A Silver Alert covering four Southern California counties for a missing 60-year-old Long Beach man has been called off after Sanders vanished on foot from a neighborhood near East 36th Street and Walnut Avenue. Kerry Sanders was located, according to the California Highway Patrol, which announced the alert's deactivation Tuesday.
A Search Comes to a Close
The CHP - Alerts
account, which the agency uses to disseminate flyers and updates for active alerts, posted the news Tuesday: “This alert has been deactivated. The subject has been located.” Sanders had last been seen on July 14, 2026, at approximately 9 a.m. in Long Beach, according to
a Patch report.
, which first reported his disappearance back in July. Sanders was described as 5 feet 7 inches tall, weighing 155 pounds, with gray hair and brown eyes, and was believed to be on foot, last wearing a gray jacket, black pants, and black-and-white shoes.
What is not clear from official public notices is where Sanders spent those two months or what circumstances led to his eventual recovery. The CHP's announcement confirms only that he has been located, without detailing the how or where.
Why Riverside County Requested a Long Beach Alert
Though Sanders disappeared from Long Beach, a city within Los Angeles County, the Silver Alert was activated by the CHP. The alert ultimately covered Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Orange counties.
That kind of cross-jurisdictional cooperation runs through the state's alert system. All statewide missing-person broadcasts — Silver, AMBER, Blue, Ebony, and Feather alerts alike — are coordinated through the California Highway Patrol's 24-hour Emergency Notification and Tactical Alert Center in Sacramento, according to the California Highway Patrol. Once activated, a Silver Alert can involve electronic flyers and changeable message signs.
The Legal Threshold for a Silver Alert
California's Silver Alert framework, established under Government Code Section 8594.10, lets law enforcement request a statewide broadcast through CHP when a missing person is 65 or older, or cognitively or developmentally impaired, and determined to be in peril after local resources have been exhausted, according to FindLaw. The law is the statutory basis for the framework. For at-risk adults who fall outside those strict Silver Alert parameters, the Silver Alert framework does not apply.
Once a missing-person report comes in, local departments must accept such reports without delay under Penal Code Section 14211.
A Pattern of Searches Across Long Beach
Sanders' case is similar to another recent missing-person search in Long Beach. Hoodline previously reported on a disoriented 74-year-old missing in the city. Nearby Lakewood and Inglewood have seen their own recent Silver Alerts this month, while Sanders' alert covered multiple Southern California counties.
Missing-person cases are filed statewide. The state's Silver Alert program is used to help locate missing people.
