Police: Drugs May Be Factor In Gwinnett Missing-Woman Case

LAWRENCEVILLE, GA — Gwinnett County Police on Tuesday continued investigating the disappearance of a 25-year-old dancer, saying that the possibility that drugs are involved has entered the picture.

Police say Beatriz Espinoza, 25, hasn't returned phone calls from family since Friday morning and didn't show up to her job, as a dancer at a club on Chamblee-Tucker Road, on Friday night.

Saturday morning, her 3-year-old son was found wandering alone alongside South Norcross Tucker Road near a shopping center close to Espinoza's south Gwinnett home.

On Tuesday, Gwinnett County Police Department Cpl. Deon Washington confirmed that someone has given investigators drugs, claiming that they came from Espinoza's apartment.

WSB-TV reports that family and friends found a stash of meth and marijuana hidden beneath a pile of the toddler's clothing in a backpack in her apartment.

"We don’t know that to be true," Washington said. "At this point, she is still missing and detectives are exploring numerous possibilities about why she is missing. Family members are cooperating with the investigation."

WSB quoted an unnamed friend of Espinoza's who said she received a phone call from a man in Mexico saying Beatriz had lost a large amount of money and that someone wants it back.

At Espinoza's home, on Sparrows Lane between Norcross and Tucker, police spoke to a roommate who said Espinoza often has male visitors at their apartment, but that she didn't know any of them. She said that, even though the two are roommates, they rarely speak and never socialize together.

Her sister told police that Espinoza dances on weekends at a bar called Billares La Vaca on Chamblee Tucker Road.

A waitress there said Espinoza didn't show up on Friday and that she has a boyfriend in his 30s from Mexico. The boyfriend's only police record involved a 2009 arrest for driving without a license, according to a police report.

Anyone with information about Espinoza's whereabouts is asked to contact Gwinnett County Police detectives.

Photo courtesy La Vaca Billares Facebook page