Detroit police are asking for the public's help finding Ramon Chaney, a 71-year-old man who disappeared from his home in the 16800 block of East Warren Avenue on August 11 and never returned. Chaney is described as 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighing 205 pounds, with grey hair and blue eyes, and was last seen wearing a black top, gray jogging pants, and black boots. According to his caregiver, Chaney lives with both bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, conditions that make his disappearance especially concerning for investigators.
The case, first reported by ClickOnDetroit, is not the first time Chaney has vanished under similar circumstances. Detroit police previously sought help locating him in July 2024, when he went missing from Codding Street while dealing with the same mental health conditions, according to a report at the time. That earlier case, combined with this one, points to a recurring pattern of vulnerability tied to his diagnoses.
Research from the National Institute of Mental Health helps explain why: schizophrenia can severely disrupt the brain's internal navigation system, impairing spatial memory in ways that leave people more prone to becoming lost or disoriented once they leave a familiar setting. For a caregiver or family member, that risk means every hour without contact carries added weight.
How to Report Information
Anyone with information on Chaney's whereabouts is asked to contact the Detroit Police Department's 5th Precinct at 313-596-5540. Tips can also be submitted anonymously through Crime Stoppers at 1-800-SPEAK-UP, which assigns tipsters a unique reference number to guarantee anonymity under state law while still routing information directly to investigators, according to Crime Stoppers of Michigan.
A Precinct Under Pressure From Rising Caseloads
The 5th Precinct, headquartered at 3500 Conner Avenue under Commander Lawrence Purifoy, oversees East Side residential neighborhoods including the Jefferson Chalmers district, where East Warren Avenue sits. It's one of several Detroit precincts grappling with a growing volume of missing person reports: the department logged more than 3,100 such cases in 2024, an 18% jump from the year before, with local reporting noting that a substantial share involved vulnerable adults living with mental health conditions or cognitive impairments, per Deadline Detroit.
That trend prompted Detroit Police Chief Todd Bettison to announce in March 2025 that the department would direct dedicated resources specifically toward missing persons and cold case investigations, as reported by BridgeDetroit. The push has since translated into large-scale field operations: in May, more than 100 personnel from 13 local, state, and federal agencies conducted “Operation United Block,” a coordinated sweep of vacant properties on Detroit's East Side aimed at locating missing individuals and closing open disappearance cases.
State Lawmakers Push for Faster Alerts
Michigan's current framework for missing vulnerable adults runs through the Mozelle Senior or Vulnerable Adult Medical Alert Act, a 2012 law that lets police issue specialized alerts for missing residents 60 or older, or those with severe physical or mental conditions that put them in immediate danger. But the law leans heavily on law enforcement networks rather than direct notifications to the public's phones.
In March, state legislators introduced Senate Bill 456, which would create a direct-to-mobile statewide Silver Alert system using Wireless Emergency Alerts, according to Michigan House Democrats. Nationally, the scale of the missing persons issue is significant: the U.S. Department of Justice's National Missing and Unidentified Persons System logs more than 600,000 missing person reports across the country each year, a rate of roughly 6.5 cases per 100,000 people, per World Population Review. For now, Detroit investigators are focused on the immediate task of locating Chaney and are urging anyone with information to come forward.
