WALLIS, Texas – A family that was set to be interviewed by FOX 26 for our series “The Missing” found the body of their loved one on Saturday.
FOX 26’s Gabby Hart was set to speak with the sister of Arturo Avila on Thursday to bring awareness to his disappearance with the hope that he could be brought home. Unfortunately, his sister, Elizabeth Avila, contacted us saying the interview was no longer necessary because their father found his son’s car and body in the Brazos River in Austin County.
Avila was too heartbroken and barely able to speak through her tears, she says her brother 26-year-old Arturo Avila was found dead in Wallis around noon on Saturday.
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Arturo Avila went to the gym and dinner with a friend on Feb. 1, but he never made it back home. For weeks, law enforcement searched for him on several different occasions even combing the Brazos River, but with no luck.
Late last week, a GPS system in Arturo’s car finally pinged a location, and on Saturday morning his father went out to that area to search for him.
“He went out at 7 a.m. with a group of guys to go search the river,” Elizabeth said.
Their father found Arturo’s body washed up on the shore about two miles from where his car was in the river.
“My father is trying to stay strong, and he’s been told by the detectives and deputies to not remember the image that he saw,” said Elizabeth.
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As of right now, his family isn’t sure exactly what happened, but they believe this could’ve just been a tragic accident.
“We have this exit that we usually take to come home the detectives assumed that he missed that exit, so he took the exit near the river, but that night it was misty, it was foggy, it was rainy just nasty weather and that area it has no barricades so if you can’t see if it’s foggy then you are most likely going into the river,” Elizabeth explained.
FOX 26 is still waiting for information from law enforcement and an exact cause of death, you can find more information here.
