Episode 156: Pearl Pinson – Bite-Sized Crime

A high school student is abducted in broad daylight, sparking a desperate search spanning the coast of California. Where is Pearl Pinson?

Episode Media

Pearl Pinson *(Solano County Sheriff’s Office)*

Overpass footbridge where Pearl was abducted *(KCRA/Chris Preovolos)*

Deputies at the crime scene near the footbridge *(Solano County Sheriff’s Office)*

Backpack similar to the one Pearl was carrying at the time of her abduction

Fernando Castro *(Solano County Sheriff’s Office)*

Fernando Castro in his 1997 Saturn on May 26, 2016 *(Santa Barbara County Fire/Mike Eliason)*

Police chase Fernando Castro’s vehicle on May 26, 2016 *(Santa Barbara County Fire/Mike Eliason)*

Pearl age-progressed to 21 years old *(NCMEC)*

Episode Sources

Episode Transcript

Welcome back to Bite-Sized Crime. This week I’m bringing you a missing persons case from California, one that has frustrated investigators and family members for nearly a decade. This episode discusses sensitive topics, so listener discretion is advised.

Pearl Jean Francis Pinson grew up in the city of Vallejo in California’s San Francisco Bay Area. The second of three children, Pearl was a bright, happy little girl who loved to laugh and have fun. As she got older, she took up skateboarding, spending hours at the skate park with her friends. She developed an eclectic taste in music, and one of her favorite bands was Guns N Roses. Pearl also loved being outside, especially if she could go to the beach.

In the spring of 2016, 15-year-old Pearl was in her freshman year at Jesse Bethel High School in Vallejo. According to her family, Pearl was a typical teenage girl. She did well in school, and she had a good group of friends. Like most teens her age, Pearl was starting to think about her future. She had a deep love for animals, and she dreamed about becoming a veterinarian someday.

The morning of May 25, 2016, started like any other. Pearl woke up and got ready for school – there were only a few weeks left before summer break, and she had final exams coming up. But Pearl was also excited to show off the cool green streaks she had just added to her blonde hair. As she left the house, her backpack slung over her shoulder, Pearl snapped a selfie with her cell phone before heading west down Taylor Avenue towards her usual bus stop.

Sadly, she would not make it to school that day.

Around 6:45am, multiple witnesses saw a man forcibly dragging a teenage girl along a pedestrian footbridge that crossed Interstate 780. The girl cried out to the passersby, shouting, “Help! Call the police! He’s going to shoot me.”

One witness, a teenage boy, tried to intervene, but the man pointed a pistol at him. As the boy turned and ran for help, he heard a gunshot ring out. He didn’t have a phone on him, so he flagged down a passing car and asked the driver to call 911. They gave the dispatcher the location – the corner of Home Acres and Taylor – and said that the boy had run towards them from the footbridge where he said he had seen a girl get shot.

At the same time, another caller was describing the same situation. He said he had witnessed a bearded Hispanic man in a black hoodie holding a girl at gunpoint and trying to rape her. The girl’s lip was bloody and she had called out for help. The witness gave a similar location – the other side of the 780 footbridge on Cabrillo Avenue. He described the victim as a white girl with green hair.

Word of the incident spread through the neighborhood like wildfire. Pearl’s father James told KRON4 that his brother was the one to break the news to him, saying that a little girl with green hair had been shot down the street. Just half an hour had passed since Pearl had left for school, but by the time Pearl’s family rushed to the overpass, she was long gone.

When authorities arrived at the scene, they found a small puddle of blood on the concrete walkway just as witnesses had described. They also found Pearl’s cell phone lying discarded on the ground.

Deputies from the Solano County Sheriff’s Office began canvassing the neighborhood and interviewing witnesses, hoping to put together a complete picture of that morning’s events. Based on witness statements, they were able to confirm that the victim was indeed 15-year-old Pearl Pinson. She had only been a few blocks from her house when the man in the hoodie grabbed her. He dragged her a short distance down Home Acres Avenue and across the footbridge to where it met Cabrillo Avenue. At some point, he had threatened the witnesses with a gun before firing off at least one shot. It was unclear whether any of those shots had been aimed at Pearl.

One witness told police that she had seen the attacker throw Pearl into the trunk of a car before speeding away. Another told reporters that she had heard panicked screaming, “like when you’re getting chased and you’re screaming for help just like in horror movies.”

Fortunately for investigators, one witness had recognized Pearl’s abductor as someone he’d gone to school with – 19-year-old Fernando Castro.

Castro had a criminal history, but it was mostly petty crimes – nothing violent – and nothing that involved stalking or kidnapping. If he really was the perpetrator, why had he done it, and why had he chosen Pearl as his victim?

Early reports suggested that Castro may have been a friend or acquaintance of Pearl’s, but investigators couldn’t find any evidence that the two had ever interacted, not in person nor on social media. Fernando Castro was four years older than Pearl, their time at school likely wouldn’t have overlapped. Pearl’s sister Rose told the LA Times that she recalled seeing Castro around the neighborhood, but didn’t think he knew Pearl. But even if they had known each other, it was clear that Pearl had not gone with him willingly that morning.

Within hours of the abduction, deputies descended on Castro’s home. Inside, they found .38-caliber ammunition, zip ties, and a makeshift gun silencer that appeared to have been made out of a car filter. They also found what they described as a “suicide letter” with disturbing language, although the letter was undated and hidden from sight. Unfortunately, they did not find Castro or Pearl.

The Solano County Sheriff’s Office issued a press release naming Fernando Castro as a suspect in the abduction of Pearl Pinson. They asked anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers. Unfortunately, they didn’t yet have enough information to meet the requirements for an AMBER Alert. It wasn’t until the next morning that they got what they needed.

At 9:13am on May 26th, more than 24 hours after the abduction, Fernando Castro was spotted on traffic cameras driving westbound on Interstate 580 across the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, about 20 miles from Vallejo. At 9:35am, he was spotted heading south across the Golden Gate Bridge. The California Highway Patrol Golden Gate Division issued a press release, identifying Castro’s vehicle.

Finally, around 1:30pm, a statewide AMBER Alert was issued for Pearl Pinson with a description of Castro’s vehicle: a gold 1997 Saturn four-door sedan with California license plates.

At 3:10pm, a highway patrol officer spotted the Saturn on Highway 101 near the town of Los Alamos, 300 miles south of Vallejo. The officer tried to initiate a traffic stop, but Castro kept driving, picking up speed. He pulled off the exit ramp, running a stop sign and nearly crashing before getting back on the highway, reaching speeds of over 100 miles per hour with multiple patrol cars in pursuit.

For over an hour, Castro led them on a high-speed chase through Santa Barbara County. They tried to deploy a spike strip to slow him down, but Castro jumped the median and sped down the highway going south in the northbound lanes. Helicopters circled overhead, tracking Castro’s movements, but he was able to shake them off, disappearing near the town of Buellton.

The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office issued an alert to the public, urging them to seek shelter and lock their doors.

A deputy spotted Castro driving east on Highway 246 towards the town of Solvang. Another chase ensued as Castro sped through the narrow streets of the small town. As he drove through a neighborhood of mobile homes, deputies set up roadblocks to trap him. After crashing into a barricade, Castro jumped out of the still-moving car, firing his pistol at the deputies behind him. One deputy returned fire, hitting Castro in the leg, but it didn’t stop him. He ran to one of the homes, broke a window, and climbed inside.

For the next half hour, Castro remained in the house as patrol cars surrounded him. Finally, he emerged, jumping into the homeowner’s pickup truck and trying to leave the neighborhood. Unfortunately for him, officers from the highway patrol and sheriff’s office had positioned themselves at every exit point. Castro rolled down the driver’s side window of the truck and fired his pistol at the waiting patrol cars. Deputies returned fire, striking Castro 12 times. When the truck finally rolled to a stop, deputies found Fernando Castro slumped over the wheel. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Deputies immediately searched Castro and his vehicle for any sign of Pearl Pinson. Inside the trunk of the gold Saturn, they found a small amount of blood, consistent with what they had found on the footbridge, but that was it. Pearl was nowhere to be seen.

Unfortunately, investigators’ main source of information was now dead. This was devastating to Pearl’s family, who desperately needed answers. Her sister Rose told reporters, “It is heartbreaking because his little information could have helped us to find out where she was or anything about her.”

That night, Pearl’s family and friends gathered at the footbridge for a vigil. Rose issued an emotional plea to her little sister. “Pearl, you need to come home. If anything, you can find a way home. I know you can.”

Meanwhile, the search for Pearl continued. Multiple agencies, including the FBI, worked together to cover the area around the abduction site as well as other areas in the state where Castro may have travelled. Search teams scoured fields and waterways, sending out dogs and diving into murky waters. Solano County Sheriff’s Deputy Christine Castillo told ABC News, “This case spans from northern to southern California. Our main focus continues to be finding Pearl and reuniting her with her family.”

Investigators asked homes and businesses to look through their surveillance footage for anything that could be helpful, specifically focusing on the hours between when Pearl was abducted on May 25th and Castro’s car was first spotted on May 26th, a 26-hour window of time where Castro could have taken Pearl anywhere.

But weeks passed, and investigators didn’t seem to be any closer to finding Pearl. Rose told KTVU that she thought about her little sister every day. “It’s hard going to sleep at night. I have nightmares about where she could be. Every morning waking up is hard.”

Pearl’s father James was holding onto hope. “I’m praying she be brought home safe. But if it is the worst possible outcome, I’d at least like to know where she’s at so we can put her to rest.”

In March of 2017, nine months after Pearl’s abduction, the Solano County Sheriff’s Office announced that after combing through hours of surveillance videos, they had found footage showing Fernando Castro at a gas station in Bodega Bay during the missing window of time. It was an area north of Vallejo that they had already searched, but this prompted them to search again. Unfortunately, they were unsuccessful.

However, Deputy Christine Castillo told FOX40 that they were still hopeful that Pearl was alive. “The trace of blood we found in the trunk of the car is consistent with whatever injury she had when she was abducted, but it wasn’t a significant enough amount of blood to indicate that it wasn’t survivable. So we still very much hold onto hope that we are going to bring Pearl home. That she’s being held somewhere against her will, or she’s being passed from person to person, but that she is alive.”

Years passed, and Pearl’s family was determined to keep her story in the public eye. Every month on the 25th, they met at the footbridge to remember her. They passed out flyers with her picture and posted about her case on social media. They even started a petition to have the city rename the bridge in Pearl’s honor.

In 2018, Rose told KTVU that she knew someone had the information they needed. “That one little piece can help find her… If you know anything about where he took her, what he did with her or anything, even a small rumor that you think is not important, call. Call right away.”

Sadly, the Pinson family has experienced even more tragedy in the years since Pearl was taken. In 2020, Rose’s fiance Gabe Mendoza was shot and killed, and his case has yet to be solved. Two years later, Pearl and Rose’s mother Annie passed away from liver and kidney failure. Rose told The Daily Republic that her mom never gave up hope of finding Pearl. “She always wanted to know where Pearl was. She’s up there searching for my sister.”

As of this recording, Pearl Pinson is still missing. Her case is still open, but new leads are few and far between. Her family continues to push for answers, but they know the answers may never come. Rose told the Vallejo Times-Herald, “I always hold out hope in my mind she’s going to come home alive, but I know in my heart she’s not.”

Pearl Jean Francis Pinson was last seen on May 25, 2016, on the pedestrian footbridge between Cabrillo Avenue and Home Acres in Vallejo, California. She was described as a white female standing 5’3” tall with blonde hair dyed green and a piercing on her lower right lip. She was last seen wearing black leggings, a white and blue jacket, and an Oakland Raiders beanie. She was carrying a purple and green backpack with an emblem of the Joker. At the time of her disappearance, Pearl was 15 years old; she would now be 24. An age-progressed image of Pearl can be seen on the podcast website.

If you have any information about the abduction and disappearance of Pearl Pinson, please contact the Solano County Sheriff’s Office at 707-421-7090.