Merle Wakefield, a 69-year-old sexually violent predator, removed his GPS monitor and vanished from a Rancho Bernardo warehouse Friday, Sept. 25.

The San Diego County Sheriff's Office said Wakefield is wanted for violating the terms of his conditional release. The alert covers all of San Diego County, and law enforcement agencies across the region are searching for him.

Wakefield's GPS alerted to "tamper mode" at about 3:30 a.m. while he was working at the warehouse, according to the Sheriff's Office. Staff from Liberty Health Care (LHC), the company that supervises him under California's Conditional Release Program, responded and found the device removed and Wakefield gone.

He remains at large.

LHC notified both the Sheriff's Office and the San Diego Police Department. Sheriff's Lt. Aloha Peters told the San Diego Union-Tribune that Wakefield had been living in Campo and working at the Rancho Bernardo warehouse. The Union-Tribune reported the incident marks the first time a sexually violent predator in San Diego County has removed a GPS device and gone missing.

Wakefield was convicted of lewd acts with a minor and rape by force, according to the Sheriff's Office. He was released from prison in 1998 and formally designated a sexually violent predator, then committed to the Department of State Hospitals for treatment, the Union-Tribune reported.

Sexually violent predators have been convicted of a violent sex crime and diagnosed with a mental condition that makes them likely to reoffend, the Union-Tribune reported. They represent less than 1% of the state's sexual offender population.

Wakefield has been on conditional release since November 2024. When he won that release in late 2024, no housing could initially be found, and he was ordered released as a transient with round-the-clock supervision, the Union-Tribune reported. Authorities later placed him in a home in Jacumba Hot Springs.

The Department of State Hospitals said privacy laws prevent it from commenting on current or former patients but said people in the program are GPS-monitored in real time, the Union-Tribune reported. When someone absconds, protocols call for notifying law enforcement, the local district attorney, state Department of Justice, state parole officials and the superior court.

Wakefield stands 5 feet 10 inches tall, weighs 230 pounds and has brown eyes.

The Sheriff's Office warned the public not to approach or contact Wakefield. Anyone who sees him should call 911 or their local law enforcement agency.