291
OR
Texas Department Of Public Safety
800-346-3243

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/h/hurtado_joseph.html

[Mr. E]

I've never understood this one. A 1-year-old was last seen walking to his grandmother's house? Even if she lived right next door, who would allow a baby to walk alone? It doesn't say anyone was walking with him. I wonder if there is more to the story than is being revealed.

[lostwithoutyou]

Good point...I never really thought about that, but yeah it doesn't make sense for a one year old to be walking to grandma's house..

[meggilyweggily]

If Grandma lived right next door and Mom was washing her car in the driveway, Joseph would have been very close to her the whole time. The distance between my own driveway and the door of the house next door is shorter than the distance between my driveway and my own front door.

[meggilyweggily]

A thought: Michael Montelongo, another very young Hispanic boy, disappeared from San Benito, Texas in 1977, three years after Joseph Hurtado. http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/m/montelongo_michael.html

I can't help but wonder whether there's a connection. San Benito and El Paso are like 11 hours apart, but both of them are smack on the Mexican border. Of course, so little info is available about either case that it's hard to tell one way or another. With Michael it could be just about anything: an abduction, a drowning accident, or death at the hands of his mother, who sounds very flaky at the very least.

[Mr. E]

If Grandma lived right next door and Mom was washing her car in the driveway, Joseph would have been very close to her the whole time. The distance between my own driveway and the door of the house next door is shorter than the distance between my driveway and my own front door.

Yeah, but at age 1? A baby? A one-year-old can't understand the instruction to "walk next door to grandma's." If Grandma was sitting on the porch and the mother said, "Go to grandma," that would be one thing, but for the mother to be so invested in washing her car that she tells an infant to take it upon himself to walk next door, I find that to be very suspect. At the very least it is neglect, but it sound like such a flimsy story to me. I really think there must be more to it, or that's not the whole story, or the mother is leaving something out. Something. I wonder what the official police report says, and if they (the police) questioned the mother more closely or even suspected her.

[meggilyweggily]

I often wonder about such stories. There's another of a little girl about a year old, who supposedly disappeared while in a park with her father. Dad fell asleep on a park bench and when he woke up, the child was gone. Problem: this was Ann Arbor, Michigan in February. I live about 150 miles south of Ann Arbor, and Februaries are quite bad enough here. Wikipedia says Ann Arbor's February temperatures are between 18 and 34 degrees on average, probably closer to 18. Even if you were insane enough to take your baby outside to play in that kind of weather, you wouldn't fall asleep. To fall asleep in that kind of cold is to freeze to death.

[Mr. E]

/\ /\ Exactly. What seems automatically suspect to any normal person sometimes seems to be taken as truth by LE. Although I'm sure there is always more to it, that LE has the same, and probably more, suspicions as we do.

It kills me because missing children cases really get to me, and I wonder in how many of them the parents know more than they are saying.

This case may not be like that; maybe this baby really was walking to Grandma's house alone. I just can't wrap my mind around that logic.

[meggilyweggily]

Exactly. What seems automatically suspect to any normal person sometimes seems to be taken as truth by LE. Although I'm sure there is always more to it, that LE has the same, and probably more, suspicions as we do.

I don't know about Joseph Hurtado, but regards the Ann Arbor girl, I've heard through unofficial channels that law enforcement suspected the parents from the beginning and believe they may have sold or given away the child. (Let's hope that's what happened.) But it still says "girl disappeared when dad fell asleep on a park bench" on her poster. I suppose that's the only thing they have to go on, but it really bothers me when the NCMEC (and other organization) posters state things which have been proven to be false -- like, you know they'll never change Nicole Bryner's "disappeared at the supermarket" poster even though her mother's boyfriend admitted to killing Nicole and making up the supermarket story.

[Kat]

I read an article in the local newspaper today and was relieved to see that it is also online.

Joseph's parents were interviewed for the article and share some insight into what happened that day. I think it is important to have more background so I brought it here.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/newupdated/ci_13295906

Posted: 09/09/2009 12:00:00 AM MDT



...Joseph, will be found. He was 20 months old when he vanished on Sept. 9, 1974...

...The parents say Joseph was last seen walking in the yard of his home on Elmwood Street in the Upper Valley. His mother was outside washing the car. His father had just come home from work and was inside.

Joseph kept scurrying between the two of them. Then he was gone...

...The Hurtados, now divorced, say that the only item out of place that day in their quiet neighborhood was a blue Ford that drove onto Elmwood, which dead-ends. Jose Hurtado, 57, says he still thinks that someone in that blue car snatched his son...

...Sheriff's detectives questioned both parents and the neighbors. All were cleared as suspects, said Dorothy Hurtado, 54...

...Joseph Hurtado would be 36 years old today. He was born with club feet, and he wore brown high-top orthopedic shoes. He had a brown birthmark in the middle of his back...

...His case is classified by the center as a non-family abduction, one of the rarest crimes...

[thefragile7393]

THanks for this article Kat. I wonder a lot how much wrong information is posted on Doe and NCMEC. I do believe this kiddo was a stranger abduction.