(IntegrityTimes.com) – On Monday July15 former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca was found by local authorities about eight hours after he had been reported missing.
Baca is 82 years old and suffers from Alzheimer’s. When discovered in a restaurant roughly seven miles away from his home, his medical alert bracelet was used to confirm his identity. San Marino Police Chief John Incontro has reported that Baca was in good spirits when they found him and had not suffered any injuries while he was gone.
Baca’s disappearance was first reported to the San Marino Police Department on Sunday July 14 in the late afternoon. A relative of Baca notified authorities that he had left his residence at 4:38 p.m. and was last seen walking north on Virginia Road toward Huntington Drive. An extensive search was then initiated, involving the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Missing Person’s Unit, as well as several local police departments with K-9 units and air support.
The search was concluded successfully just after midnight on July 15 when Baca was found in a restaurant in the nearby city of El Monte. Baca was then returned to his home and reunited with his family. It has been noted that Alzheimer’s patients often wander away from their homes or care centers. Law enforcement and members of the community are generally instrumental in their safe return as they can be confused and unsure of where they are. They also sometimes have difficulty remembering names, addresses or phone numbers making the situation impossible for them to navigate on their own.
Although Baca now suffers from Alzheimer’s, he has been a controversial figure in the Los Angelas area due to his conviction for obstructing an FBI investigation in 2016. He served as Los Angeles County Sheriff from 1998 to 2014 when he stepped down amid a several year scandal regarding abuse in county jails. Several others in the department were found guilty of civil rights violations, with some serving prison sentences. Baca himself served two years of a three-year sentence for impeding the FBI investigation. He was released in January 2022.
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