Missing Palmdale Man Dexter Carr, 68, Found Safe After Overnight Search

A 68-year-old Palmdale man with dementia and schizophrenia who vanished from the 6800 block of Evan Street has been found safe, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Dexter Carr was last seen the morning of September 2 and had been classified as an at-risk missing person before deputies located him in Palmdale.

The update came early Friday morning, when a post from LA County Sheriffs confirmed Carr had been found. The account had earlier described Carr, standing six feet tall and weighing 180 pounds, as bald with brown eyes and last wearing a beige or white shirt with black pants. His family had told deputies they were concerned about his well-being after he disappeared, and the department's Missing Persons Unit asked the public for help locating him before his location was confirmed.

A Nixle notification detailing the case had gone out the evening before, at 8:20 p.m. on September 3, roughly a day and a half after Carr was last seen. A special bulletin issued under Sheriff Robert G. Luna described Carr's disappearance as an at-risk case and directed anyone with information to the department's Homicide Bureau Missing Persons Detail. That bulletin listed a contact number of 323-890-5500 for the unit, attention Detective Valenzuela, along with the bureau's Monterey Park address.

Why the Case Moved Fast Through the System

Cases like Carr's move quickly through the department precisely because of the diagnosis involved. Adult missing person cases in LASD jurisdictions, including contract cities like Palmdale, fall under the specialized purview of the department's Missing Persons Detail, which is housed within the Homicide Bureau in Monterey Park, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Under California Penal Code § 14211, law enforcement agencies cannot impose any waiting period before taking a missing person report and must prioritize such searches over property crime investigations, per FindLaw. The same statute's subsection (e) requires agencies to electronically transmit at-risk missing person reports to state and national databases within two hours of receiving them.

Carr's case also reflects a medical reality that shapes how urgently these searches unfold. Roughly 60 percent of people living with dementia or memory loss will wander away from home or caregivers at least once during their illness, according to data from the Alzheimer's Impact Movement. Public safety and health research further shows that up to half of missing individuals with cognitive impairments who wander on foot are not located within 24 hours suffer serious injury or death, underscoring why deputies treat these cases as urgent life-safety emergencies.

A Dual Diagnosis Adds Medical Complexity

Carr's diagnosis of both dementia and schizophrenia touches on a broader clinical challenge facing geriatric care. A study published in JAMA Psychiatry found that prescriptions for antipsychotic medications, the primary treatment for schizophrenia, increased among U.S. adults 65 and older between 2015 and 2024, even though the FDA maintains black-box warnings about elevated mortality risks when such drugs are given to elderly dementia patients, according to research highlighted by Rutgers University.

Carr's disappearance and recovery fits into a broader pattern this summer in Palmdale, where the LASD Palmdale Station has handled a string of at-risk missing person cases in late August and early September. Those included a Silver Alert for 67-year-old Cheryl Griffin and missing person advisories for teenagers Josalynn Mendez and Lina Khachatryan, cases Hoodline previously covered here.

Anyone with information related to at-risk missing person cases can contact the Sheriff's Homicide Bureau's Missing Persons Unit at (323) 890-5500, or reach Crime Stoppers anonymously at (800) 222-TIPS (8477). The department's non-emergency line is 213-229-1700, and residents can sign up for urgent text alerts by texting their zip code to 888777. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is headquartered at 211 West Temple Street in Los Angeles.