Fall was a special season for 5-year-old Lucian Munguia of Yakima, who has been missing two months this week.
He enjoyed shopping for pumpkins, wearing Halloween pajamas and ringing doorbells during neighborhood trick or treating.
"This year it was really hard to walk into the store and see those pumpkins because if he were with me, he'd have to have them," his mom Sandra Munguia said in an interview.
Lucian was last seen Sept. 10, heading across the parking lot of Sarg Hubbard Park in Yakima and toward the Yakima River and other bodies of water. He was wearing blue shorts and a blue shirt with a shark on it.
His disappearance launched a massive community search that is ongoing.
Sandra shared memories of tucking Lucian into bed with his favorite sea animal toys and plastic pumpkins lined up beside him.
She also shared memories of past family get-togethers. Halloween was a favorite holiday of her dad, Lucian's grandpa, who died of cancer in November 2021. Knowing he was sick, the family made his last Halloween incredibly special with out of town visitors, face painting and decorations, Munguia said.
This year, the family marked Halloween with costumes, trick-or-treating and outreach about Lucian's case.
The search
Munguia said she and her husband, Juan, have not stopped searching for Lucian, who is autistic and nonverbal.
"We're still out there everyday, at some point in the day or night," she said, checking new places and spots that have already been searched.
Some of the family members who came to Yakima to help with the initial search have returned home and are now doing what they can from afar while support continues to come in from local family and community members, Munguia said.
The family is also working with police.
Authorities launched an extensive search of the park, Yakima River and nearby lakes and ponds in the days following his disappearance. The search has involved hundreds of people, boats, drones, specialized dive teams and flyovers by aircraft.
Yakima police are continuing their investigation into Lucian's disappearance, YPD spokesperson Yvette Inzunza said Wednesday.
The department is asking anyone with video from the park from 6:45 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. the day Lucian was reported missing to share it with police, Inzunza said.
While early reports said YPD had video footage showing Lucian heading south and east from the parking lot, Inzunza said that information was actually based on interviews, including a child forensic interview.
YPD also confirmed that Lucian and his family were at the park by confirming Lucian's father's timeline of events leading to Lucian's disappearance, Inzunza said.
YPD investigators say there appears to be no foul play in Lucian's disappearance, based on the available evidence.
"While we cannot rule out foul play for definite, detectives have looked extensively into all avenues, including witness statements, polygraphs, background investigations, timelines, canvassing the entire area in and around the park for clues of wrongdoing, tip follow-ups from the local community as well as nationwide," Inzunza said in an email, "but nothing thus far points to any foul play."
Munguia said waterways are still a focus for the search, and people continue to go out on rafts and kayaks to search. Divers have searched the ponds at the park, but not the river. Divers were willing to go in the river, but law enforcement said — and the family agreed — that the river is too dangerous, she said.
"We don't want to put anybody in harm's way," Munguia said.
She said she has talked to detectives about searching farther down the river, where the water could have carried Lucian over the top of dams.
Outreach
The family is also continuing outreach at local events. Munguia and her kids participated in a trunk-or-treat event at Steve Hahn Auto Group last week, passing out candy and flyers and selling hot chocolate. Their vehicle's trunk was decorated to an under-the-sea theme.
The family also hosted a bake sale Monday. The funds raised are put toward costs for printing flyers, ordering banners and hiring private investigators, Munguia said.
"We are talking to a couple of different PIs just to kind of see what they can help us out with," she said. "It feels like the police kind of disregard whatever we have to say. They are helping still, but it just feels like we want more — we need more — help."
She encouraged anyone who was at the park Sept. 10 or anyone with information to contact the police or the family, and she asked that people continue posting flyers or sharing the story on social media. The family also has larger posters and yard signs available.
"We're just trying to do whatever we can to make sure he doesn't turn into a backstory," she said.
Information about outreach efforts and events can be found at the family's Facebook page for the search, Finding Lucian.
The family has offered a $10,000 reward for the missing 5-year-old's return or for information regarding his whereabouts.
More memories
Lucian's warmth and excitement was missed during Halloween activities this year, his family said.
"This year, it was really hard not having him — it's hard not having him everyday — but it was different because this year my daughter is 2, and so she got to dress up in something she picked out and do the door-to-door thing," Munguia said.
Driving home after trick-or-treating, "I didn't even get to look in my rearview mirror to see how happy Lucian was," she said.
In past years, Lucian didn't quite grasp the concept of skipping the houses where porch lights were turned off or sharing the doorbell-ringing responsibility with his brother, Adonis. Still, he loved ringing the bell and getting to say "trick-or-treat," Munguia said.
"It was so much fun to watch his little face light up when they would put the candy in there," she said. "You had to be there just to see how he was. It made his heart super happy."
