Police Seek Missing Man, 68

Police and family stepped up the search Tuesday for a 68-year-old Santa Ana man who hasn’t been heard from since he left home Friday morning.

Mario Rodriguez Hernandez, a retired jewelry broker, told his caregiver that he would return before lunch from an appointment when he left Town and Country Village mobile home park at 5th Street and Harbor Boulevard at 8 a.m. Friday, said his granddaughter, Nancy Rodriguez.

Rodriguez didn’t return home that morning or answer his cell phone. At 1 p.m., his caregiver called Rodriguez’s daughter, who called police, Nancy Rodriguez said.

“It’s not like him,” said Nancy Rodriguez, 25. “He never turns his cell phone off and he doesn’t like to miss calls at all.”

Nancy Rodriguez said her grandfather, who has a heart condition and walks with a cane, left the house every morning and returned before lunch most days. He would walk around the mobile home park and offer neighbors his help, go to church or drive friends or neighbors who couldn’t drive to wherever they needed to go.

“He always wanted to be helpful to everybody,” she said. “He would go to church and every person there knows him and would talk to him.”

Before he left, Rodriguez would call Nancy Rodriguez’s elder sister, Adriana, to let her know his plans for the day. On Friday, he’d called Adriana, 28, and invited her to lunch.

Nancy Rodriguez said the family didn’t know what type of appointment Rodriguez had or where it was.

Santa Ana police declined to say whether there had been any activity on Rodriguez’s credit cards or bank accounts.

He is described as 5 feet 6, about 150 pounds, with black hair, brown eyes, a mustache and glasses. His vehicle is a 1993 blue Mazda MPV with California license plate 3EKC839.

Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to call the Santa Ana Police Department at (714) 245-8665.