Lulaida Morales Sejalbo -- Missing Since November 25th, 1973

Missing Person: Lulaida Morales Sejalbo

Alias or nickname: Loyola, according to The Charley Project's webpage for this missing person

Last contact: November 25th, 1973 (Sunday), reportedly at 11 PM (friend saw her)

Last location: Santa Clara, California, reportedly at a bowling alley but seems to have worked at a McDonald's that night, perhaps near Scott Boulevard and El Camino Real.

Age when Lulaida Morales Sejalbo disappeared: 17

DOB: December 3rd, 1955 (I believe she was born in the Phillipines)

Sex: Female

Height in inches: 63

Weight in pounds (lbs): 120

Ethnicity: Asian/Phillipino

Hair color: Black (long hair)

Eye Color: Brown

Scar or distinctive characteristic: Scar on the right foot; small mole on her lower left lip

Clothing: McDonald's work uniform (McDonald's uniforms in 1973 could be blue as opposed to the yellow/orange uniforms)

Profession: Waitress at McDonald's

Link to government source: Link to Government Source: #MP4557 (right click to open)

BMI means body mass index. It is intended to describe someone's healthy body weight relative to the individual's height. It is only food for thought as to how someone may have looked because it does not account for all body types.

Lulaida Morales Sejalbo had a BMI of 21.25. She was at a healthy weight by BMI standards at the time of her disappearance.

Shoutout to ep1999 on websleuths for finding this.

Commentary and Research

By: Shane Lambert 

Has Lulaida Morales Sejalbo been found?

Lulaida Morales Sejalbo went missing in November 1973. She was a waitress at a McDonald's restaurant and went out to a bowling alley with a friend. There seems to be some inconsistency between sources as to whether she disappeared from a bowling alley or on her commute home from McDonald's. I assumed the former because of the journalism that covered this case. The friend claimed that the last time she saw Miss Sejalbo was at 11 PM.

The missing person had a vehicle that she was driving. This vehicle was found on December 24th, 1973, almost a month after Miss Sejalbo disappeared. The vehicle was found abandoned in Santa Clara with Miss Sejalbo's purse and coat inside. Many of these details were reported in the Peninsula Times Tribune but not until January 16th, 1974. Another source said her keys were in the vehicle and that foul play was suspected in this disappearance.

I noticed some contradictions between sources. Some websites reported that she went missing after work. However, the journalism from early 1974 said she was missing after going to a bowling alley with a friend.

I noted that Sejalbo was described as an 18-year old in the journalism below. NamUs describes her as being 17-years old at the time of her disappearance. Her 18th birthdate was on December 3rd, 1973 so that accounts for the discrepancy (ie. she was 17 when she disappeared; if alive, she would have turned 18 prior to the news piece below).

When someone goes missing while driving a car, it can be difficult to picture how the abduction took place. But there was a method of abduction, that was actually fairly common in California in decades past known as the "Good Samaritan's Ruse."

In this scenario, an abductor sabotages a victim's car and then offers the individual assistance when the car doesn't work. This method was noted by others a long time ago. I have written about this modus operandi before and won't duplicate my writing. But you can have a look at my article from 2018 entitled "Women With Car Troubles Go Missing" if you want to learn more about this method. 

If this scenario applied to Lulaida Sejalbo, then you might expect some damage to the vehicle to have occured, either while she was at the bowling alley or maybe even at work. I didn't find any coverage stating that the vehicle was damaged but this case did not have much journalism available.

Pointers and Bullet Points

• She went to Wilcox High School, which still stands today; it is called Adrian Wilcox High School in modern Google searches; it had the same address of 3250 Monroe Street in Santa Clara in 1973 as it does now.
• Her McDonald's work location was listed by Websleuths user nanajani as being near Scott Boulevard and El Camino Real; a Reddit user (ezza111403) suggested the location of the McDonald's as 1995 El Camino Real; the Websleuths user posted the comment in 2019 and only posted ONE comment as of the time of writing; I am taking that to mean the user was genuine and motivated to post about someone she knew and registered with the website solely for that purpose.
• My thoughts were that Miss Sejalbo attended an event at the bowling alley and someone either sabotaged her vehicle or entered her vehicle while she was in the bowling alley; this individual then abducted her either by overtaking her in the vehicle or using the Good Samaritan's Ruse to lure her roadside; I lean to the latter because I think someone who enters someone else's car and lays in weight is entering a very random situation that he would not be in control of as a passenger in the car but either scenario is possible.
• There were numerous significant serial killers in California in the time frame in question.
• The name and location of the bowling alley might be good to know.
• Due to the expectation of foul play and the unlikelihood that she disappeared on her own, I don't think her age-progression depictions will prove fruitful to this case.