Man, 86, Disappears on Trip to Mexico

A Simi Valley man and his brothers and sisters are searching for their 86-year-old father, who has been missing since he left his Fillmore home to visit Mexico in mid-October.

David Perez of Simi Valley said the last time he or anyone in his family saw his father--Francisco Robles Perez--was when Perez dropped the elderly man off in downtown Fillmore on Oct. 17 to meet a bus that would carry him to Los Angeles.

Francisco Perez, a U.S. citizen who has lived in Fillmore since he was a young man, has traveled to Mexico alone by bus about six times, Perez said.

But Perez said his father always returned after two or three weeks.

This time, after the elder Perez had been gone two weeks, one of David Perez’s brothers reported his father missing. Besides calling police, family members have contacted the American Embassy in Mexico and called officials in Chihuahua, Torreon and Zacatecas--the three cities where Francisco Perez had planned to visit.

So far they have not heard from anyone who has seen him.

Francisco Perez has not been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease or any other condition that may cause him to forget where he lives, David Perez said.

On the day he left Fillmore he was wearing a maroon sweater over a thermal undershirt, checked navy-blue and white pants, dark shoes, a navy-blue baseball cap and sunglasses. He walks with a cane.

The family is offering a reward for information that helps them find Perez.

Family members are asking that anyone with knowledge of Francisco Perez’s whereabouts call the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department at 654-2355 or David Perez at 526-6293.