Update: 9/30/2025: On September 29, 2025, the Ojai Police Department shared to their Facebook page that Zyanya’s remains were found in the Ventura Riverbed on September 24, 2025 during a conservancy cleanup. The cause and manner of death are still under investigation.
For nearly a year, Damaris and Gabriel Valora have lived in a nightmare—their 21-year-old daughter, Zyanya, vanished from their Mira Monte, California, home in the middle of the night.
Her parents believe Zyanya left their home around 1:00 a.m. on June 25, 2024.
Zyanya is on the autism spectrum and also suffers from anxiety and depression, according to her parents. She is considered “at risk.”
Damaris told Dateline this was not the first time Zyanya had gone missing, but she’s always been found quickly.
In 2020, Zyanya left home in the middle of the night. The family notified the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office. That time, Zyanya was found in a church. “She was sleeping when they found her, and she was just with the Bible on her,” Damaris told Dateline.
Prayer was always a big part of Zyanya’s life, according to her mother. Her daily routine involved praying multiple times a day.
On the morning of June 25, 2024, Damaris went into Zyanya’s room to check on her. She says she noticed the window was open, and its screen was off. “I pulled the curtain, and I was like ‘Zyanya, where are you?’ And I was like, ‘She’s not here.’”
Gabriel was already at work by then. “I called my husband immediately,” Damaris said. Gabriel left work to head home. When he got there, Zyanya still hadn’t returned, so the Valoras reported her missing to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office.
According to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office website, “On Monday, June 24th at about 8:00PM, 21-year-old Zyanya Valora walked away from her residence in Mira Monte, an unincorporated suburb located in the Ojai Valley.”
The last confirmed sighting was around 8:00 p.m. on June 24. “She came out of her bedroom and [poked] her head out at that time, and she went back to her bedroom,” Damaris said. But the Valoras believe she left around 1:00 a.m. on June 25, based on their dog’s behavior during the night. “The dog barked around 1:00 a.m.,” Damaris said. “And we didn’t get up. We didn’t check.”
“It was devastating when we realized that it took us a long time to realize that she didn’t — wasn’t in her room,” she said.
Damaris says she tried to remain calm that first day as the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office searched the area. “I didn’t say anything because I was hoping that we could recover her at the end of the day, so I didn’t say anything to anybody,” she recalled.
Damaris told Dateline that just before 3 a.m., her daughter’s cell phone pinged about two streets down from their home. She says law enforcement searched that area, but found nothing. “It was our only lead, actually. But we didn’t even find the cell phone, or any other piece of information about her,” Damaris said.
By the time the clock struck midnight and Zyanya hadn’t been located, that all changed. “I took my phone and I posted on Facebook, and posted on Instagram, and posted everywhere,” she said.
According to Damaris, law enforcement used every resource available to locate her daughter, including helicopters and K-9 units. However, their efforts turned up nothing. It also rained later in the week which would have made tracking Zyanya more difficult.
Damaris says there are a lot of woods around their home, as well as a lake, and a river — all of which were searched. Zyanya loved the water. “She will enjoy a lot of nature and see, um, the animals and — and she will enjoy the water,” her mother said.
Damaris and Gabriel thought it was possible Zyanya could be hiding during the day and walking around at night, so they made bags with her name on them filled with water and cookies and placed them outside churches in the area. “Because if she comes out in the night, we are hoping for her to have something to eat and something to drink,” Damaris explained.
Damaris worries that after Zyanya left, she could have been abducted. Although Zyanya is an adult, and would be 22 years old today, she comes off as much younger. “She’s just naive. She is like a child,” Damaris said. “She can’t defend herself.”
Dateline reached out to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office for comment, but has not heard back.
While the past year has been excruciating for the Valoras, Damaris told Dateline she is blown away by her family and the community’s support from the day she first posted about Zyanya’s disappearance. “By the middle of the day, I had, um, I had, like, five or six family members. By 6:00 p.m., we had a full house with 12 or 15 family members,” she said. “The next day we were, like, 20. We had so many [family] members that we hadn’t seen in a while.”
“We were blessed to know that all of us are together,” Damaris said.
For now, Damaris holds on to memories of spending time with her daughter. She says they used to bond over movies, particularly “Guardians of the Galaxy,” which was Zyanya’s favorite. They enjoyed watching the Academy Awards together and even took trips to Los Angeles to try to spot some of their favorite celebrities as they arrived for the awards ceremony.
Damaris told Dateline that Zyanya had an excellent memory and knew everything there was to know about her favorite films. “She would remember everything like, uh, the director, the awards that they got, and the effects, special effects, uh, coordinator, and everything,” she said. “She will have everything in her mind.”
In June 2025, it will be one year since the Valoras have seen their daughter. Despite extensive search efforts and community outreach, they are still waiting for answers.
The family has turned to social media in the hope of spreading awareness about Zyanya’s case. They created the Facebook group “Find Zyanya Valora,” where they share updates and information.
Zyanya is 5’0” and weighed 90 lbs. at the time of her disappearance. She has black hair, brown eyes, and a mole underneath her left nostril.
There is a $50,000 reward being offered by the family “for the successful location and physical recovery of Zyanya.”
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office at 805-654-9511.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: This article has been updated with information from the parents about the last known location of Zyanya’s cell phone.
