Transgender Woman Vanishes at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport

Family members and police are searching for a Florida transgender woman who went missing during a layover at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.

Pauline del Mundo, 59, was bound from Tampa to Cozumel, Mexico, for a vacation, with a connecting flight at the DFW airport September 14. She never didn't board the flight, Florida TV station WTSP reports, and didn't check in at her hotel in Cozumel. Sounding confused and depressed, she had called one of her sisters and said she had decided against going to Cozumel and needed an airline ticket back to Tampa. She hasn't been heard from since.

"We were alarmed," sister Lilia Acebron told WTSP Monday. "We tried to reach her on her cell phone, but her cell phone was dead."

Del Mundo had become depressed over a rotator cuff injury that had impeded her work as a certified nurse assistant, Acebron said. It was a definite change of mood for del Mundo, who was usually positive and outgoing, according to her sister.

Family members fear that del Mundo could come to harm because she's transgender. There has been a rash of crimes against trans women in Dallas this year. At least two trans women were murdered there in the spring, and another was shot several times last Friday and has been hospitalized.

Two of del Mundo's other sisters met with DFW airport police Monday. Airport police released surveillance video of the missing woman Tuesday. She is Filipina-American, stands 5 feet 6 inches tall, and has long brown hair.

Anyone with information on del Mundo is asked to call DFW Airport Detective Sgt. Karl Ross at (972) 391-7221.