Font ResizeOAKLAND -- More than 40 volunteers continue to distribute fliers and search for a missing 31-year-old Oakland woman who has not been seen for more than five days.
Erica Maskaleris was last seen when she was recorded on a bakery surveillance video just after 7 a.m. last Thursday in the 3400 block of Telegraph Avenue, police and friends said. Maskaleris was wearing exercise clothing and walking briskly, the camera shows.
She was booked on a flight to Texas last Thursday night to visit her brother Steve Torres. She did not make the flight or call to cancel. Her cell phone stopped working the following day. No one has seen or heard from her, and family and friends are becoming increasingly frantic about her
"We are all very concerned," said Vanessa Riles, who was distributing fliers in Oakland Tuesday afternoon. "We can not wait until Erica is back with us. We are all working as hard as we can (to find her)."
Riles, of Oakland, is a member of the same church as the missing woman, First Congregational Church of Oakland, and last saw Maskaleris last Sunday at a worship service, she said.
"It was the same as usual (at church)," Riles said. "She was a very involved member, she was one of our greeters."
Maskaleris is a native of Fresno who came to live in Oakland about seven years ago. She founded GeekoSystems, a computer consultation company based in Oakland, with her husband, Josiah Maskaleris, in 2009.
The family held a press conference Thursday morning to continue to ask for the public's help.
"Our family is struggling emotionally and physically. This ordeal has taken a tremendous toll on all of us," Torres said.
The last year has been a rough one for Maskaleris, according to a statement on her company website. "Though 2012 has been full of major life changes, Erica has drawn strength and inspiration from a large community of family, friends and the client base GeekoSystems serves. Josiah had a deep appreciation for poetry and left Erica with a collection of his own and other's writings. She also draws inspiration from these," the statement says.
Anyone who would like a copy of the missing person poster can download it at Firstoakland.org. Investigators continue to investigate the case but foul play is not suspected in her disappearance, police said. Family and friends will hold a vigil at 10 a.m. Thursday at 34th and Telegraph avenues.
Maskaleris is Latina, about 5 foot 3 and 220 pounds with dark brown, long curly hair. She was last seen wearing a gray sweatshirt, gray sweatpants and red tennis shoes and sunglasses. There is a $1,000 reward for information leading to her location. Anyone with information is asked to call the police at 510-238-3641 or 510-777-3333.
Reach Kristin J. Bender at kbender@bayareanewsgroup.com. Follow her at Twitter.com/kjbender.
