A statewide Silver Alert is underway for 64-year-old Chester Baggett, who vanished on foot near a Florida Boulevard RV park in Baton Rouge sometime after 10 p.m. on August 4 and has not been seen since. Baggett has a medical condition that may cause him to become disoriented, and he was last spotted wearing a t-shirt, shorts, and long socks near 14740 Florida Boulevard, according to the missing-person bulletin.
That address is the site of Night RV Park, an all-ages RV and mobile home community along the commercial Florida Boulevard corridor near Denham Springs, according to Explore Louisiana. The East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office requested the Silver Alert, and Louisiana State Police issued it, describing Baggett as a white male standing 5 feet 6 inches tall, weighing about 150 pounds, with blue eyes and gray, partially bald hair. He is believed to be on foot, walking in an unknown direction.
Nearly 48 hours passed between Baggett's disappearance and the moment the alert went statewide. State police received the Sheriff's Office request at approximately 9:41 p.m. on August 6 — roughly two days after he was last seen at 10 p.m. on August 4, per the same agency's release. That gap sits at the center of how Louisiana's missing-person protocols actually function, since local deputies must first verify a report before state police can broadcast it statewide.
How the Alert System Works
Under Louisiana law, only local law enforcement can request a Silver Alert, and state police must confirm the missing person is at least 60 years old or cognitively impaired and that the disappearance poses a credible safety threat before issuing one, according to the Louisiana State Legislature. Local agencies submit verified reports and photos to the state police Fusion Center, which runs a 24-hour emergency alert hotline at 1-800-434-8007 and coordinates dissemination to law enforcement, highway message boards, and news outlets statewide.
The program dates back to 2008, when Louisiana lawmakers adapted the nationwide AMBER Alert framework to help find missing elderly and cognitively impaired adults, per the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. More than 30 states now run similar systems under different names — Georgia calls its version Mattie's Call, Kentucky uses Golden Alert, and Delaware calls it Gold Alert — though the underlying goal of locating disoriented adults quickly stays the same, according to the National Ashanti Alert Network.
Heat Adds Urgency to the Search
The stakes of a slow response are especially high in Louisiana during summer. Roughly 95,000 people in the state live with Alzheimer's disease, and nearly 60 percent of people with dementia will wander from home or a care setting at least once in their lives, according to state police data cited by the same source. Wandering seniors face a heightened risk of severe disorientation and injury if they aren't found quickly.
That risk is compounded by extreme summer heat. The Louisiana Department of Health has confirmed seven heat-related deaths statewide this summer, six of them adults over 65, WAFB reported. August heat index levels across South Louisiana can turn hours spent wandering outdoors into a life-threatening situation for someone already disoriented.
Possible Sighting Reported on Sharp Road
Since the bulletin went public, residents have begun submitting unconfirmed tips on social media, including reports on WAFB's coverage page describing a man matching Baggett's description walking on Sharp Road in Baton Rouge. Sharp Road intersects major arterial roads near the Florida Boulevard corridor, though the sighting remains unverified.
The East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office, which is leading the ground search, is asking anyone with information on Baggett's whereabouts to call its 24-hour line at (225) 389-5000 or dial 911 in an emergency. Louisiana State Police listed Sergeant Jacob Pucheu of its Public Affairs Section as a contact for the release, reachable at (225) 925-6202 or [email protected].
