A 49-year-old veteran from Hales Corners hasn't been seen since he walked out of his home on Wednesday morning, and a Green Alert is now active statewide as police try to track him down. Thomas Balgord was last seen leaving his residence around 10:30 a.m., telling someone he planned to stay at a hotel. Two days later, a friend received a concerning message from him, and he hasn't been heard from since.
According to FOX6 News Milwaukee, which received information from the Hales Corners Police Department, the friend's message arrived on Friday and immediately raised alarm about Balgord's safety. CBS 58 reports that the two-day gap between Balgord stating his hotel plan on Wednesday and the alarming message Friday is what pushed the case from a quiet departure into an active law enforcement search. Police describe Balgord as a white male standing 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighing 225 pounds, with brown, balding hair and blue eyes.
Balgord is also identifiable by several tattoos: one on his right arm reading “heart breaker life taker,” one on his left arm reading “us infantry ‘95-’96” alongside a skull, a chest tattoo, and a shoulder tattoo of a dragon. He was last seen driving a red 2025 Jeep Grand Cherokee. CBS 58 reports the SUV carries military-designated Wisconsin license plates bearing the registration G04RMY.
Why Wisconsin Has a Dedicated Alert for Missing Veterans
The Green Alert issued for Balgord draws on a system Wisconsin built specifically for cases like his. Wisconsin was the first state in the nation to pass Green Alert legislation, enacting the Corey Adams Searchlight Act in March 2018 under 2017 Wisconsin Act 175 to create a public alert framework for missing veterans with service-related health conditions, according to the Wisconsin Department of Justice's Wisconsin Crime Alert Network. Under state guidelines, the alert can be broadcast when a report is filed within 72 hours of a veteran's disappearance if that person is known to have a service-related physical or mental health condition.
The law is named for Corey Adams, a 45-year-old Air Force veteran who went missing in Milwaukee in March 2017 and was found dead 18 days later, after law enforcement was initially unable to launch a search because he did not meet existing alert criteria at the time, per Military.com. Between the system's 2018 launch and September 2021, two dozen Green Alerts were issued statewide, and 92 percent of those missing veterans — all but two — were located and returned safely, according to testimony from the VFW. Wisconsin's model has since spread, with Delaware adopting a similar system in 2018 and Indiana following in 2024, while federal lawmakers have introduced the National Green Alert Act to expand the concept nationwide.
A Recent Local Precedent
Milwaukee County has seen this system work before. Hoodline previously reported that local law enforcement issued a statewide Green Alert in April for 55-year-old military veteran Jason Janczak, who was subsequently located safe. That case offers some reassurance for Balgord's family and friends as the search continues, though every missing-person case carries its own uncertainties.
National data underscores why these alerts carry urgency. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has reported that approximately 20 veterans die by suicide each day in the United States, with veterans accounting for nearly 19 percent of all suicides nationally despite representing less than 9 percent of the population. That context is part of why Wisconsin built a rapid-response alert system specifically for veterans with service-related health conditions, rather than relying solely on standard missing-person protocols.
Several details remain unknown in Balgord's case, including his specific military branch and service background, the destination or hotel he intended to visit when he left home, and the exact content of the message that alarmed his friend on Friday. The Hales Corners Police Department is asking anyone with information about Balgord's whereabouts to call 414-423-2121.
