Missing people highlight search process
Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Office officials have continued the search for two men believed to have gone missing while in the high country of Tuolumne County and who may be in danger from inclement weather conditions.
The newest possible missing person report is of Stacey Jordan, a 36-year-old man who told a friend he was going to the “high mountains” for recreation. At the time of the report, he had not been seen or heard from in four days, but may have intended on visiting Groveland or Pinecrest, a Sheriff’s Office press release stated.
The search is ongoing for 31-year-old Bakersfield man Eduardo Martinez Perez, who has not been seen or heard from since March 5, and his vehicle was found near the Highway 108 Sno-park area east of Strawberry.
Sheriff’s Deputy Niccoli Sandelin said two missing persons reports, which were on the Sheriff’s Office social media pages this week, were unrelated.
Sandelin said the only similarity binding the two ongoing missing persons cases are that they were related to tourism or recreation. Each season has “quite a few search-andrescue missions that are related to recreation,” he said, though other ongoing missing persons cases did not share in that detail.
“Those seem to be the only two that we have that they are trying to pass
through or come in for recreation persons,” Sandelin said. “The ones that I have reviewed from the beginning of this year have not been.”
Sandelin said Jordan was identified as a transient who lived in his car and had a county of origin outside of Tuolumne County.
“He reportedly told a friend that he was going to the high mountains to get away, to go adventure,” Sandelin said.
Facebook posts by a woman named Suani Bowers, who identified herself in a Fresno FOX26 article as Jordan’s mother, garnered hundreds of shares and comments related to his disappearance.
We are looking for any help we can get,” the post said.
The post was made on Wednesday and said there was no word yet of his location.
“Please share, print, pin, post, tape — anything you can to get this out,” she said above an online flier. “I’m also hoping he might see it and contact someone. Thank you again everyone for all of your support. We’re gonna find him guys. I’ll stop at nothing!”
Sandelin said it was still unknown, however, if Jordan was in Tuolumne County or made it here.
“We just got the report that he is known to come up here, but nobody has actually seen him up here,” Sandelin said.
Jordan was described as a Black male adult and about 5 feet, 11 inches tall. He has a thin build, dreadlocks and may be wearing “Rasta” style clothing. He is known to drive a 2005 gold Chevrolet Tahoe with a California license plate of 8TUU915 or a temporary paper plate of AB41W43.
As of Thursday, the Sheriff’s Office continues to search for Perez.
Tuolumne County Sheriff ’s Search and Rescue officials, along with Contra Costa Search and Rescue, Marin County Search and Rescue and the Bay Area Mountain Rescue Unit conducted searches for him beginning last weekend, but have not found him.
The area where Perez’s truck was located was across from where Highway 108 is locked for the winter.
Only select officials from the Forest Service, Caltrans and local law enforcement have access to keys that open that locked gate across Highway 108.
According to a previous Union Democrat story on Perez, deputies found the black pickup truck in melting snow.
They said it appeared that he tried to drive around the gate and was stuck. His items were found inside, and footprints were seen walking away from the truck.
Sandelin said Perez may have been attempting to drive into the high country and cross over Sonora Pass to get to Montana. Sonora Pass, located above 9,000 feet elevation, is closed like other Sierra Nevada mountain passes for the season due to weather conditions.
The Sheriff’s Office does not suspect foul play at this time related to the two missing people.
The Sheriff’s Office does not release every reported missing person onto their social media page. Instead, they are guided by personal safety considerations and requests from their Investigations Unit.
“All missing persons cases to us are very important, however the timeline in which we post a missing person case can really be focused on the public safety risk to them,” Sandelin said. “If someone is in more imminent danger, we are going to try to get information out on those people quickly.”
Sandelin said the Perez investigation was posted because the investigation first began as a suspicious vehicle investigation, then morphed into a search and rescue before being classified as a missing person case.
“Due to elements and location, it was important that we try and get information out quickly so we determine if he was still in the forest or if he was picked up,” Sandelin said.
The Jordan investigation release, he added, was related to inclement weather conditions passing through the area at the time the missing person was reported.
“He was coming up here to explore the wilderness under some extremely cold weather,” Sandelin said.
Including Perez and Jordan, there are seven ongoing missing persons cases in Tuolumne County at this time.
The Sheriff’s Office previously highlighted several ongoing and older missing persons cases on Mondays as a method to reanimate “cold cases.”
Sandelin said detectives will request that missing persons details be posted over social media if they run out of leads.
“Social media is a very effective tool to reach a lot of people very quickly,” he said.
Detectives for other ongoing missing persons investigations, including Ashley Nicole Thomason, a 30-year-old woman reported missing on March 1 and Amy Lyn Munoz, a 42-year-old woman reported missing on February 25, have not requested a social media release for public assistance, Sandelin said.
“Quite a few past missing persons cases, for a lack of a better word, had gone cold,” Sandelin said. “We decided that it would be important to bring those back to light in hopes we could get more leads or remind people these are cases we were still actively investigating.”
Sandelin said he was not sure if the Monday posts resulted in any useful information.
Some high-profile disappearances remain active, including cold investigations for Troy Robert Galloway, a Sonora-based Marine Corps veteran who disappeared in 2016, or for Breck Phelps, Patricia Tolhurst, or Nita Mayo, three people who separately disappeared near the Donnell Vista lookout on Highway 108 east of Pinecrest.
“We don’t have any updates on the circumstances surrounding their disappearances,” Sandelin said.
Missing persons reports are actually fairly common, Sandelin said, though they have varying degrees of cause.
Often, a person may walk out on family or a significant other, but are simply choosing not to communicate with them rather than actually having unknown whereabouts.
“If someone reports a missing person, we take the report and conduct our investigation from there,” Sandelin said. “Simply being listed as a missing person does not always go towards potential severity. Some just don’t want to be contacted and don’t want to talk to anybody.”
The Sheriff’s Office maintains an open policy through their dispatch line for tips related to unsolved disappearances, Sandelin said.
“I think we’d encourage anybody who sees these missing person cases, if they think they have something which might be somewhat helpful, to give us a call. Any lead is an important lead for these cases,” Sandelin said.
The Sheriff’s Office requests that anyone with information about ongoing missing persons cases contact the Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Dispatch Center at (209) 533-5815.