More than a year after Wendy Pullins disappeared on what was supposed to have been a short drive in the Sierra Nevada foothills, investigators say she is believed to have been killed.
Pullins, 57, was reported missing on June 18, 2022, three days after she drove away from her home in Ahwahnee. She reportedly was headed to Mariposa, 25 miles away, to register her vehicle, and planned to stay the night at a friend’s home on Stumpfield Mountain Road, off Highway 49 between the two cities.
Her cellphone location indicated she left the friend’s house, but she never made it to the Department of Motor Vehicles, the Mariposa County sheriff’s office said.
On Sept. 8, 2022, her Jeep Cherokee was found down a steep embankment in a remote area of Mariposa County, the sheriff’s office said. Blood found in the car was determined to be Pullins.’
“Because of the amount of time since Wendy was reported missing, the condition of the vehicle and the blood located inside the vehicle, this investigation is being treated as a homicide,” the sheriff’s office said in a release on Tuesday.
The office is not disclosing the location where the Jeep was found. Although it was described in the initial missing-persons notice as red, the image of the recovered vehicle shows it is green.
Anyone with information on the case is asked to contact the sheriff’s office at (209) 966-3615 or sheriff@mariposacounty.org.
