San Antonio police are searching for a 66-year-old man last seen nearly four weeks ago at a busy West Side intersection, and investigators say they believe he is in danger. Joe Gonzalez Munoz Jr. was last in contact on August 12, when he was seen near the intersection of Bandera Road and General McMullen Drive, according to the San Antonio Police Department.
The gap between that last sighting and the public alert is notable. As reported by KSAT, SAPD is now asking the public for help locating Munoz, and according to KENS 5, nearly four weeks passed between his last known sighting and when police issued the public missing persons advisory seeking community assistance.
Munoz is described as 5 feet 7 inches tall with black hair mixed with gray and brown eyes. He has a scar on his right eyebrow and another on the back of his neck, and he is right-handed. The same KENS 5 report notes he weighs approximately 180 pounds, though police say they do not have a description of the clothing he was wearing when he disappeared.
A Heavily Traveled Corner of the West Side
The spot where Munoz was last seen is no quiet side street. The intersection of Bandera Road and General McMullen Drive sits along Texas State Highway Spur 421 near Woodlawn Lake, and an Express-News feature describes the corridor as a major commercial and transit hub on San Antonio's West Side. That heavy foot and vehicle traffic could mean more potential witnesses, but it also complicates efforts to trace Munoz's movements after he was last seen there.
Anyone with information about Munoz's whereabouts is urged to contact SAPD's Missing Person Unit at 210-207-7660. The unit operates 24 hours a day out of SAPD Headquarters at 315 South Santa Rosa Avenue and handles both adult missing person cases and juvenile runaways, per the City of San Antonio.
Why No Statewide Alert Has Been Issued
Munoz's case has not triggered a statewide emergency alert, and the reasons come down to strict legal criteria rather than any lack of urgency from investigators. A Texas Silver Alert for a missing senior aged 65 or older requires formal medical documentation signed by a physician confirming an impaired mental condition, along with a request filed within 72 hours of the disappearance, according to guidance from Alzheimer's Texas. Texas's CLEAR Alert program, meanwhile, covers endangered adults aged 18 to 64 and carries the same 72-hour filing window, per criteria reported by CBS 19.
Both programs are built for a narrow window that had long since closed by the time Munoz's case became public. Without a qualifying medical diagnosis submitted within those first three days, cases like his rely on local police bulletins and media coverage to generate leads rather than statewide highway signs and broadcast alerts.
No Waiting Period to File a Report
Some residents mistakenly believe police make families wait before accepting a missing person report, but that is not the case in San Antonio. There is no mandatory waiting period required before filing or initiating a missing person report with local law enforcement, according to the City of San Antonio.
The volume of such cases is significant. Local law enforcement agencies across San Antonio receive an average of nine missing person reports every day, per a December 2024 investigation by the San Antonio Report. Statewide, 40,309 missing person reports were filed across Texas in 2025, with adults aged 18 and older accounting for roughly 30% of all filings, according to statistics compiled by the Texas Center for the Missing. Neighboring Bexar County has responded to its own backlog by allocating $370,000 to establish a specialized Missing Persons Unit addressing nearly 600 open cases, the San Antonio Report also found.
Munoz's disappearance is the latest in a string of recent missing adult cases on San Antonio's West Side and beyond. Hoodline previously reported on a 28-year-old woman who vanished from a Far West Side home earlier this month, and on a search for a missing San Antonio woman with a medical condition. Anyone with information on Munoz's whereabouts is encouraged to reach out to SAPD's Missing Person Unit.
