FBI says girl missing since July 2021 may be traveling with Santa Rosa man

Law enforcement officials are looking for Santos Flores-Roman, a 39-year-old man they believe has abducted a 14-year-old Crescent City girl, and left Santa Rosa in a 1993 Toyota sedan following a months-long search for the girl.

State and federal law enforcement officials issued a renewed alert for Katuana Nateya Whisenant, who went missing as a runaway in July 2021. Flores-Roman is Whisenant’s stepfather. The Crescent City Police Department on March 31 announced they had obtained an arrest warrant for Flores-Roman on child abduction charges. The search involves, local, state and federal authorities.

The FBI says Whisenant has light brown hair, brown eyes, weighs around 150 pounds and is between 5 feet, 3 inches and 5 feet, 5 inches tall. She has not been heard from or seen since she left her house the evening of July 23, 2021.

Whisenant previously ran away from home and was located by authorities in Santa Rosa, Crescent City police chief Richard Griffin told The Press Democrat on Saturday. Following her July disappearance, authorities had been again looking for her in the area, including interviewing Flores-Roman and his relatives, Griffin said.

“We just didn’t have any other information to go on but we suspected she was down there with (Flores-Roman),” he said.

Whisenant is an enrolled member of the Yurok Tribe, according to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System. Yurok tribal police had involved the federal Bureau of Indian affairs and subsequently the FBI in the investigation, Griffin said.

In recent days, authorities had learned through interviews with relatives that the girl was with Flores-Roman, Griffin said. But law enforcement officials then learned he and Whisenant had left Santa Rosa, possibly heading north.

The California Highway Patrol issued an emergency alert for Wisenant on March 31, naming Flores-Roman, 5 foot, 4 inches tall, with black hair and brown eyes, as a suspect.

Officials believe Flores-Roman is traveling in a silver 1993 Toyota Corolla with California license plate 3FKR698.

“We do not know Katauna's current location,” the FBI San Francisco press office said in an emailed statement Saturday morning. “We are trying to locate her and unite her with her family, safely. We encourage anyone with details pertaining to her whereabouts to report that information to law enforcement,” the statement said.

You can reach Staff Writer Andrew Graham at 707-526-8667 or andrew.graham@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @AndrewGraham88