We all strive to be better. To be better people that walk this earth. To be better parents than our parents were or, better than their parents were to them. We strive to have a better occupation, and friends. We are determined to achieve the best education or to obtain the best knowledge about certain things in life. We aim for better than the last when it comes to homes, cars and even romantic relationships. This story tells just that, of one woman who started out life without the best in anything who in adulthood decided she was going to have just what she wanted and just what she deserved. It all came to an end and the opportunity for her to have a better life was tragically taken away from her.
First, I would like to thank Jovanna and Julie for speaking with me for this story. Jovanna is Bianca’s sister who recalled their childhood together as well as relying on their close bond to overcome the negative situations in life. There is a missing piece in her heart and in her life and that is her sister, Bianca. Julie is a friend of Bianca who met in adulthood while furthering their education. The friends were close and that blended their lives together for quite some time. Julie and Bianca had so much fun together but now those fun times are just faded memories of a friendship that once was.
Bianca Zannette Carrasco was born on July 21, 1986, in Odessa, Texas to parent’s Barbara and Michael. Bianca and her older sister Jovanna, just 18 months apart, had an incredibly close bond. Their bond was tight due to their small age gap and because of their fractured childhood. Their mother was only a teenager when Jovanna was born, and Bianca shortly followed. The next few years were tough, their mother was frequently absent in the children’s lives this ultimately split the couple up. However their mother started a new relationship and the girls moved with her to Virginia. A short time later Bianca moved with her father to Texas while Jovanna remained in Virginia. A couple years later when Jovanna was ten years old she reunited with her sister in Texas. She described vividly the moment seeing her baby sister again. Jovanna recalled this memory only recently, she said the thought of just laying eyes on a sister who she missed deeply only one word came to mind, “comfort”. It was amazing to be able to see her again and “I felt a sense of peace” For the rest of their childhood Jovanna and Bianca were raised by their father and stepmother in Houston. The girls shared a room and bonded over singing and dancing. “Bianca was the dancer, and I was the singer. We would sing and dance to the Backstreet Boys & NSYNC, when those bands were popular”, Jovanna said. “We were opposites, I was the more outgoing one and she was more introverted.” “I was the big sister, always there if she needed me, it’s ironic we are in this position right now. She needs me and that’s why I won’t give up”.
After being back together life was still far from ideal. Their father was abusive towards the girls, and this only brought the girls closer, they leaned on each other. To get through the hard home life, Bianca would often crack jokes to make light of any situation. Something she carried with her, her entire life. This dynamic left the girls not only unable to see their mother but also their mother’s side of the family. In 2002 Bianca became pregnant, at seventeen years old. This of course did not sit well with her father. He did not want Bianca in the home and ultimately sent her away to his sister’s home throughout the remainder of her pregnancy. Bianca was forced to give her baby up for adoption, something that would haunt her for the rest of her life. After this life-changing experience and resentment towards her father Bianca wanted to make a fresh start for herself. One thing she always longed for was to mend the relationship with her mother. Bianca packed her bags and moved back to Odessa where her mother resided. This reunion was short lived as the relationship was not what she hoped for. Her mother’s daily life was still an unstable one, something Bianca needed in her life was stability. Jovanna also moved back to Odessa and she and Bianca moved into an apartment together. The sisters were able to reconnect with their mother’s side of the family, the side they never had any sort of relationship with growing up. This is when Bianca met her aunt’s ex-husband, Joe “Daniel” (known as Daniel to most) Carrasco. At the time Bianca was 18 and Daniel was 29. They quickly started spending time together and started a relationship. Bianca was young and vulnerable, having just lost her baby to adoption, coupled with childhood trauma and just trying to find her way in the world. Bianca was seeking love and compassion but most important was stability. Daniel offered her a better life, one she had always dreamed of with all those positive things she was searching for. Bianca left the apartment she shared with Jovanna and moved in with Daniel.
Within a month Bianca and Daniel became pregnant with a daughter. Their relationship wasn’t all that was promised, and the couple was rocky from the start. Jovanna recalls her sister having “body issues” due to Daniel putting her down. He wanted to be in control of what she ate. “I remember her craving the Mexican cokes and I would go and buy them for her. She would make me promise not to tell Daniel and she would hide them.” Little things Jovanna remembers that shows their relationship was never a fairy tale. A short time later Bianca became pregnant with their second child, a son. Bianca hoped her relationship with Daniel would become better and, in some ways, they did, it still wasn’t everything she had dreamed but Daniel was providing for the family. During this time Bianca decided to take advantage of her situation and aimed to start a better life, in education. In 2008 she enrolled in a LVN program in Odessa. This program was designed to be accelerated, with no breaks in between courses for one full year. This is where Bianca met her close friend Julie and the two quickly became close friends. They realized they also lived close by one another and would often ride to school together, as well as being study buddies. Their children would often have play dates together and their daughters participated in cheer and dance classes together. Julie loved Bianca’s funny and entertaining personality. She loved to dance once begging Julie to “teach her how to Dougie”. Although Julie found her request hilarious Bianca was being serious. Later Julie’s son would send Bianca tutorial videos and Bianca did in fact learn how to Dougie. Julie described Bianca as very caring and compassionate in her personal life as well as in her work. Bianca and Julie graduated in 2009 and started employment at the same hospital. Bianca and Daniel welcomed a third child, a baby girl in 2012.
In 2013 Bianca and her family moved from Odessa, five hours away to San Antonio. That same year in the fall Bianca took the next step in her career and enrolled in the RN program at Galen College of Nursing. Bianca always seemed to be in competition with herself, seemingly always trying to one up herself with her goals. When they moved to San Antonio, Daniel was working in the oil fields in Odessa. Daniel often commuted to his work site every other weekend. His typical schedule was seven days on followed by seven days off. In October of 2015 Bianca graduated with her RN license. She landed a position in the Oncology department at Toepperwein Medical Center in Live Oak, Texas.
Although Bianca’s career goals had been achieved, her marriage to Daniel became more strained. It is important to note Bianca did not confide in family or friends about the issues in her marriage, but she did tell her co-workers. In 2016, the new year began, and Bianca hoped to turn over a new leaf with Daniel. The beginning of 2016 seemed to go well for the couple but at some point, in February things quickly started to change and it was obvious on social media. Daniel and Bianca stopped communicating and they essentially lived separate lives while remaining in the same home. They only had to see each other on the weekends so it worked out well. Bianca changed her relationship status from married to single on Facebook. Leaving everyone to wonder what is going on in the Carrasco household. She was secretive about her marriage with family and friends. “I think she didn't want anyone to try and convince her to stay”, said Julie. In March Bianca started to date a local man named Steve. (Steve is not this man’s real name, as his true identity has never been revealed). Steve did not know Bianca was still considered “married”. Around this same time Daniel started to regularly communicate with Jovana and her ex-husband about his marriage to Bianca. He looked to them for advice on how to make her happy. On April 27, 2016, Daniel convinced Jovanna he needed help getting into his phone records. He told her his intentions, which were the opposite of what Daniel was truly up to. He wanted to see if Bianca was talking to anyone romantically. After he obtained the phone records, he uncovered calls and text messages between Bianca and Steve. Daniel called Steve and informed him that he was indeed speaking to a married woman. Steve adamantly denied knowing about their marriage. This discovery prompted Daniel to empty their bank accounts into a new account, that only he had access to. Bianca was left with one credit card that was almost maxed out. Bianca purchased her own cell phone, a way to avoid any future fight with Daniel about anyone she may have been communicating with. Bianca communicated with a friend, asking if her job was hiring. She wanted to find something that would pay enough to take care of her and the children because things in her marriage had changed. Steve made it clear to Bianca he did not want to continue seeing her until she was divorced. Julie believes this is the turning point for Bianca to finally talk to Daniel about divorce. Which she did in fact do but things on Daniel’s end only escalated from there. On April 28 and 29 Daniel sent texts to Bianca’s phone threatening to come to her work and kill her. Bianca showed these to her coworkers, which only grew concern for Bianca’s well-being. On one of these days Bianca left her shift early in fear Daniel would eventually show up. Although Bianca outwardly seemed unphased telling coworkers "If I go missing, you know what happened”, in a joking manner, her actions proved the opposite. Bianca was in a constant state of fear, she communicated this to Jovanna. She feared this divorce wasn’t going to be easy, but she didn’t want this marriage anymore, she had dealt with it enough and wanted to break free of her abusive relationship with Daniel.
Everything seemed to come to a head on Sunday, May 1, 2016. On that day Bianca spoke to Jovanna in the early afternoon, Bianca discussed meeting with a divorce lawyer that Friday. She was hoping to discuss the custody of their children during this appointment. Bianca also told Jovanna that Daniel had been doing weird things, the other night she had woken to Daniel standing over her, watching her sleep and it really creeped her out. Later that evening Bianca posted videos via Snapchat of her children. The rest of the night seemed uneventful, at least to the outside world. The alarm was first raised when on May 2, Jovanna was attempting to contact Bianca, but she wasn’t returning her calls or responding to texts. At first this wasn’t odd because Bianca should have been at work and Jovanna assumed she was busy. Later in the afternoon, still without hearing from Bianca, Jovanna called her workplace to speak to her but the hospital informed her Bianca never showed up to her shift. Later that night Jovanna became so concerned she called Daniel. Concerned about Bianca, Jovanna looked to Daniel for answers of any kind. Daniel said the last time he had seen Bianca was the night prior. The couple got into an argument that left Bianca walking away from their home. Daniel was leaving around the same time to make the long drive back to Odessa for work. He took their youngest child with him and when he drove away from the house, he spotted Bianca walking alone on the street and that was the last time he had seen her. He added that Bianca left her vehicle at home as well as her purse, which was inside the car. This conversation concerned Jovanna, but she still held on to hope that all of this was a big misunderstanding. The following morning on May 3, Jovanna contacted Bianca’s employer again only to be met with the same response as the day prior. Bianca had not shown up for her shift nor did she call out. Deeply concerned but also not wanting to jump the gun, she was now in a position where she had no choice but to call the San Antonio police department and file her sister as missing. The police department initially didn’t want to take the report but with persistence from Jovanna that something had to be wrong, they filed Bianca as a missing person.
The police paid a visit to Jovanna in Houston and while there the officer made a phone call to Daniel. When Daniel answered the phone, he told the officer he had the wrong number and hung up. Once the missing person's report on Bianca was filed, Daniel agreed to talk to detectives. He told detectives that he caught Bianca cheating on him and he believed she more than likely left with Steve. Daniel also told them she left everything behind including her car, purse and wedding ring. The police attempted to touch base with Steve after finding out through Jovanna her sister did have a boyfriend. They visited Steve’s home, he was out of town for a few days, but his mother was home. Later they would speak with Steve, he didn’t have any information that might help detectives find Bianca. While in the chaos of attempting to locate Bianca, Jovanna started to realize several inconsistencies in Daniel’s original story. First, she found out Daniel had taken their youngest child with him when he left home to travel back to Odessa on Sunday, May 1. This was highly unusual because the child would attend daycare during the week. The most shocking of the revelations uncovered was that Daniel had quit his job in Odessa weeks prior In an attempt to win his wife back by being home more. Daniel assumed they just needed to spend more time together. Daniel gained employment at a local company. This job was short-lived as Daniel became obsessive about his wife’s every move. That left little room to work, and Daniel quit that job.
On May 4, Child Protective Services got involved when someone at their youngest child’s daycare called and reported that Bianca and Daniel fought frequently, and they were concerned about hearing about Bianca’s disappearance. Apon interviewing the daycare worker’s CPS made the decision to make an emergency removal of all three children. The children were put into the care of Jovanna for the following six months while investigations were conducted. During the investigation the police tracked Bianca’s cell phone which told the story of a regular day, spending time talking to Jovanna, taking and uploading the videos of her children to Snapchat. She left her home around 3PM to run some errands, while she was out, she was in constant contact via text with her oldest daughter. Around 8PM Bianca returned home and put the children to bed. At 8:08PM Bianca texted Steve and then at 8:38 she called him. For the next couple hours Bianca’s phone was silent but still remained at her home. At 10:22 PM her phone was turned off and was never turned back on. Detectives made note that Daniel made a call on his cellphone at the same time Bianca’s was powered down and his phone was inactive from 8:08 PM-10:22PM.
In the following days the San Antonio police department put out a BOLO for Bianca. Missing person fliers were made depicting Bianca’s vibrant face. The fliers included a description of her as well as what she was last seen wearing. A vast contradiction to what Daniel originally told Jovanna when she asked him days ago what he last saw her wearing, to which his response was, he didn’t remember. That wasn’t the only discrepancy in his story, he told Jovanna that Bianca left her purse in her vehicle, but when giving the description of when he last saw Bianca to police her purse was with her. In the following days ground searches were conducted, two of them in Bianca’s neighborhood. Texas Equusearch conducted their own search with ATV’s, tracking dogs and drones. Nothing of Bianca’s was ever recovered. Before that week was over Daniel contacted the police to tell them he couldn’t afford to live in his home anymore and had made plans to move and lease his home out. The day Daniel was moving he gave police permission to search the home as well as Bianca’s car. On May 23, police determined foul play could not be ruled out in Bianca’s disappearance. They did not name any suspects, but Daniel and Steve were considered persons of interest. Later Steve was cleared of having anything to do with Bianca’s disappearance. Daniel was asked to take a polygraph and at first agreed but later rejected the idea, ultimately never taking one.
Since then, CPS closed their investigation which left Jovanna having to make the heartbreaking decision to let go of her nieces and nephew. They were returned with their father, Daniel. Jovanna has never been able to see them again. This was a devastating blow as these kids were a piece of her sister, a sister that vanished without a trace. “They are our family; we celebrated many milestones together and now nothing exists of any of them.” Bianca’s mother helped search for Bianca, high and low for any answers. “It was heartbreaking actually. After Bianca’s disappearance it gave me much more empathy for my mother. We have a good relationship now” said Jovanna. Last year Julie contacted Jovanna and wanted to help in any way she could. Since then, both have done many interviews, podcasts about Bianca and her story. They have created accounts on all social media platforms (see below) to help spread awareness. In May of 2024, Season of Justice, a nonprofit organization, dedicated to providing families with resources in unsolved cases, launched a billboard for Bianca in San Antonio. On Saturday July 20, 2024, an outreach event dedicated to what would have been Bianca’s 38th birthday will be held in Friesenhahn Park in San Antonio.
What happened to Bianca Carrasco on May 1, 2016? After 8:38 PM that evening Bianca never made another call, text, never logged into any social media platform. At 10:22PM Bianca’s phone was turned off and has never been turned on again. Jovanna and Julie agree that Bianca would never go a day without being on social media. They also believe she would never leave her children. She was taking steps to provide for them on her own. On the same night Daniel took their youngest child and drove to his family’s home in Odessa but claimed he was heading to his job site, a job he quit weeks prior. Daniel never searched for or advocated for his missing wife and mother to his children. He moved back to Odessa within a week of Bianca’s disappearance, only to return to the home they shared months later. Bianca never used or accessed her bank account. Her driver’s license as well as her nursing license has never been renewed. Bianca had a less-than-ideal upbringing, stuck in a cycle of abuse and manipulation. She strived to better her life and never stopped short of her goals. She loved the finer things in life and could never be caught living off grid. She was funny, caring, loving, compassionate but she was also strong, resilient and determined. Realizing her worth she was determined to leave a relationship that no longer showed her love, that no longer felt like a safe place. Bianca was determined to build a better life.
Please consider following Bianca's story on social media:
A thank you to Haley Gray for putting Bianca's family and I in touch and sharing her knowledge on Bianca's case.
Take a listen to the following podcast, that Haley is a writer/researcher for.
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