Cortez was last seen at about 1:00 a.m. on April 15, 2000 at the Amfac/JMB Lihue Plantation sugar cane processing plant in Lihue, Hawaii. He worked there at night, oiling and maintaining plantation equipment. When other employees went looking for Cortez, they found his midnight snack, coffee mug, keys, and street clothes in the break room and his car in the employee parking lot. There was no sign of Cortez himself, however.

A plant worker later found a rubber boot and torn t-shirt believed to belong to Cortez caught in the cane-crushing equpiment inside the factory, suggesting he fell into the machinery. However, because of the way the machines are designed, authorities do not believe a person could fall in by accident. Cortez has never been heard from again and it is unclear what happened to him.