January 13, 2019
Elizabeth Breck
5’4’’ 123lbs
Blonde hair/green eyes
Last seen wearing a grey skirt and grey top.
46 yr old female Elizabeth Breck was last seen at the Sierra Tucson treatment center in Saddlebrooke AZ on January 13, 2019.
The high school teacher and mother of two had checked into the facility on Jan 10th for a 30 day treatment period for ptsd. Three days later she would vanish. Was elizabeth a victim of her own struggles with mental health, or did she slip through the cracks of the luxury treatment facility, dealing with it’s own chequered past, – or does elizabeth’s disappearance have to do with a larger and more sinister pattern – where patients at rehab facilities have been sold into human trafficking or forced into sex work?
Elizabeth arrived at the Sierra Tucson treatment center on Thursday Jan 10 around 7 pm. The teacher at a Tucson local magnet school had decided to check herself in for a 30 day stint of therapy for dealing with trauma and PTSD. The only information known about that evening is that Elizabeth reached out to her adult daughter to let her know that she was checking into Sierra and going to seek some help.
As is customary, Breck spent the first night at the facilities intake unit, known as the “desert flower hospital”, typically used for detox and other acute procedures, but most importantly for observation.
Intake staff determined Elizabeth was not a threat to herself or others, and was released 9am Sunday to move into the residential unit for the remainder of her stay.
Later that Sunday afternoon, Elizabeth’s tracking bracelet and personal belongings were found in her room, but she was no where to be seen. the only items missing Elizabeth took were her drivers license and some cash from her wallet. Leaving behind her cell phone, car keys, and other personal belongings.
Due to a lack of security cameras at sierra Tucson and the fact she was not wearing her tracking bracelet, there are no verified accounts of Breck from the Sunday she disappeared. Later, a behavioral health tech would report having seen Elizabeth on the facilities campus and approaching her, although it has not been disclosed what was said or the outcome of their interaction.
That would be the last time anyone would see Elizabeth Breck.
Law enforcement believe that Elizabeth left the grounds of Sierra Tucson on foot, wearing a grey shirt and skirt. Temperatures that January in the dessert dropped to 30 degrees at nighttime, leaving many to believe she would have needed shelter.
Sierra Tucson is located on a 160 acres campus, surrounded by the mountain peaks and low dry dessert of south east Arizona. Although the location is far from any shops or restaurants, there are houses and other structures within a mile in almost all directions, so if she was out walking on foot it’s likely she would have been seen or found by someone who worked or lived in the area.
Christopher Breck, Elizabeth’s brother, acknowledged that his sister had dealings with mental health in the past, but that she had never run away or failed to keep in touch. To raise money for a private detective among other search costs her family ran a successful GoFundMe page. Unfortunately though, no solid leads were found.
Given the circumstances of Elizabeth’s mental state many suspected she simply ran off into the Arizona wilderness on her own accord, either to start a new life or possibly even in some type of passive suicide attempt. This would seem a reasonable hypothesis, if it weren’t for one simple fact. Elizabeth was able to legally sign herself out of Sierra, and she also had a car at the facility, so there wouldn’t be any need to leave in secret or on foot.
Law enforcement searched a five-mile radius near Edwin and North Lago Del Oro Parkway in Pinal County, the location that Elizabeth was alleged to have been last seen. The search turned up nothing. To this day there’s has been no body found, or any signs of to indicate foul play.
As law enforcement and family members tracked down leads for Elizabeth, things weren’t adding up.
Questions began to arise about the role sierra Tucson may have played in her disappearance. Breck’s family filed a complaint with the Arizona Dept of Health Services alleging negligence by Sierra Tucson. The family questioned why Breck was not wearing her blue-tooth style patient tracking bracelet, which was later found destroyed, and also why Breck was moved into the residential wing before she had completed the facility’s standard 72-hr intake period.
Sierra Tucson is no stranger to controversy. Arizona DHS records indicate a pattern of fines against Sierra Tucson spanning back years before Breck came there for treatment. In 2019, just 4 months after Elizabeth was last seen, the new jersey family of Steven Johe, 20, was awarded a $5 million settlement against sierra Tucson for his wrongful death in 2014. Jo0he was in treatment for drug rehab and mental health issues, and died from a fatal intoxication of drugs only 6 days after checking in. it’s unclear whether it was intentional or not. The lawsuit accused sierra Tucson of medical negligence, for among other things not following up on Johe’s suicidal thoughts he had expressed during intake and not providing the needed supervision or follow up.
Since 2014, 3 other patients had also been found dead at Sierra Tucson. One – was a retired medical doctor, whose body was found 2 weeks after he disappeared, and was found in some bushes on the facility’s property, unfortunately it was too decomposed to determine the cause of death.
Many former patients and their families and loved ones have also left an unsavory assortment of “not recommended” reviews on Yelp, with some of them being downright horrifying.
Several journalists who have investigated Acadia healthcare company, which owns sierra Tucson, along with multiple other rehab centers across the country – have suggested that declining revenue at the facilities may have led to cost cutting procedures, which may have led to shortages of qualified staff and improperly maintained facilities.
Acadia has been alleged to have been actively dismantling it’s on-site camera security at other treatment facilities it owned as shown in this court filing.
The for-profit rehab industry in the united states has recently come under scrutiny due to the lack of industry regulation and the exorbitant fees they can charge. In fact, Questions were raised about how elizabeth could afford the $30,000 for 30 day treatment at Sierra, since she was only using her private insurance. IN recent years private insurers have been footing less of the bill at luxury rehab centers, and government programs have slashed reimbursements.
Elements behavioral health, parent company of the Promises luxury rehab centers, which once treated celebrities like brittany spears, lyndsey lohan, and charlie sheen filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2018 amid ongoing lawsuits alleging insurance fraud and mismanagement.
But something more sinister has also emerged from the rehab world in the past few years,
In 2017, Reports surfaced in Florida about abuses at a chain of drug treatment centers which were actively luring addicts to live at their facilities, even supplying drugs, all in order to charge insurance companies for excessive urine tests and other procedures. If that wasn’t bad enough, addicts were also subject to violent abuse, extortion, scams, some even being forced into the sex trade. There were also reports of facilities in Florida trading addicts to other corrupted facilities in elaborate human trafficking schemes.
In 2018, an FBI investigation led to the arrest and imprisonment of a husband and wife team – Ken and Laura Chatman – for insurance fraud, money laundering, and sex trafficking.
Although the Chatman’s life of crime has ended for now, they were likely not the only people running behavioral health centers who abused the vulnerable people they were entrusted to care for.
It is important to note – that as of the making of this program, Acadia and Sierra Tucson have not been accused of any of this predatory behavior at any of it’s treatment facilities, but that doesn’t rule out that there may have been some rogue employees working there who may have been tapped into this underworld. Could it be – one of them had a connection to do something – with Elizabeth?
Jan of 2021 marked the 2 year anniversary that e breck was last seen. her family observed the occasion with a somber reflection that she may not be coming back, and a commitment to celebrating the life that she had lived.
So – what did happen to eb? Did her mental state push her to the extremes of running away to start a new life or even suicide? Or does the facility, Sierra Tucson know more than it’s letting on – was she the victim of their negligence, or worse – was she trafficked by a corrupt staff member into a criminal underworld? Or, is Elizabeth alive somewhere, possibly abducted by someone who lives in the area – or someone who was traveling through that Sunday morning.
Breck’s disappearance remains an open case, and although there has been a lack of leads, it doesn’t mean the answers aren’t out there. If you have any information about the whereabouts of Elizabeth Breck – no matter how small or insignificant you may think it is- please reach out to the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office at 520-866-5111
LINKS for more information on Elizabeth’s case:
https://www.truecasefiles.com/2020/12/the-disappearance-of-elizabeth-breck.html
https://charleyproject.org/case/elizabeth-emma-breck
https://www.namus.gov/MissingPersons/Case#/55736?nav
https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/florida-sober-home-owner-sentenced
https://www.gofundme.com/f/elizabeth-breck?utm_campaign=p_cp_url&utm_medium=os&utm_source=customer
Last Seen: Missing Persons 