A 34-year-old South Gate man whose family worried he might be without critical medication has been found safe, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department announced Friday. Sergio Manuel Arozco had last been seen two nights earlier on the 10500 block of San Anselmo Street, prompting deputies to issue an at-risk missing person bulletin and ask the public for help finding him.
Arozco was reported missing after he was last seen at 9:44 p.m. Wednesday, according to a bulletin from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. He is described as a Hispanic man, 5 feet 11 inches tall and 190 pounds, with a bald head and brown eyes, and he was last seen wearing a black hat, a Nike hoodie and shorts. Deputies said he is medication dependent, and his family expressed concern about his well-being. Investigators believed he was traveling in a black 2012 Chevrolet Silverado bearing license plate 33501J1.
Because Arozco's case involved an adult reliant on ongoing medication, it automatically qualified as an “at-risk” missing person case under California Penal Code Section 14215, which covers people who may need medical attention, are mentally impaired, or could be victims of foul play, according to Justia Law. That designation matters procedurally: state law bars agencies from imposing waiting periods before accepting missing person reports, meaning deputies were required to act on the family's report immediately rather than delay.
How LASD's Missing Persons Detail Responded
Under the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's own Policy and Procedures Manual Section 5-09/120.50, deputies handling a missing adult who depends on continuing medical care must notify the Homicide Bureau's Missing Persons Detail and log the case into the National Crime Information Center database within one hour. That centralized unit operates out of 1 Cupania Circle in Monterey Park and coordinates adult missing person investigations across LA County's unincorporated areas and contract cities. The Missing Persons Detail publicly requested help locating Arozco on Wednesday, and the bulletin listed Detective Valenzuela of the LASD Homicide Bureau as the point of contact, with the public asked to call (323) 890-5500 with information.
Because Arozco was believed to be driving, his case also touched on California's Silver Alert framework. Under Government Code Section 8594.10, local agencies can request assistance from the California Highway Patrol and use electronic highway signs to broadcast vehicle details when an at-risk missing adult is thought to be on the road, according to FindLaw. That mechanism is designed to get vehicle descriptions like Arozco's Silverado in front of drivers across California highway corridors quickly.
A Dense Gateway Cities Community on Alert
San Anselmo Street sits in South Gate, an incorporated city of roughly 7.35 square miles in the Gateway Cities region, about seven miles southeast of Downtown Los Angeles and bordered by Huntington Park and Lynwood. The city is home to an estimated 89,500 residents, more than 95 percent of whom identify as Hispanic or Latino, making it one of the more densely populated communities in southeastern LA County. Arozco's case adds to a run of missing person bulletins recently issued by LASD in the surrounding area, including a search for a 70-year-old Huntington Park woman last month and, this same week, an alert for an 11-year-old boy in East Los Angeles — both signs of how frequently the department's Missing Persons Detail works cases across the region.
Statewide, the California Department of Justice's Missing Persons System tracks an average of roughly 25,000 active missing person cases at any given time, and state law requires local agencies to report cases into that database. South Gate has seen this kind of search resolve before: in November 2023, LASD issued a similar public bulletin for a missing South Gate man, later located safe after community tips came in.
What Happens Next
The sheriff's department's Friday update confirming Arozco had been located did not detail the circumstances of how or where he was found, consistent with the department's general practice of withholding personal medical details or exact recovery circumstances to protect the privacy of missing individuals once they are safe. The department thanked the public, media outlets and deputy personnel for their help in the search. Anyone with information on other cases can still reach LASD's Crime Stoppers anonymously at (800) 222-TIPS (8477) or through the website lacrimestoppers.org, and residents can sign up for Nixle alerts or text their zip code to 888777 for urgent LASD notifications. The Sheriff's Information Bureau, headed under Sheriff Robert G. Luna, can be reached at 213-229-1700 for further inquiries.
