A 21-year-old Santa Ana mother who has not been seen in nearly two weeks had in past filed a restraining order against her husband in an effort to protect herself and her young son, court documents revealed.
Claudia Lisseth Sanchez Reyes, who was last seen May 6, is the subject of a request for the public’s help finding her from the Santa Ana Police Department. Since vanishing, she has not contacted any friends, family or coworkers, which police said was out of character for her.
Her husband, Eddy Reyes, told police she said she was going clubbing with friends on May 7.
In August 2014, Claudia Reyes requested a domestic violence restraining order against her husband, who is now 30. Around that time, she filed for divorce, but neighbors said the couple were living together at their Bush Street apartment when she disappeared.
Claudia Reyes requested that the restraining order be dismissed some three weeks after initially filing for it.
Since his wife disappeared, Eddy Reyes has obtained a criminal defense attorney, though police have not identified him as a suspect.
“It’s a very scary situation for Mr. Reyes based on the history that the media has mentioned,” his lawyer, Marlin G. Stapleton Jr., said.
A neighbor told KTLA Wednesday that he had heard the couple arguing and fighting in past, and police said they had been called to the apartment nine times, according to the Orange County Register.
But Stapleton said that those police calls occurred when there was a restraining order in place and his client called officers to facilitate visitation with their child, who is now 4.
After last talking to his wife May 7, Eddy Reyes waited till May 11 to report his wife missing on the advice of a different attorney, who gave that recommendation because Reyes had reported his wife missing another time earlier this year, Stapleton said.
In the August 2014 request for a restraining order, Claudia Reyes described her husband being physical with her, and at least once forced himself on her sexually. Her then-2-year-old son would wake up scared at night, she said.
Out of disgust, her husband would not feed their son or change the boy’s diapers when she had to go to work, she said. He had screamed at the boy and hit him, she alleged.
On two days, he called her some 40 times, trying to find out where she was. He allegedly threatened to kill himself if she wouldn’t take him back.
“He would not let me sleep; he calls me in the early morning hours at all hours some times,” the document stated.
And she wrote that her husband he took away passports, birth certificates and other identification papers for herself and her son.
Reyes “takes advantage of the fact that I don’t speak English,” she wrote.
She provided photos of a bruise and scratch on her arm, saying her husband had inflicted them.
No restraining order against Reyes was in effect at the time of his wife’s disappearance, the Register reported. And Eddy Reyes has never been arrested on suspicion of domestic violence, his attorney said.
Eddy Reyes moved out of the couple’s apartment over the weekend, neighbors said. Stapleton told the Register the couple had been planning to move out anyway.