HOUSTON – Wednesday was day three of searching for Texas Equusearch, and crews plan to expand the search to Sims Bayou, saying it's just one more area 26-year-old Karen Ramirez may be.
With each step through the thick heavy woods, the morning ticked by, and still there was no sign of Ramirez.
"We've got many areas to search. We're actually going to put the little boat in Sims Bayou in case he did throw her in the water," Tim Miller with Equusearch said.
Miller says it all comes down to a process of elimination.
"Hopefully she's caught up on a log or debris or something so we want to go ahead and eliminate the water," Miller said.
He says they know where to look. It's just a matter of finding her.
"We have somewhat of a time frame from when he left and when he got back, which we don't feel as though she could be too awful far away. But there's a lot of areas," Miller said.
Ramirez went missing back on March 25th.
Her boyfriend, 27-year-old Miguel Buezo is wanted in her disappearance, and now police say he's charged with her murder.
They found her car abandoned about a week after she went missing. It had a bullet hole in one of the doors and blood inside the car and the trunk.
Buezo has since disappeared himself. Police say he booked a flight to Honduras one day after they say he killed her.
Miller says they won't stop until they can bring closure to the family.
"The only thing were lacking right now is our luck, and hopefully that will come our way," Miller said.
Karen's sister Kelly is still holding out hope, but knows the reality.
In Spanish, she says: "He was always the jealous type since the beginning. If she went out, she had to go with him and stuff like that and he was the last person to be seen with her."
On Tuesday crews spent the day looking for Ramirez, but the rain cut their efforts short. Miller said they know she is close by.
"We've got every reason to believe she is not very far from here, now that he's been charged with murder ... outcome not going to be what people wanted, but hopefully we can bring some kind of ending," says Tim Miller, Texas Equusearch.
Authorities believe Ramirez is not alive, charging her boyfriend Miguel Buezo with her murder.
Ramirez was last seen on March 24. Family members said they haven’t seen or heard from Ramirez.
Court documents say neighbors could hear the couple arguing early in the morning of March 25.
They say they heard Buezo threaten Ramirez telling her, "Shut up, calm down. I'm going to shoot at you like I shot at you the other time!"
Texas EquuSearch volunteers plotted the area near Bellfort and Telephone Road in southeast Houston Monday afternoon to search for Karen Ramirez.
They would not say why they were focusing on this area only that information in the investigation led them there.
"We do have foot searchers out. ATVs (are) out now. We're (going to) do what we do,” said Texas EquuSearch Founder Tim Miller. “It's like everything we do. Process of elimination. So, we've got areas mapped out. Just got a command center. I talked to homicide this morning. We're working hand-in-hand to see if we can get her located.”
A worker at a warehouse in east Houston spotted an abandoned car on Tilgham Street at Port Houston on March 31 and called police. He told police that the vehicle had been parked on the street for a week.
"It would appear that something has happened to Karen,” said Detective Phil Waters, of the Houston Police Department homicide division. “At this point, we do not know who may have harmed her. But she appeared to be shot, and what it appears to be inside where the transfer of blood is inside the car, it looks like she might have been shot in the driver's seat, pushed over into the passenger's seat and then later put in the trunk and might have been disposed of between here and somewhere in southeast Houston."
Waters said Ramirez and Buezo were last seen together at a club in southeast Houston. The detective said there may have been an argument. Neither has been seen since. Property owners near where their abandoned car was found said there was activity that Saturday afternoon and again that night.
Waters said, "There is some discussion that Miguel may be in Honduras, because he apparently contacted an ex-girlfriend who may have assisted him in acquiring a plane ticket to Honduras."
Police said they would attempt to get surveillance video from three businesses in the area to help them piece together what happened.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Houston Police Department missing persons unit at 832-394-1840.