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Police probing other missing person cases across North County

Police across North County are reviewing missing person cases this week after the recent discoveries of two missing teens in separate shallow graves, officials said Tuesday.

Given those grim finds, Escondido police Chief Jim Maher said his department needs to further probe the disappearance of a 71-year-old Escondido woman who vanished a year and a half ago.

Sheila Lopes, who suffered from Alzheimer's disease, wandered away from her Escondido home at the Emerald Heights subdivision in August 2008. She hasn't been seen since, despite extensive terrain searches and numerous fliers posted about her disappearance.

Lopes is one of more than 20 missing people last seen in North County. Many vanished on their own, other cases remain a mystery, according to a state list of missing persons.

Lopes had wandered from her home twice before, family said in 2008.

"In light of what's happened in the last two weeks, I think we need to take another look at that. She's another missing female," Maher said after his speech in front of the Escondido Rotary Club on Tuesday.

A body believed to be Chelsea King's, 17, of Poway, and the skeletal remains of Amber Dubois, 14, of Escondido, were found in recent days. Registered sex offender John Albert Gardner III, 30, was arrested and charged with murder in Chelsea's case. Escondido police said Monday that Gardner is "a focus" of the probe into Amber's death.

Speaking after a court hearing Tuesday for Gardner in San Diego, Amber's father, Moe Dubois, asked the public to focus its efforts on another missing North County teen: Mickey James Guidry, 16, who was last seen in San Marcos on Nov. 25, 2009. The boy is listed as a "runaway juvenile" by the California Office of the Attorney General's state list of missing people.

Police in Carlsbad and Oceanside said Tuesday they've started checking missing persons files to see if there are any similarities between them and those of Chelsea or Amber.

"Certainly, we're reviewing everything," said Lynn Diamond, spokeswoman for the Carlsbad Police Department. "I think all departments are."

"We have someone going through all of those (missing person cases) to see if there's anything we need to be alarmed about," added Oceanside police Sgt. Jeff Brandt, spokesman for that agency.

San Diego County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Jan Caldwell said she would ask department officials whether she was authorized to speak about that topic. She did not call back.

Family members for Lopes, the missing Escondido woman, could not be reached Tuesday.

The initial search for Lopes was led by the Sheriff's Department and its volunteer search and rescue team. It started the day she disappeared and lasted four days.

Dogs, helicopters, police officers, residents and volunteers from five counties scoured challenging terrain around the 700-home Emerald Heights development where she lived.

In an e-mail shortly after a subsequent search in 2008, Paul Menth, Lopes' son-in-law said:

"We watched as the sheriff's helicopter swept the entire community ... about 100 feet (above) the scrub brush. He could not possibly miss spotting Sheila."

Missing from North County

The California Office of the Attorney General lists 88 missing people in San Diego County. A wide range of categories is used to describe their vanishing, from "stranger abduction" to "runaway juvenile" to "unknown circumstances."

The list below includes people who were last seen in North County. It includes their name, age when they went missing, the city or town where they were last seen, the date they vanished and the category assigned to their disappearance:

-- Jazmin Arevalo, 13, Oceanside, Sept. 26, 2006; runaway juvenile;

-- Ryan Sergio Ballew, 15, Valley Center, March 24, 2007; runaway juvenile;

-- Jeffrey Paul Bohl, 43, Pauma Valley, Feb. 27, 2005; voluntary missing adult;

-- Nancy Ann Crouch, 59, Poway, June 10, 1998; voluntary missing adult;

-- Douglas Alan Davis, 39, San Marcos, March 21, 1995; voluntary missing adult;

-- Mickey James Guidry, 16, San Marcos, Nov. 25, 2009; runaway juvenile;

-- Gary Lee Humphrey, 50, Warner Springs, Feb. 25, 1991; suspicious circumstances;

-- George Harry Lachance, 61, Escondido, Nov. 28, 1995; unknown circumstances;

-- Sheila Ann Lopes, 71, Escondido, Aug. 27, 2008; dependant adult;

-- Hector Javier Lopez-Ruiz, 20, Vista, Oct. 15, 1997; voluntary missing adult;

-- David Matecki, 32, Oceanside, Aug. 9, 1995; voluntary missing adult;

-- McStay family: Joseph Sr., 41; Summer, 44; Gianni, 4; Joseph Mateo, 3; Fallbrook, Feb. 1, 2010; unknown circumstances;

-- Alan Joseph Olds, 36, Warner Springs, Oct. 28, 1995; voluntary missing adult;

-- Mary E. Rico, 50, Oceanside, April 2, 1992; unknown circumstances;

-- Elaina Eugenia Rivera, 13, Ramona, June 26, 1987; unknown circumstances;

-- Julio Sagredo Sagredo, 33, Oceanside, June 11, 2004; voluntary missing adult;

-- Jordan Reed Smith, 25, Cardiff, April 25, 1994; voluntary missing adult;

-- Maribel Valdez, 35, Vista, Feb. 11, 2000; voluntary missing adult; and

-- Denise Abigail Vasseur, 31, Sept. 22, 2000; suspicious circumstances.

Call staff writer Chris Nichols at 760-740-5426.

http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/sdcounty/article_965d125e-d067-503f-a68c-f38ad22aa26d.html