On the morning of February 25, 2020, 38-year-old Nick Vigil left his mother’s Fortuna home never to be seen again. Vigil’s truck was found abandoned nearly two hours northeast of Fortuna on a rural Weitchpec road. Fortuna Police Department’s Detective Ryan Richardson characterized his disappearance as “suspicious.” Vigil’s mother Debbie Frisiello called the last fourteen months of her life “the most devastating thing I have ever had to go through” and in her desperation, is now offering a $10,000 reward for anyone that helps authorities find her son.
Frisiello said her son Nick Vigil “left home at 8:00 a.m. on February 25th, 2020 from Fortuna, California, and hasn’t been seen since. I am offering a ten thousand dollar reward for information leading to Nick’s return.”
Frisiello said, “[T]he pain just consumes you every day and nothing can repair your heart aches.” She told us, “I long to find him, but I’m afraid when I do after a year it will only be closure and that really scares me.” Ultimately, Frisiello said she needs “justice for Nick and the suspects to be arrested.”
Frisiello suspects her son was “abducted in the Arcata area and we have been searching a lot of the spots hoping to locate him but no luck.”
Vigil’s Ford F250 was found on Weitchepec’s Cappel Road and she characterizes the vehicle’s location as “staged” by the suspects. As to the suspects, Frisiello said, “Nobody’s talked yet but hopefully someone will come forward with information leading to Nick’s return anonymously.”
Detective Richardson said the disappearance of Nick Vigil remains a “suspicious missing person circumstance” that is being treated as a criminal matter.
Missing and Murdered Indigenous People activist Jesse Armstrong who has tried to raise awareness of Vigil’s disappearance told us he has “been working with a private investigator daily.” Armstrong said in his advocacy, he has become “really close with Debbie” and he “really hopes to get this one solved.” Armstrong plans to be searching the area Vigil’s truck was abandoned next week.
Frisiello, speaking to her work with MMIP activists, said, “I often go to rallies to share with others and support them and be the voice of our missing loved ones. We are all there for the same reason.”
Frisiello told us that in the days before his disappearance, her son Nick Vigil had attended a UFC match in Las Vegas where he had won a considerable amount of money. He returned home in the early morning of February 25, awoke early, and left driving his Ford F250 truck to pick up a check, a friend later told Frisiello.
On February 25, Frisiello told us cell phone pings indicated Vigil was near Blue Lake’s Titlow Road. Based on this information and knowing Vigil was a regular at the Blue Lake and Bear River Casinos, Fortuna Police investigators reviewed surveillance footage and conducted interviews of staff inquiring whether Vigil was at those locations on February 25. The investigation revealed he had not been at the casinos and FPD Lieutenant Matt Eberhardt and Detective Richardson characterized the casinos as cooperative with the investigation.
On the morning of February 26, a forester working in the Weitchpec area noticed Vigil’s gray 2006 Ford F250 abandoned on a rural road. The forester passed by the seemingly abandoned truck over the following days and noticed signs the vehicle was getting burglarized.
When law enforcement was informed of the vehicle, Lieutenant Eberhardt said FPD began collaborating with Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office to conduct a thorough ground search of both Vigil’s property in Weitchpec and the site where law enforcement learned in mid-April that his vehicle had been abandoned.
Debbie Frisiello, Vigil’s mother, said her son’s property showed signs of being ransacked or broken into in her son’s absence.
Debbie Frisiello said that when she last saw her son, he was wearing “Nike black shoes, black, short socks, khaki pocketed shorts, a black belt, a white t-shirt, and a chocolate brown hoodie, black backpack with his laptop, his keys to everything.”
She described her son as 6’ 1’’, weighing 250 lbs, and having brown eyes. She added that he shaves his head and does not typically have a beard or a mustache.
Fortuna Police Department’s Detective Richardson stated that they “could use the public’s assistance in the case.”
Hoping for a member of the public to come forward, Frisiello said, “I would give anything to have my son back and hug him and never let go. Going through this horrible nightmare just takes the life right out of you.”
If anyone knows anything about Vigil’s whereabouts, email Debbie Frisiello at debbiedavies31@gmail.com or call Fortuna Police Department Detective Ryan Richardson (707) 725-7550 ext. 1436
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Oh, Debbie my heart breaks for you. I Pray that your son is found safe so you can hug him and never let go.?
I’m praying you find this man like we found my baby sister. God bless