A convicted child sex offender remained missing in San Diego County as of Sunday, more than two days after his court-mandated GPS monitor was removed and he vanished from a worksite in Rancho Bernardo.
Merle Wakefield, 69, was working at the Rancho Bernardo site when his monitoring device triggered a “Tamper Mode” alert at approximately 3:30 a.m. Friday, according to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office. Supervisors from Liberty Healthcare, the state contractor responsible for overseeing Wakefield, responded to the location and found the device detached and Wakefield nowhere to be found. The company alerted the sheriff’s office and San Diego police.
The sheriff’s office confirmed Sunday it “shares the community’s concerns over Merle Wakefield’s disappearance” and said deputies have “been working diligently to locate him.” The agency is asking anyone with information or sightings to come forward.
Wakefield is now wanted for violating the terms of his conditional release. He was convicted in 1980 and 1991 of lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 and rape by force. He had been living under conditional release in the community since November 2024.
San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond has been among the most vocal critics of the case, posting updates on Facebook as the search continued. “It’s been more than 48 hours since Merle Wakefield took off his GPS monitor and walked away. He’s still out there,” Desmond wrote Sunday, describing Wakefield as “a convicted child molester and violent rapist” and accusing the state of staying silent on his disappearance.
In an earlier post, Desmond noted that Wakefield was already gone by the time supervisors arrived after the tamper alert. “That’s how easy it was,” he wrote. “The state released him into our community in November 2024 and promised he’d be monitored and supervised. Less than two years later, he’s missing and wanted.”
A Placement Fought From the Start
Local officials had objected to Wakefield’s release well before it happened. A San Diego judge granted him a transient release in October 2024 rather than assigning him to a fixed residence — the third attempt to place him somewhere in San Diego County, according to Fox 5/KUSI.
An earlier plan had proposed housing Wakefield in a Poway home near a school and park, which drew organized opposition from residents. Poway Mayor Steve Vaus argued at the time that a transient release without a fixed address would make it harder for the public to track Wakefield’s whereabouts. “It’s a shell game that puts a community at risk,” Vaus told the outlet.
The San Diego County District Attorney’s Office also opposed releasing Wakefield without a fixed residence. Spokesperson Tanya Sierra said the Department of State Hospitals and Liberty Healthcare needed to secure housing that would allow for closer supervision of people on conditional release.
State Sen. Brian Jones raised similar concerns before the release, telling Fox 5/KUSI that Wakefield could end up living on the street or in a hotel at taxpayer expense. “Supposedly, he’s going to have a tracking device,” Jones said at the time. Jones had also pushed for an audit of California’s sexually violent predator program. That audit later found roughly 36% of program participants had violated their release conditions, a figure Jones cited in arguing the state should keep offenders in hospitals rather than release them into communities.
The California Department of State Hospitals has defended the process, telling Fox 5/KUSI that courts — not the department — ultimately decide whether someone designated a sexually violent predator can be conditionally released. The department said its supervision includes GPS monitoring, unannounced home visits and surveillance, and that violations can send someone back to a state hospital. Fox 5/KUSI also reported, prior to the release hearing, that Wakefield’s court order required 24-hour in-person supervision wherever he was housed.
Desmond renewed his objections after news of the disappearance broke. “I’ve fought these placements from day one,” he wrote. “These people do not belong back out in the community. They belong in a state hospital or in jail. As long as Sacramento’s law keeps putting them in our neighborhoods, families are going to keep paying the price.”
Description and Warning
Authorities describe Wakefield as 5 feet, 10 inches tall, weighing 230 pounds, with brown eyes. The sheriff’s office is warning anyone who spots him not to approach or make contact, and to call 911 or local law enforcement immediately.
