Five years ago this month, Seagoville found itself at the center of a statewide Amber Alert that turned out to be something nobody expected: a hoax staged by two teenage girls who wanted to spend time with two young men they had met.
The episode began innocently enough on a Sunday evening in April 2021 at the Seagoville Trade Days flea market, a longtime weekend fixture in town. Two teenage girls, both schoolmates from East Texas, had come to the flea market with a family friend. At some point in the early afternoon, the girls separated from the adult who brought them, and by closing time, they were nowhere to be found. Repeated calls to summon them home went unanswered.
What happened next set off a chain of events that pulled in the Seagoville Police Department, the Dallas Police Department, federal investigators and ultimately, the Texas Amber Alert system.
An Alarming Phone Call
Around 11:30 that night, one of the girls called her mother. According to police, the call was alarming enough that the mother became convinced her daughter and the other girl had been abducted from the flea market and were being held against their will in grave danger. The call was traced to a motel in Dallas.
Seagoville Police relayed the information to Dallas Police, who responded to the motel. But when officers arrived, the girls were not there. With no sign of the missing teens and a phone call suggesting they were in danger, an Amber Alert was activated, triggering a statewide search.
— Ray Calverley, Seagoville Police Chief, via Fox 4 Dallas Fort Worth
Surveillance Video Tells a Different Story
The next morning, Seagoville detectives obtained surveillance video from the area near the motel where the overnight phone call had originated. The footage showed both girls in the company of two young men on Sunday evening. There were no signs of distress, no indications of force and nothing in the footage suggesting the girls were being held against their will.
Investigators said the video corroborated tips they had already begun receiving, that the girls had planned the staged disappearance from the flea market themselves in order to be with the two young men.
Detectives identified one of the men in the video as Jose Penaloza Estrada, 20, of Plano. By Monday afternoon, he was located alone in Northeast Dallas. Investigators learned he had rented a motel room earlier that day in Plano. When officers went to the motel, they found both girls there. They were unharmed.
Charges Filed, Case Closed as a Hoax
The Seagoville Police Department concluded that what had triggered a statewide Amber Alert was, in fact, a pre planned hoax. Investigators determined that Penaloza Estrada was aware the girls were the subjects of an active Amber Alert and a missing person report at the time he was with them.
He was arrested and charged with harboring a runaway child. Police said additional charges could follow as the investigation continued.
The case drew attention beyond North Texas, with East Texas outlets covering it closely given the girls’ ties to the Tyler area. It also became a cautionary tale about the real world consequences of staged disappearances, with one law enforcement source noting at the time that local authorities could pursue charges against the girls themselves, even if federal involvement did not.
Looking Back
The Seagoville Trade Days flea market has remained a community gathering spot in the years since, and the 2021 Amber Alert hoax stands as one of the more unusual chapters in the city’s recent public safety history. It is a reminder of how quickly a missing persons report can escalate into a full scale law enforcement response, and how a small Seagoville police department found itself at the center of a case that made statewide and even national headlines.
