A twice-convicted sex offender remains at large more than two days after removing his state-issued GPS monitor and walking away from a Rancho Bernardo worksite, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office said.
Merle Wakefield, 69, was working at the site around 3:30 a.m. Friday when his device triggered a “Tamper Mode” alert, according to the sheriff’s office. Liberty Healthcare, the state contractor responsible for supervising him, sent staff to the location and found the monitor discarded and Wakefield gone. The company alerted the sheriff’s office and San Diego police.
The sheriff’s office said Sunday it “shares the community’s concerns over Merle Wakefield’s disappearance” and is still searching for him, asking anyone with information or sightings to come forward.
Wakefield was convicted in 1980 and 1991 of lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 and rape by force. He has been on conditional release since November 2024 and is now wanted for violating the terms of that release.
A Placement Officials Fought From the Start
San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond said the state had failed to protect the public despite promises of close monitoring.
“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 on Facebook, describing Wakefield as “a convicted child molester and violent rapist” and accusing the state of staying silent about his disappearance.
In an earlier post, Desmond wrote: “That’s how easy it was. 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 San Diego judge granted Wakefield transient release in October 2024, rather than assigning him to a fixed residence, in what Fox 5/KUSI reported was the third attempt to place him in San Diego County. An earlier plan would have housed him in Poway near a school and park, drawing organized opposition from residents. Poway Mayor Steve Vaus fought that placement and warned that releasing Wakefield without a fixed address would make it harder for the public to track his whereabouts.
“It’s a shell game that puts a community at risk,” Vaus told Fox 5/KUSI at the time.
The San Diego County District Attorney’s Office also opposed the transient release, citing concerns about inadequate monitoring. DA spokesperson Tanya Sierra said the Department of State Hospitals and Liberty Healthcare needed to secure suitable housing that would allow for close supervision.
State Sen. Brian Jones warned Wakefield could end up on the streets or in a taxpayer-funded hotel, noting only that “supposedly, he’s going to have a tracking device.” Jones had separately pushed for an audit of California’s sexually violent predator program, which found roughly 36% of participants had violated release terms. He has argued sexually violent predators should remain in state hospitals rather than be placed in communities.
The California Department of State Hospitals told Fox 5/KUSI that courts, not the department, ultimately decide whether a sexually violent predator can be conditionally released, and that its supervision program relies on GPS monitoring, unannounced home visits and surveillance, with violations sending offenders back to a state hospital. Fox 5/KUSI also reported that Wakefield’s court order required 24-hour in-person supervision wherever he stayed.
Desmond renewed his objections after Wakefield’s disappearance became public.
“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.”
The sheriff’s office describes Wakefield as 5-foot-10, 230 pounds, with brown eyes. Anyone who spots him is asked not to approach him but to call 911 or local law enforcement.
