Amber Aiaz

Status:

Open

Jurisdiction:

Irvine Police Department (CA)

Missing From:

Irvine, California

Summary:

Amber Aiaz was last seen in Irvine, California on November 22, 2019. Her daughter Melissa was gone, and Aiaz should have arrived home by that time, but she was gone too. Neither of them have ever been seen again. Detectives have developed reason to believe the two were possibly kidnapped.

Vital Statistics

Circumstances of Disappearance:

On the day of the pair's disappearances, Cheng Zhang, who is Aiaz's husband and Melissa's stepfather, was home with Melissa at their apartment in the vicinity of Michelson and University. Aiaz was driving home from Las Vegas, Nevada with a carload of produce they planned to sell at the market. Someone knocked on the door at 4:30 p.m., and when Zhang answered, he saw a woman and man he did not recognize. The woman had something in her right hand. Zhang felt something wet and misty on his face, then collapsed, unconscious. When he woke up hours later, there were bloodstains of the carpet and a bloody handprint on the kitchen wall. Zhang noticed that Amber's van was parked in its normal spot, and it was full of fresh groceries. By Zhang's account, this indicates that Amber made it back from Vegas and was kidnapped, along with Melissa, very shortly thereafter.

Additional Details:

Zhang followed the kidnapper's instructions, per the note. He cleaned up the bloodstains from the apartment, replaced the carpet, and painted over the blood on the walls. Zhang said he continued to receive notes at their apartment over the next few days. Each note said that Amber and Melissa were fine, and he should continue to behave as if nothing is wrong. Five days after the alleged kidnapping, Zhang said he received another note instructing him to leave town for two days. He subsequently traveled to Las Vegas to stay with family members. Zhang once again followed the note's instructions - but Amber and Melissa never returned. He also never received another note. Zhang also found a handwritten note with a message written in Chinese. The two lived in an apartment with Amber's husband, Cheng Zhang. Amber, who was 34 years-old when she vanished, had her own seafood grocery business with locations in both Irvine and Las Vegas, Nevada. Amber's husband Cheng Zhang worked as an Uber driver. From early December 2019 to mid-January 2020, investigators put Cheng Zhang on 24-hour surveillance. Detectives watched his every move to see if he would do something that might incriminate him in the disappearances of Amber and Melissa. Zhang did not behave suspiciously during the time he was under surveillance, and he directed police to where they found find the physical evidence he'd tried to cover up or destroy. He had thrown out the bloodstained carpet, but forensic techs found blood on the padding underneath, blood which they believe was Aiaz's. When investigators looked into sprays that could instantly knock someone out, they found out about an anesthetic drug called Fluothane matched that description. Investigators believe the motive for Aiaz and Melissa's abductions may have something to do with Aiaz's past. She had told Zhang she was a wealthy woman with millions of dollars in investments and hundreds of thousands in cash, and he was shocked to find out after her abduction that this was untrue. It's possible she had upset someone by deceiving them about her money, or that the kidnappers abducted her and her daughter expecting her to pay them money she did not possess. When the LA Times article came out in 2021, it was reported that investigators had only received four tips in the case - an astonishingly small amount. It has been a year and a half, and they have not shown up in any database. The police tell me their passports were at the apartment. The Chinese government says to the U.S. authorities there is no record of Amber accessing her bank account in China, nor is there any evidence of her returning to the country.

Case Last Updated:

Oct 11, 2026