A 13-year-old San Jose boy who disappeared before dawn earlier this month has been found safe, closing out an emergency alert that had stretched across five Northern California counties. Damien Padilla went missing in the predawn hours earlier this month, last Sunday at approximately 2 AM, and the Endangered Missing Advisory issued on his behalf was deactivated today after he was located.
Alert Spanned From San Jose to Sacramento
According to CHP Alerts, the California Highway Patrol's public alerts account, the advisory was activated on behalf of the San Jose Police Department after Padilla was last seen near Story Road in San Jose, Santa Clara County. SFGate reported that he was specifically last spotted near the intersection of Story Road and Lyndale Avenue in East San Jose. The advisory covered Santa Clara, Alameda, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, and Sacramento counties.
The advisory described Padilla as 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighing 130 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. At the time he went missing, he was wearing red sweatpants, a light-colored shirt, and black shoes. Authorities asked anyone who spotted him to call 9-1-1, and the advisory did not specify where or how he was ultimately located.
How California's Endangered Missing Advisories Work
Padilla's case didn't meet the strict abduction criteria required for an AMBER Alert, but state law still allows for rapid public notification in situations like his. Under California Government Code section 8594.11, established through Assembly Bill 946, local police departments can request an Endangered Missing Advisory when someone goes missing under unexplained or suspicious circumstances and is considered at risk because of age, health, or potential danger, according to Justia Law.
That state framework fulfills the requirements of the federal Ashanti Alert Act of 2018, filling gaps left by the stricter AMBER, Silver, and Blue Alert criteria, according to the California Highway Patrol. Every advisory statewide is managed through CHP's Emergency Notification and Tactical Alert Center, a 24-hour hub in Sacramento that coordinates with local departments and decides how far an alert should spread. That's why Padilla's case reached digital signs and flyers across all five counties, since he was believed to be traveling in a vehicle that could have crossed jurisdictions, according to the advisory.
San Jose Police Procedures and Statewide Missing-Child Numbers
San Jose police maintain no waiting period for reporting a missing child, and cases involving minors or suspected foul play trigger immediate emergency dispatch, according to the San Jose Police Department. That policy helps explain how quickly Padilla's case moved from a local report to a five-county public alert.
Cases like this remain common statewide. California law enforcement agencies logged 60,438 reports of missing children in 2025, including 26,149 involving boys, according to the California Department of Justice. Of the 57,681 missing-children cases resolved statewide that year, 39,725 children returned on their own and 15,298 were located by law enforcement. Nationally, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children says it assisted law enforcement with 32,167 missing-child cases in 2025, with a 90% overall resolution and safe-recovery rate.
A Recurring Alert System in the South Bay
Padilla's case echoes a South Bay advisory from September 2023, when CHP deactivated an Endangered Missing Advisory for a missing 17-year-old boy in San Jose after he was found safe, according to a report shared by NBC Bay Area. Hoodline has covered several similar advisories in San Jose over the past year, including a missing teen alert in February that also ended with the teen located safe.
