A 20-year-old woman who had been staying at a Fisherman's Wharf hotel was abducted by a man, her friends say, and police later found her cellphone, covered in blood, near a clinic in Oakland.
Snippets of a very dramatic but still unconfirmed story have come in to the SFist tip line and to police about Isa Dessalines, a trans woman who may be in danger after getting into a car with an unknown male on Monday night.
Friends say that Dessalines was on the phone with them when they could hear the sounds of a revving car engine, and Dessalines saying, "OK, OK, I’ll get in." Later, they allegedly heard Dessalines sobbing and saying "I don’t want to die" while a man shouted "Shut up!" in the background multiple times.
The friends who submitted the tip add that Dessalines "was previously being stalked by a man in the Tenderloin."
San Francisco police said they were investigating the incident, but as KPIX reports, they were unable to find any witnesses at the scene in Fisherman's Wharf. Police say they received calls at 1:54 a.m. Tuesday and responded to 200 Beach Street.
As KRON4 reports, Dessalines had been staying at the Hotel Caza at 1300 Columbus Avenue. Her phone pinged on I-880 in Oakland on Tuesday afternoon at 4:19 p.m., and about a half hour later, friends say Dessalines called them again and said she had jumped out of a moving vehicle, and was in pain and in a state of confusion.
At 6:30 p.m., friends say that "investigators" found Dessalines' bloody phone at a Planned Parenthood at 8480 Enterprise Way in Oakland, where she may have been seeking treatment for wounds, but that has not been confirmed. As the East Bay Times explains, neither the Oakland nor San Francisco police departments would confirm any of the details of the case, or say that a crime has definitely been committed.
"We are working with other law enforcement agencies to further investigate this incident and locate this missing person," said San Francisco Police Department Officer Robert Rueca in a statement.
Dessalines is new to the area and does not have family here, friends say. She is described as 5-feet-nine-inches tall, with medium-length hair.
The hashtag #FINDISA has been trending on Twitter, as friends rally to get the public to be on the lookout for her.
as you may have seen, the decision to release her photos has been made. please let us know if you #FINDISA in the east bay area. https://t.co/fVaNBB0qxH pic.twitter.com/pYLUItavYi
— #FINDISA (@TANKIEPILLED) March 9, 2022
Update: Dessalines has been found, her friends say, but little else is known about the situation. KTVU reports only that they received a text message early Thursday from one of these friends saying "we found her."
Update 2: KPIX has a few more details, but Dessalines was found safe in Berkeley and was speaking with police. Oakland police say they have not recovered any evidence in the case yet.