Cruz was last seen at Clyde's Market in her hometown of Chiloquin, Oregon at 5:30 p.m. on July 9, 1994. Her mother's boyfriend, William Russell Spear, says he left her in the car for a few minutes while he went inside the store and when he came out, she was gone. Cruz was not sitting in a car seat at the time of her disappearance. She was not reported missing until 6:19 p.m., over an hour after Spear last saw her. She is missing under suspicious circumstances and is considered to be endangered.

In 1995, Cruz's mother, Alice R. Fowler, sued Spear for $4 million in damages relating to Cruz's disappearance; she claimed his negligent babysitting caused the infant to vanish. The lawsuit was later dismissed for lack of evidence supporting Fowler's claim. Cruz remains missing and her case is unsolved.