Video shows last known images of missing Santa Clara woman
Renata Lopes, 52, has been missing since August 17th.
SANTA CLARA, Calif. – The husband of the missing woman confirmed she was found dead, apparently from suicide.
Members of a search party found her body on Thursday in a new home under construction, four homes away from the couple’s Main Street residence.
Dozens of people gathered in Santa Clara on Wednesday to help raise awareness about a 52-year-old woman who has been missing since Saturday morning. Her husband says she recently experienced some mental health challenges and needs medication to survive.
Santa Clara Police consider Renata Lopes an at-risk missing person. Wednesday night, about two dozen people gathered to search for her, and during the search, a neighbor says he saw her on his surveillance video.
“She goes for a walk almost every day to just keep healthy, and she goes for 15 minutes and comes back. This time around, she goes for a walk in the morning, and she has disappeared,” said Karl Lopes, Renata’s husband.
Karl Lopes has been searching for his wife, 52-year-old Renata Lopes, for the last four days. He says in the last year, she’s had serious mental health challenges and is taking medication that she needs to survive.
“That’s the main concern. She needs her medicine for everything. She needs her medicine to sleep. She was reducing her medication with the help of the psychiatrist and the therapist, but as she was reducing it, her condition worsened,” said Lopes.
As family and friends passed out flyers on Main Street where Renata was last seen, one neighbor told the group he sees her walking in the neighborhood quite often. He then checked his surveillance video and found this image of Renata walking by his home at 11:27 on Saturday morning.
Santa Clara City Council member Raj Chahal attended the search meeting and says he’s been in contact with police. Chahal is also hoping to get an official alert issued about Renata’s disappearance. Lopes says police have also used search dogs near their home on Main Street but with no success.
“We need to activate the larger community here because somebody has seen her, right? Somebody saw her walk off. Somebody has seen her somewhere,” said Gaurav Mishra, a family friend.
Lopes also says his wife speaks Polish, and she may speak that language if you approach her. Police haven’t had a chance to look at the surveillance video discovered tonight, but they say they are investigating.
If you have any information about this case, please contact Santa Clara Police or call 415-528-0006.