After weeks of frustrating obscurity, the case of Mr. Figueroa's daughter, Latoyia Figueroa, 25, has finally captured the national news media's attention, spurred by the persistent nudging of Philadelphia-based Web logs and a city councilman distantly related to the Figueroas.
In the process, the case has become a flashpoint for the growing unease in minority communities across the country about the way they believe many national news outlets focus relentlessly on missing white women, while giving little attention to equally compelling stories involving poorer minority women.
"Certainly, everybody hopes that they find out what happened to Natalee Holloway in Aruba and to all the other missing young women," said Juan F. Ramos, the city councilman, as he handed out leaflets on the teeming corner of 52nd and Market Streets. "But for a while there, you had to wonder: why not Latoyia?"
Ms. Figueroa, who is five months pregnant, was last seen not far from that busy corner around 5 p.m. on July 18, after a doctor's visit. She lived with her 7-year-old daughter, to whom friends said she was devoted. She had a solid work record at a Center City restaurant. Neither her credits cards nor her cellphone have been used since she disappeared.