Authorities are urgently seeking a Texas teenager who disappeared from her home on Christmas Eve, raising concerns for her safety as the search intensifies.

Camila Mendoza Olmos, a 19-year-old resident of a San Antonio suburb, was last captured on a neighbor’s security camera departing her residence at 6:58 a.m. on that Wednesday morning.

Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar, speaking with ABC News, emphasized on Sunday that investigators are considering all possibilities, including the chance that the investigation might extend beyond the continental United States.

In a bid to ensure thoroughness in the search, Sheriff Salazar personally verified that Mendoza Olmos, a U.S. citizen, had not been taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He acknowledged that despite her citizenship, it was a necessary precaution to eliminate any concerns about her being held in a federal detention center.

“We needed to confirm there were no stops or detentions, and that she wasn’t in a federal facility,” Salazar stated, underlining the importance of exploring every potential lead in the ongoing effort to locate the young woman.

But beyond that, authorities have not ruled out anything in Olmos’ disappearance, including that she may have been kidnapped or fallen victim to human trafficking.

The FBI and Department of Homeland Security are assisting with the search, including monitoring border crossings and international travel.

The area she vanished from in northwest Bexar County known by authorities as a human-trafficking corridor. 

Olmos was described by her friends as ‘full of love’ 

Footage from a neighbor’s surveillance camera showed an individual believed to be Mendoza Olmos standing near her vehicle with the lights on at 7am on Christmas Eve, and she hasn’t been seen since 

They are also considering whether it is possible she left of her own accord, but the fact that Mendoza Olmos did not take her phone when she left home that morning has raised concerns.

Salazar said it was ‘highly unusual’ for her to leave her phone at home.

Authorities said footage appeared to show an unidentified person they suspect was Olmos searching her car about 7am the morning she left home.

They said it is unclear what she was searching for. Police believe she took just her car keys and potentially her driver’s license with her when she left home.

Her car was still parked at home when she disappeared, leading authorities to believe she left the area on foot. She has not been seen since. 

Salazar opted not to disclose some details relating to the investigation, but said the information collated so far suggests she is in ‘imminent danger.’

He also revealed she had recently gone through a romantic breakup, but said the split was amicable, and that everyone close to Mendoza Olmos is cooperating with the investigation.  

Her childhood best friend Camila Estrella said they last spoke the day before Olmos’s disappearance over the phone, making plans to go shopping together. 

Camila Mendoza Olmos, 19, told a friend ‘I love you’ over the phone the day before she vanished on Christmas Eve, her best friend has revealed 

Recalling Olmos’s parting words to her as they hung up, Estrella told the New York Post: ‘She said, ‘Bye Cami, I love you.” 

Estrella said they spoke almost every day, and described the 19-year-old as ‘someone that was just full of love.’ 

‘This is so random, we never expected this,’ she said of Olmos’s disappearance. 

Mendoza Olmos’s family said she typically goes for a morning walk, but always takes her phone with her, and insisted that it is out of character for her to leave without telling them where she would go. 

‘It’s just not Cami,’ her aunt Nancy Olmos said. ‘We knew something happened.’ 

Nancy issued an emotional public plea online, urging people to share information and pray for the teenager’s safe return.  

‘We are still searching for my sweet angel, my niece, Camila Mendoza Olmos, 19 years old,’ she wrote.

She added that her niece had recently been baptized and was deeply religious.

Authorities have not shared any evidence of foul play, but the circumstances including her abandoned phone, her sudden disappearance on foot, and the lack of any confirmed sightings have fueled growing concern

Her mother, Rosario Olmos, said she went searching for her daughter, believing she would find her walking as she had many times before

‘She loves God with all her heart, and we are desperately looking for her.

‘I know many of you are gathered with your children and loved ones this Christmas, opening presents and celebrating together.

‘As a sister in Christ, I am humbly asking for one special gift this year — in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ please help us by sharing these posts and, most importantly, by lifting Camila up in your prayers.

‘We believe in God’s protection, and we have faith that Camila will come home,’ she added.

Another close friend, Isabela, described Mendoza Olmos’s disappearance as ‘very out of the norm.’

‘It’s not like her. She’s always been the one to always stalk on us and like, ”why aren’t you doing this?” [She would] make sure that her phone’s always charged,’ Isabela added to KSAT.

Estrella told 4News that she has been left confounded by the situation, and said she fears the investigation could stall if Mendoza Olmos is not found soon, as the surveillance footage offers few clues over where she may have gone. 

‘It showed that she was opening the back of her car,’ Estrella explained. 

Surveillance footage shows an individual believed to be Camila near her vehicle shortly before she vanished. Pictured, the family car near where she was last seen

Family and friends searched nearby areas on Christmas Day but found no sign of the girl

‘As a ring camera, it stops when it stops detecting motion, that’s all we saw of her just opening the back of her car door… we have nothing to trace her with. We have nothing.’ 

Police have deployed scent-tracking dogs during the ongoing search, but so far they have failed to find the 19-year-old. 

Deputies described Mendoza Olmos as 5ft 4in tall, weighing about 110 pounds.

She was last seen wearing a baby blue and black hoodie, baby blue pajama bottoms, and white shoes, and authorities urged anyone with information on her whereabouts to contact police. 

The missing woman’s mother, Rosario Olmos, told KENS that she and her daughter had been sleeping in the same bed early Christmas Eve morning when she felt Mendoza Olmos get up.

About 90 minutes later, Olmos awoke and realized her daughter was gone.

‘I called her cell phone, but the cell phone was there on the bed, and it was turned off,’ the devastated mom said.

‘I put it to charge and went out to look for her. I thought I would find her like other times, walking, and we would come home together.’

Family members and friends spent Christmas Day searching the area around the home, but found no sign of the 19-year-old.

‘It is not normal for her to disappear,’ Olmos said, adding that she usually knows where her daughter is at all times.

‘I only ask God to please bring her back home,’ she said. ‘Bring her back to me.’