A 15-year-old East Los Angeles boy who depends on daily medication to manage his epilepsy has been missing since Thursday afternoon, and deputies are circulating his photo while urging anyone with information to come forward. Aureliano Isaias Yepez was last seen around 3:30 p.m. in the 1100 block of Vancouver Avenue, according to the Sheriff's Information Bureau.
Yepez is Latino, stands 5 feet 6 inches tall, and weighs about 160 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes, as reported by MyNewsLA.com. He was last seen wearing a black shirt, black shorts, black Jordan shoes, and earrings. Because Vancouver Avenue sits in an unincorporated pocket of Los Angeles County, patrol and investigative duties there fall to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department through its East Los Angeles Sheriff's Station rather than a city police force, per the department's own description of its jurisdiction.
That detail matters for how the case is being handled. Under California Penal Code Section 14215(b), a missing person is classified as “at-risk” if they need medical attention, are mentally or physically impaired, or have no history of running away — a designation that applies directly to Yepez given his reliance on daily anti-seizure medication, per California POST training standards.
Why the Medication Timeline Is So Urgent
Missing scheduled doses of anti-seizure medication is the single most common trigger for breakthrough seizures and can lead to status epilepticus, a life-threatening emergency involving continuous seizures lasting longer than five minutes, according to the Epilepsy Foundation. That medical reality places a hard clock on efforts to find Yepez beyond the usual urgency of any missing-child case.
State law reinforces that urgency on the procedural side. California Penal Code Section 14211 bars law enforcement from imposing any waiting period before taking a missing person report and requires at-risk juvenile cases to be entered into state and national databases within two hours, according to the California Department of Justice. Under the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's own Manual of Policy and Procedures, Section 4-16/020.00, deputies taking a report involving a medical condition requiring daily medication must immediately notify the department's Homicide Bureau Missing Persons Detail by phone.
What Comes Next if Yepez Isn't Found Soon
Department policy lays out an escalating timeline for cases that aren't quickly resolved. Section 5-09/120.04 of the LASD manual requires station detectives to hand-deliver a written bulletin with a photograph to a missing minor's school within 10 days, instructing staff to notify police immediately if anyone requests the student's records. If a missing child remains unlocated after 30 days, Section 5-09/120.03 requires detectives to collect dental records, X-rays, and photos to cross-reference against unidentified cases at the county Medical Examiner's office.
Separately, California Government Code Section 8594.11 allows local agencies to ask the California Highway Patrol to issue a statewide Endangered Missing Advisory when an at-risk person faces physical peril tied to age or a medical condition — a broader tool than the Amber Alert system, which is reserved for confirmed child abductions. It remains unknown whether that advisory has been requested in Yepez's case.
Cases like this are not uncommon in sheer volume: California agencies field more than 80,000 missing juvenile reports a year, and state DOJ benchmark data shows the vast majority are resolved through rapid location or safe return. Yepez's case joins a string of recent LASD-led searches in the region, including Hoodline's coverage of a missing 14-year-old boy in nearby Commerce and a Lawndale teen reported missing in August.
Anyone with information on Yepez's whereabouts is asked to contact the LASD Missing Persons Detail at (323) 890-5500. Tipsters who wish to remain anonymous can call L.A. Regional Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-8477 or submit information through lacrimestoppers.org.
