A 73-year-old man named Siosaia Makalo has gone missing on foot from a South Los Angeles intersection, prompting a statewide Silver Alert issued Tuesday morning. Makalo was last seen around 6:30 p.m. Monday near W. 94th Street and S. Budlong Avenue in Los Angeles, wearing a red and gray polo shirt and gray sweatpants. He is described as 5 feet 9 inches tall, weighing 210 pounds, with gray hair and brown eyes.
The alert was activated by the California Highway Patrol on behalf of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, according to CHP - Alerts, the CHP-run account that disseminates details and flyers for active alerts. Authorities describe Makalo as an at-risk missing person believed to be traveling on foot, and anyone who spots him is asked to call 9-1-1. The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department is represented on social media by the handle @LASDHQ.
The block where Makalo disappeared sits in Westmont, an unincorporated South Los Angeles community policed directly by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's South Los Angeles Station, per LA County Public Health. Because Westmont has no separate municipal police force, deputies from that station are handling the search on the ground.
Why the State Gets Involved
A Silver Alert isn't issued automatically just because someone is reported missing. Under Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department policy 5-09/120.53, investigating deputies must first confirm that local search resources have been exhausted, that the disappearance is unexplained or suspicious, and that the missing person faces peril tied to age, health, or environmental conditions, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Meeting that threshold means deputies formally determined Makalo to be at risk before requesting state help.
Once that request goes through, the California Highway Patrol routes the case through its Emergency Notification and Tactical Alert Center in Sacramento, which coordinates statewide broadcasts through Be-On-The-Lookout notices, Emergency Digital Information Service advisories, social media posts, and electronic flyers, per CalAlerts.org. California's Silver Alert system dates back to 2012 under Senate Bill 1047 and was later expanded in 2014 to cover missing individuals with cognitive or developmental disabilities regardless of age, codified under state law. Nationally, 37 states now run similar formal Silver Alert programs modeled on the federal AMBER Alert system, according to a comparison published on Medium.
What Remains Unknown
It has not been disclosed whether Makalo lives with dementia or another medical condition that might explain his disappearance, nor whether he was wearing a GPS tracking device through the county's L.A. Found program. That initiative, launched in 2018 under the Bringing Our Loved Ones Home program, provides trackable Project Lifesaver bracelets and GPS smartwatches to help law enforcement locate missing residents with Alzheimer's, dementia, or autism, according to the Los Angeles County Aging and Disabilities Department.
Search-and-rescue data cited by the Alzheimer's Association show that people who wander on foot are most often found within 1.5 miles of where they went missing, and that roughly 60% of people living with dementia will wander at least once. Separate academic research from the University of East Anglia found that up to 70% of people with dementia experience a missing incident at some point, often triggered by disorientation in complex urban environments with busy intersections — a description that fits the Westmont corridor where Makalo was last seen.
A Busy Month for Silver Alerts in LA County
Makalo's case adds to a striking run of Silver Alerts across Los Angeles County this month. Hoodline reported this week on searches for 83-year-old Ramiro Herrera, missing on foot in Pacoima, and 88-year-old William Argo, missing on foot in Whittier. Earlier in the month, CHP issued another South Los Angeles alert for 85-year-old Clarence Gilbert, who vanished near West 74th Street and Main Street — just a few miles from where Makalo was last seen.
Additional recent cases include a 67-year-old man reported missing from Pico-Union and two separate Inglewood disappearances involving 78-year-old Jimmy Woods and 77-year-old Ronald Curling. The cluster underscores how frequently vulnerable seniors go missing on foot across the county in a short span, even as each case is investigated individually by the local agency with jurisdiction.
No further updates on Makalo's condition or whereabouts had been released as of Tuesday morning. Anyone with information is urged to call 9-1-1 immediately.
