Police say foul play is involved in the disappearance of 36-year-old Chantel Brooks, and they are treating the case like a crime scene that has not been found yet.
Story Snapshot
- Fairfield police publicly said foul play is involved in Brooks’s disappearance.
- Investigators executed dozens of warrants and ran large ground and drone searches.
- Brooks was last seen near a CVS parking lot in Fairfield at 1:45 a.m. on July 17.
- Her black 2021 Infiniti SUV was later detected by a license-plate camera in Oakland.
Police move the case from missing to criminal suspicion
Fairfield Police Lieutenant Kelly Rombach said investigators believe foul play is involved and that the case remains active. The department said teams served dozens of search warrants. They also led coordinated ground searches with rescue crews and flew grid searches with drones.
Police are working with the Solano County District Attorney’s Office. That step shows prosecutors are tracking the evidence while detectives build the record. A public tip email ties all leads to case 26-7208.
Foul play now suspected in disappearance of Chantel Brooks, 36, last seen July 17 leaving her work in SF & @cvspharmacy in Fairfield, per @FairfieldPolice. She drives Infiniti QX50 pic.twitter.com/Bcm0wqj3tu
— Henry K. Lee (@henrykleeKTVU) August 19, 2026
Police have not shared why they reached the conclusion of foul play, which often occurs while warrants are active. Training from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) stresses that in no-body and suspicious-missing cases, investigators focus on the victim’s routine, movements, and data trails to spot deviations from normal life.
That is the playbook on display here: search orders, scene sweeps, digital traces, and interagency work while holding back specifics to protect the case.
The last known movements and the vehicle trail
Brooks finished an overnight work shift in San Francisco and was last seen in Fairfield. Surveillance captured her approaching her vehicle at a CVS parking lot on East Travis Boulevard at about 1:45 a.m. on July 17.
Detectives later picked up a hit on her black 2021 Infiniti sport utility vehicle from an automated license plate camera in Oakland. The vehicle has not been found. That jump from Fairfield to Oakland sets a key axis for time, route, and possible witnesses between the two cities.
Automated license plate readers scan plates and flag vehicles tied to missing-person bulletins or other alerts. Police agencies use these hits to map possible paths and focus searches.
City reports show the systems combine fixed cameras and software that reads plates at scale, then push alerts when a target plate passes a camera zone. In active cases, that data can cue door knocks, camera canvasses, and new warrants along the route.
How investigators build cases without a recovered scene
Detectives often build early cases from patterns: where the phone went dark, where the car pinged, what bank and toll records show, who texted last, and what neighborhood cameras caught.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s guidance on no-body cases urges a tight timeline, a map of routine activity, and the rapid preservation of digital records so that leads do not vanish. Served warrants likely chase that data. Each return can spawn new warrants for messages, storage accounts, and travel records.
Police in Fairfield, California, said they believe "foul play" is involved in the disappearance of 36-year-old Chantel Brooks, who went missing a month ago after she left her work at a hotel in San Francisco. https://t.co/0OvAIL83Y9
— ABC News (@ABC) August 19, 2026
Fairfield police tied their assessment of foul play to the work they had already done rather than to guesswork, which aligns with standard practice. That approach also fits around law and order: act fast, protect evidence, and keep details tight until disclosure will not burn the case.
Media echoing the police’s conclusion can set expectations early, so the most responsible path is clear: follow the facts, request tips, and let the evidence guide the next step.
What the public can actually do right now
People who were near the CVS lot on East Travis Boulevard around 1:30 to 2:00 a.m. on July 17 can help. Anyone who drove those blocks with a dashcam should check footage for a black 2021 Infiniti sport utility vehicle or any car idling near it.
Residents along likely routes to Interstate 80 or toward Oakland should scan doorbell video from that window. Even a partial plate, a bumper sticker, or a strange stop can matter. Tips should go to the Fairfield case email listed by police.
Why this case will likely move in deliberate steps
Major missing cases do not break all at once. They advance in steps that match the warrants, searches, and lab queues. This one already shows that cadence: a declared foul-play assessment, extensive search activity, a vehicle lead to Oakland, and a formal tie-in with county prosecutors.
The next turns will likely track what those warrants pull back and whether the vehicle surfaces. When that happens, the timeline from San Francisco to Fairfield to Oakland will either tighten—or widen.
Sources:
abcnews.com, abc7news.com, fox40.com, cbsnews.com
