Missing mother Rita Gutierrez-Garcia is likely dead, said Longmont police in a press release Sunday night.
The Boulder County District Attorney and police held a press conference regarding the case at 10 a.m. Monday.
"It breaks our heart to have to announce that we think she's dead," said Jeff Satur with the Longmont Police Department. "This is an uncomfortable feeling. We hold out hope, but our investigation has not led us to any positive outcome to believe that she's alive today."
Gutierrez-Garcia has been missing since March 18 at 2:30 a.m., the night of St. Patrick's Day, when she was seen in the parking lot of 3's Bar in the 300 block of Coffman Street in Longmont. She was reportedly on the phone and told her friends and family she would catch a ride home with someone else.
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Police are offering a $10,000 reward for information that leads to Rita's discovery or that helps them arrest a suspect.
"This is new to us, we haven't had to offer a reward before we have Crime Stoppers and things like that, but it's important to us that we get information. We really want to solve this case. We don't want it to become a cold case."
Police said they investigated Gutierrez-Garcia's daily habits, and seeing how reliable she was day-to-day, they now expect the worst.
"We searched Roger's Grove [park], and Golden Ponds," said Satur. "That was based on some early work in the investigation we've also searched the mountain area west of town up into the foothills that was just based on hunches and speculation and trying to figure out if we were going to dispose of a body where would we look."
The Longmont PD also said there was a person of interest in the case. They did not identify the person but said there was no danger to the public.
Authorities are still asking for more information in the case. If you have any more details, please call the Longmont Police Department's tip line at 303-774-3700 or email policetipline@longmontcolorado.gov Anyone with urgent information who might require a follow-up is asked to call the city's Emergency Communications Center at 303-651-8501.
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Gutierrez-Garcia's family said May 2 that they were holding out hope, despite the fact that she was reported missing six weeks ago. Her 35th birthday was April 7.
Jessica Reyes, Gutierrez-Garcia's sister, told 9NEWS she planned to go to the Rockies home opener for her birthday celebration. Instead, her family spent her birthday at Thompson Park under a tree they said that "just looked like it needed love."
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