8:37 am | Tuesday, September 16th, 2014
Florian Tria
NEW YORK — When Filipino-American mom Florian Tria disappeared on the night of September 10 after coaching volleyball practice and being dropped off near her home in Sacramento, California, her family and friends distributed flyers, posted messages on social media and asked the public’s help in hopes of finding her.
They got their wish. The 51-year-old volleyball coach for the Christian Brothers High School was found alive on Sunday night in Klamath Falls, Oregon, four days after she went missing. Police officials said there was no foul play.
“Florian has been found,” said her older sister, Roseli, via text message. “[Everything is] good.”
According to police officials, Tria had checked into a motel room in Klamath Falls. Her husband, Joe Broadhead, had tracked her whereabouts after he checked online and found transactions with their credit card. Broadhead then called the authorities.
“It was stressful during the past few days, but we’re just very thankful that she is safe,” Freddie Esteves, a close family friend who lives with Tria and Broadhead, said on the phone while driving to Oregon Sunday night. “We’re all relieved.”
Police report says that Tria was found inside her motel room. Experiencing undisclosed medical issues, she was transported to Sky Lakes Medical Center and is currently there for evaluation.
Tria was reported missing after she failed to return home after coaching volleyball practice on September 10. The last time she was seen was about 8:00 p.m. when she asked someone she knew to drop her off on 24th Street, a couple of blocks from her home in Curtis Park.
Her cell phone records show that she made a call to a friend and sent a text message to her brother-in-law about 8:30 p.m. that night.
Broadhead, her husband of 24 years, told the police that he found nothing to suggest that she may have left on her own accord, especially that she was looking forward to a visit last Friday from her son, who goes to college in Texas.
The family was also planning to attend the annual Holy Bowl football game on Saturday night, Broadhead added. When he informed their son that his mom was missing, he came home a day earlier.
Another theory held that Tria did not take off voluntarily, Esteves said last weekend, because she did not have anything with her, except her cell phone. “Ate Florian will always call if she needs to go somewhere after the practice,” he added.
But around 9:00 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 12, authorities said that Tria’s phone showed activity in Reno, Nevada, and then later in Dorris, California, near the Oregon border.
Immediately, according to Esteves, Tria’s husband and other sister drove to Nevada and the neighboring areas to locate her, but to no avail.
Flyers seeking Tria were posted around the neighborhood. On early Sunday evening, Sept. 14, her family members, friends and supporters gathered together on 24th Street where she disappeared for a vigil, offering their message of hope.
“It’s a feeling I never felt before; a part of me was missing,” Carina Roces posted Monday morning on a Facebook account set up for Tria. “But God heard our prayers…I’m so happy that my best friend was found today.”
Another friend Moni Paredes Alcid also expressed her happiness that Tria was found unharmed.
“You were lost, and now you are found,” she posted on Facebook. “Florian, we thank God for bringing you back to your beloved family, and to your friends, who have been storming the heavens for your safe return.”
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