A body has been found during the search for a 19-year-old Texas woman who disappeared after leaving her home on Christmas Eve, officials in Bexar County have said.

Sheriff Javier Salazar told a press briefing on Tuesday that investigators located a body in a field about 100 yards from the missing woman’s home in northwest Bexar County. The body had not yet been formally identified, and the local medical examiner had not determined the cause or manner of death, he said.

The missing woman, Camila Mendoza Olmos, was last seen early Wednesday morning, according to the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office. Investigators previously released video footage they said showed her outside her home at about 7am, appearing to search her vehicle for an unidentified item. Her vehicle remained at the residence, and authorities believed she left on foot.

Salazar said that, based on what investigators were seeing at the scene, “At this point we don’t suspect foul play,” adding that there were “some indicators of self-harm.” He said the clothing on the body appeared consistent with the description of what Mendoza Olmos may have been wearing when she went missing.

The sheriff also said the area where the body was found had been searched earlier in the investigation, but authorities returned for a second look on Tuesday afternoon. The field contained tall grass, and investigators believed there was value in checking it again, he said. The body was found shortly before 5pm local time, according to Salazar.

“This is certainly not the outcome we were hoping for,” Salazar said during the Tuesday briefing, as he emphasised that formal identification and forensic findings were still pending.

The discovery came after days of intensive searching involving sheriff’s deputies, volunteers and multiple agencies. During the search, investigators obtained and released dashboard camera footage from a driver who passed a woman walking alone a few blocks from Mendoza Olmos’s home on Wednesday morning. Salazar said at a news conference on Monday that he could not say “with 100% certainty” that the person in the dashcam video was Mendoza Olmos, but said the clothing description appeared to match.

Salazar said authorities released the footage “in hopes that somebody may have collected similar video.” “This was the best direction of flight that we were able to develop,” he said.

Investigators said Mendoza Olmos was last seen wearing a baby-blue and black hoodie, baby-blue pyjama bottoms and white shoes. The sheriff’s office said the only items she appeared to have taken with her were her car keys and possibly her driver’s licence. Salazar described it as “highly unusual” that she had left her phone behind at home.

According to the sheriff’s office, Mendoza Olmos’s mother told investigators that her daughter normally went for a morning walk, but she became concerned when Mendoza Olmos did not return “within a reasonable period of time.”

As the search widened, Salazar said agencies including the FBI joined efforts, providing technical assistance, and the Department of Homeland Security monitored border crossings and international travel. “We definitely don’t want to miss anything,” Salazar said, adding: “We’re also not ruling out that this case may take us outside the borders of the continental United States.”

Salazar also addressed online speculation about immigration enforcement, saying he had checked and confirmed that Mendoza Olmos, a US citizen, had not been detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “That was a personal concern,” he said, adding that investigators needed to be certain there were “no stops, no detentions, and that she’s not somewhere in a federal detention facility.”

In the days before the body was located, Salazar said there was enough information to indicate Mendoza Olmos could be in “imminent danger,” though he declined to disclose some investigative details. He appealed for help from the public, asking residents near the family home to check surveillance cameras for any footage that might assist investigators.

Family members have spoken publicly as the search unfolded. Mendoza Olmos was reported to have ties to Southern California, and relatives there described the impact of her disappearance. In one account, her cousin Priscilla Flores said: “It’s been very heartbreaking because she’s so young, she has her whole life ahead of her.”

Authorities said the dashcam footage was taken within a short distance of the family home, but investigators still could not conclusively confirm the person’s identity. Salazar said on Tuesday, after the body was located, that it remained unclear whether the woman in the dashcam video was Mendoza Olmos.

Salazar said the body had not yet been officially identified, and the medical examiner’s process would be crucial to providing clarity to the family and the community. “We hope that we can try to expedite that process to be able to get the community answers,” he said.

Officials did not release further details about the location where the body was found beyond describing it as a field near the home. The sheriff said investigators had worked the case continuously since Mendoza Olmos was reported missing, and that deputies and volunteers had searched around the clock.

The case has drawn significant attention in the area, with residents following updates and sharing information online as the sheriff’s office released new images and footage. Salazar said investigators were pursuing every potential lead and checking information as it came in, including verifying whether any video evidence might place Mendoza Olmos beyond the immediate neighbourhood.

The sheriff’s office has continued to ask anyone with information to come forward as the investigation proceeds, including anyone who may have surveillance or dashcam video from the area during the time Mendoza Olmos disappeared. The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office has provided a contact number for tips and an email address for its missing persons unit.

Salazar’s comments on Tuesday left open key questions that will depend on the medical examiner’s findings, including formal identification and the determination of how the person died. While the sheriff said there were indicators consistent with self-harm and that foul play was not suspected at that point, he stressed that investigators were still waiting for definitive forensic conclusions.

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