‘She is not yet safe’: Missing El Paso woman found in Houston suburb

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- The sister of Sydney Marquez says the 24-year-old El Paso woman has been found. Her sister says she is not yet safe.

Marquez's family says she was last seen on December 11 in Houston, Texas, while visiting friends. Now, her family says she was found in a Houston suburb.

"She is not with family," Sydney's sister Kayla Marquez posted to social media. "She is not yet safe. She has not had proper medical evaluation as the police simply let her walk back out to the streets of Houston."

Kayla Marquez posted a statement to her Instagram profile stating that the family is concerned for Sydney's mental wellbeing.

"Sydney was released without hospital-based mental health assessment, and given her documented mental health history, our family does not consider this situation resolved or safe."

Houston Police say that the police department in Jersey Village, a suburb of Houston, contacted them to say they had made contact with Sydney Marquez.

"Jersey Village Police contacted Houston Police to say they had made contact with the missing person (Marquez)," a spokesperson for the Houston Police Department stated. "Houston Police stated their investigation continues, and have no further information."

"While we are grateful she was found, the assessment conducted by Jersey Village Police was limited to basic orientation such as knowing her date of birth, the day of the week, and her location," Kayla Marquez said in her statement Friday morning. "This is not a medical psychiatric evaluation."

Kayla Marquez went on to state that she thinks mental health emergencies are not being taken seriously enough.

"We wish situations involving vulnerable individuals and mental health crises were treated with the seriousness and urgency they deserve, before lives are lost."

Sydney's sister Clarissa Marquez told ABC-7 that on Thursday night a concerned citizen contacted Jersey Village Police after seeing Sydney experiencing a mental health crisis. Clarissa Marquez told ABC-7 that police agreed to hold Sydney until her parents could arrive, but that she was instead allowed to leave alone around 3 a.m. Friday.

"Sydney struggles with bipolar disorder and was experiencing a mental health crisis," Clarissa Marquez told ABC-7. "She needed to be evaluated by a psychiatrist, not assessed and released by a police officer."

Clarissa Marquez says that her parents are now at the Jersey Village Police Station. She says that police are now actively searching for Sydney.