An 83-year-old Elk Grove woman was last seen Wednesday night near Harvest Hill Way and Periwinkle Circle, prompting a statewide Silver Alert as authorities search for her and the gray Honda CRV she may be driving. Ana Montez was seen around 7:11 p.m. in the eastern Elk Grove neighborhood, according to the alert, and has not been located since.
The California Highway Patrol activated the alert at the request of the Elk Grove Police Department, which asked the state agency to broadcast Montez's description and vehicle information across Sacramento County. Montez is described as 5 feet 2 inches tall, weighing 180 pounds, with gray hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a peach shirt, brown pants, and slip-on shoes, and is believed to be driving a gray 2017 Honda CR-V with California license plate 7YDH506. Anyone who spots her is asked to call 911, per the alert.
Silver Alerts in California are reviewed around the clock by the Emergency Notification and Tactical Alert Center, a unit of uniformed personnel at California Highway Patrol headquarters in Sacramento that serves as the clearinghouse for the state's missing-person alert programs, according to the California Highway Patrol. Because Montez is believed to be behind the wheel, the CHP can broadcast her vehicle description and license plate on freeway Changeable Message Signs, issue Be-On-The-Lookout advisories to regional law enforcement agencies, and post electronic flyers through its @CHPAlerts account, expanding the search well beyond Elk Grove's residential streets toward major corridors like State Route 99 and Interstate 5.
What Triggers a Statewide Alert
Before requesting a Silver Alert, local police must satisfy five criteria under California Government Code section 8594.10, including confirming that local search resources have been exhausted and that the missing person faces danger tied to age, health, or environmental conditions, according to the State of California. The program was created in 2012 under Senate Bill 1047 and expanded in 2015 to cover missing seniors 65 and older along with cognitively or developmentally impaired people of any age, per FindLaw's summary of the statute. It remains unknown whether Montez has any diagnosed medical or cognitive condition, and it is not yet clear whether license plate readers or freeway cameras have picked up her Honda CR-V, or which direction investigators believe she may have traveled.
The last known sighting near Harvest Hill Way and Periwinkle Circle places Montez in a residential pocket of eastern Elk Grove's 95624 ZIP code, off Four Seasons Drive near Elk Grove-Florin Road and Sheldon Road, roughly two miles east of State Route 99, according to property listing site Redfin. That proximity to a major north-south corridor is part of why the search could stretch well beyond the immediate neighborhood if Montez is indeed driving.
A Familiar Pattern for Local Search Teams
National data underscores why authorities move quickly in these cases. Six out of ten people with dementia will wander at least once, and 72% of missing seniors found alive are located within the first 24 hours, according to the Alzheimer's Association. Sacramento County is home to more than 236,000 residents aged 60 or older, and roughly 12% of county residents 65 and up live with Alzheimer's disease or a related dementia, per estimates from the California Department of Aging.
This is not the first missing-person search Elk Grove police have handled in recent days. Just days earlier, officers sought help finding Wai Yu Leung, a 48-year-old at-risk man with special needs who went missing from his home on Laguna Park Drive. And earlier this week, CHP activated a separate Silver Alert on behalf of Folsom police for an 81-year-old missing driver near Rocklin, who was found safe near Secret Ravine the following morning after an overnight search.
Elk Grove police have not released additional details about Montez's health history or the direction search teams are prioritizing. Anyone who sees Montez or her gray Honda CR-V is urged to call 911 immediately.
