“We need to find her,” Noy Vongphachan told Dateline. “We’re still hoping for the best.”
Noy’s mother, Deng Vongphachan, has been missing for over a month. The 71-year-old was last seen on January 4, 2024, in Del Norte County, California.
Deng has seven children. Dateline spoke with her daughter Noy, and her son Johnny Siharath. They said that their mother is originally from Laos. “Our mom, she is a refugee,” Johnny told Dateline. “She’s one of those that had to cross the Mekong River and everything -- go through all the hardships -- to get to where she’s at and then raise a bunch, you know, bad little kids to become who we are today and did such an amazing job.”
Deng raised her children in Crescent City, California. “I mean, it’s a small town,” Noy said. “Very nature-like. A lot of people -- they do a lot of hiking.”
“As a family we used to go out and dig for clams,” Johnny added. “We used to go out there mushroom picking.”
The two told Dateline that mushroom picking is a regular thing for Deng. “She’s been doing it ever since — I’m, like, 37 right now. She’s been doing this since I was five or six,” Johnny said. “She’s very experienced doing this.”
At the time of her disappearance, Deng was living in Crescent City with her son Michael.
On the morning of January 4, Deng went out mushroom picking. When she still hadn’t returned that evening, Michael got concerned. “She typically comes home around 7 p.m. when she goes out mushroom picking,” Noy said. “Our brother Michael found it odd that she had not returned home by that time. So, he’s now thinking, “OK, maybe she went to the stores,” or sometimes she’ll go to the casino nearby. And when she’s at the casino, she doesn’t like to be disturbed.”
Noy said that Michael took a nap and when he woke up the next morning, their mother was still nowhere to be found. “That’s when Michael started making phone calls to the hotels and hospitals in Crescent City,” Noy said.
But no one had seen Deng.
On January 5, the family reported her missing.
Johnny and Noy told Dateline that the search began immediately. Later that evening, their mother’s truck was located near the mountains. They said authorities pinged Deng’s cellphone and were able to track down the truck at the intersection of Low Divide Road and Forest Service Road near Signal Peak, in Del Norte County, a place where Deng regularly picks mushrooms.
The siblings said their mother’s phone was found in her truck and her mushroom bucket backpack were found just a few feet from the truck.
“I was always worried about her like, ‘Mom, there could be wild bears approaching or some strange people,’” Noy recalled. “She always told us, ‘Don’t worry, I don’t go far in.’ Based on where her bucket backpack was located -- 150 feet away from the truck -- that makes sense. She didn’t go far in.”
Johnny and Noy told Dateline that there have been several searches done for their mother. According to a January 6 post by the Del Norte County Sheriff’s Office, search and rescue teams were “conducting a search in the areas of Low Divide and Signal Peak” for Deng utilizing aircrafts.
Four days later, in an update added to the same post, the sheriff’s office said the search had “been temporarily suspended due to unsafe weather conditions including snow.”
“They used their advanced technology, which consisted of drones, helicopters, they had search dogs,” Noy said. “They looked pretty much all day. When we heard about them using that advanced technology, we had so much hope that they would find our mom that day, if not by the following day.”
But there was no sign of Deng.
Dateline reached out to the Del Note County Sheriff’s Office for the latest update on the investigation but has not yet received a response.
Johnny and Noy, who both live in Texas, told Dateline that their family has also conducted their own searches. “They’re still up there searching right now,” Noy said.
The siblings told Dateline they don’t know what could have happened to their mother. “It just doesn’t make any sense,” Noy said. “There’s no trail of her.”
What they do know, is that Deng’s seven children and her ten grandchildren miss her dearly. “I miss her weekly phone calls,” Noy said. “She loves all her kids and her grandkids and it was just very sweet.”
“These were supposed to be her golden years,” Johnny added. “We were all going to easily take care of her and it’s just rough that it didn’t happen.”
The family is offering a $10,000 reward to the individual who locates Deng.
Deng is 5’ and weighs 130 lbs. She was last seen wearing a gray jacket and gray leggings.
“It’s very difficult for our family,” Noy told Dateline. “We want her home. We need her home. We need closure.”
Anyone with information about Deng’s disappearance is asked to call the Del Norte County Sheriff’s Office at 707-464-4191.