Family Pleads for Help Finding Missing Mother

The family of a young pregnant mother is pleading for the public’s help in finding her.

Mercedes Clement vanished in Dallas one year ago today, October 11, 2020.

Her mother hopes surveillance video helps jog someone’s memory.

“Today is a hard day,” said Clement’s mother Alicia Gazotti. “They say it gets easier with time. It’s not getting easier. It’s getting harder. It’s been a year and I haven’t heard her voice. Nobody’s heard from her. We don’t have answers.”

It’s been 365 days worrying about what may have happened to the 25-year-old.

Gazotti shared surveillance video with NBC 5 showing the last time her daughter was seen alive.

She says Clement was visiting a male ‘acquaintance’ at the Koko Apartments along Empire Central, off Harry Hines Boulevard in Dallas.

Gazotti said she does not know what her daughter was doing there that day but has since found out Clement visited the apartment previously.

Clement was wearing a black tank top and shorts. She has a birthmark on her chin and several tattoos including a compass on her arm and two big boys on the back of her thighs.

Clement is 5’6”, 120 lbs., with brown hair and eyes, according to a DPS missing person’s bulletin.

“Two hours later, there’s a lot of activity going on in the parking lot,” said Gazotti.

Clement was not captured leaving on surveillance video. However, there are several hours of video that could not be recovered, she said.

“My daughter’s things including her car keys, her bra, her purse, everything she had on her except her phone were put back in her car,” said Gazotti.

A spokesperson for the Dallas Police Department could only say ‘all avenues’ in this active case are being investigated.

Gazotti tearfully acknowledged she does not believe her daughter is alive and disputes any notion that she may have simply left on her own accord.

“My daughter wouldn’t leave her son,” she said.

Clement, she reveals, was also five months pregnant.

So, this worried mother is pleading for someone to come forward with information.

If not for her, for five-year-old Darryn, who in all his innocence constantly wonders what happened to his mother.

“He tells me she comes to him, that’s she’s in a forest lost. That a big bear hurt her, ate her and that she loves him,” said Gazotti.

And if she’s still out there somewhere:

“I’ll move heaven and earth to bring you home,” said Gazotti. “I would trade my life for yours in a second. I just want you to come home.”

Anyone with information about this case, is urged to call Dallas Police Detective Gerald Smalley.

There is a prayer vigil planned for Monday at 7 p.m. at Rockpointe Church in Flower Mound.