Lawndale Teen Jayden Castro Missing Since Aug. 10, Sheriff’s Detectives Appeal for Tips

A 15-year-old Lawndale boy has been missing for nearly three weeks, and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is now asking the public for help finding him. Jayden Castro was last seen on the 14000 block of Grevillea Avenue on the morning of August 10, wearing a white T-shirt, black jeans, black New Balance shoes, a necklace, a bracelet, and stud earrings. He is described as 5 feet 6 inches tall, 150 pounds, with brown eyes, brown curly hair, and a thin mustache.

Sheriff’s officials classified Castro as a runaway juvenile in a special bulletin issued Friday under Sheriff Robert G. Luna, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Because Lawndale has no police department of its own, the case falls to the LASD’s South Los Angeles Station, which contracts municipal law enforcement to the city and keeps a local service center on Prairie Avenue, according to the City of Lawndale. Anyone with information is asked to contact the South Los Angeles Sheriff’s Station Detective Bureau at (323) 820-6700, attention Detective S. Ferreira.

A Runaway Classification Doesn’t Mean Detectives Are Waiting

Castro’s designation as a runaway does not slow down the investigation. Under California Penal Code Section 14211, law enforcement agencies must accept missing person reports immediately, with no mandatory waiting period, regardless of whether someone reportedly left voluntarily, per the California Department of Justice. State law further requires that missing juvenile reports be entered into the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System and the National Crime Information Center within two hours of the report being taken, the department notes.

That urgency lines up with national data. More than 90 percent of missing child cases reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children involve youth who ran away from home, the organization reported in 2025. The same data shows the stakes involved: roughly 1 in 6 runaway youth reported missing are likely victims of child sex trafficking, according to NCMEC. Castro’s family has told detectives they are concerned for his well-being, per the sheriff’s bulletin.

South LA Station Handles Recurring Missing-Teen Cases

The South Los Angeles Sheriff’s Station, on West Imperial Highway, opened in 2010 to replace the former Lennox Station and covers Lawndale along with unincorporated communities including Athens, Del Aire, El Camino Village, Lennox, and Wiseburn. It is a station with recent experience in these searches: less than two weeks before the Castro bulletin, the same station asked the public to help find 16-year-old Arely Madai Rucuch, who vanished overnight from West 172nd Street in Lawndale.

Notably absent from the Castro appeal is any freeway alert or Amber Alert-style broadcast. California Government Code Section 8594 restricts electronic freeway message boards to cases where law enforcement can confirm a vehicle description or license plate tied to an abduction or an imminent safety threat, which is why missing-teen advisories like this one rely on printed bulletins and social media distribution instead. Separately, the state’s Ebony Alert system, created under 2024’s Senate Bill 673, allows agencies to request public broadcasts specifically for missing Black youth and young women ages 12 to 25 under unexplained or suspicious circumstances — a different tool than what applies here.

Why a Photo and a Phone Call Matter

Sheriff’s officials are counting heavily on public recognition to crack the case. The California Department of Justice cites data showing that about 1 in 6 missing children are located because a member of the public recognized a published photo and called police. That statistic underscores why the department released Castro’s file number, FCN 2322622300240, and NIC number M494095321, alongside his photo and physical description.

Anyone with information can also reach Crime Stoppers anonymously at (800) 222-TIPS (8477), through the P3 Tips mobile app, or via lacrimestoppers.org. The Sheriff’s Department separately offers Nixle alerts by email or text, and residents can text their zip code to 888777 for urgent local notifications. Whether detectives have identified leads, reviewed surveillance footage along Grevillea Avenue, or determined where Castro might have gone since August 10 remains unclear from the bulletin.