ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – It’s been five days since veteran Joseph “Jerry” Lopez was last seen. His family and the community have been looking for him nonstop since he went missing Wednesday.

The urgent search continues Sunday night. His family is especially concerned because he has dementia, and doesn’t have his medication.

“We’re hoping that my dad is out there, that he’s alive and he’s safe, he has food and water,” said Monique Brown, Jerry’s daughter. 

The 76-year-old veteran was last seen leaving his home on Luna Nuestra NW. 

“He does live by himself. And of course, as we go by every day, we give him medicine and his food and everything. So I’ll just go and buy from my regular checkup at 2:30. And if he’s not there, he’s at his sister’s house, cause it’s a short little walk. So I waited, I went by her house and it had been an hour or two, we just started searching on Wednesday,” said Travis Brown, Jerry’s son-in-law. 

They haven’t stopped searching since, checking around his neighborhood, the Petroglyphs, nearby shelters, and even his childhood home in the South Valley.

“We’ve been sweeping the whole area, and there’s been multiple of us, you know, five, six hours in. No sign, no sign, no nothing. You know, we don’t know where he went. We don’t know if he’s with somebody. If he’s with somebody, please just contact and let us know. Because it’s already been five days,” said Brian Lopez, Jerry’s son. 

The family also explained they’ve had to make calls and do a lot of these searches on their own.

“We did have some compassion yesterday from APD, which was the first time that we had received any type of compassion. Before that, I was personally told that the state does not do Silver Alerts anymore. So trying to get the word out has been extremely frustrating, extremely sad knowing that we have a veteran that served for us and was the Chief Master Sergeant with no type of cooperation from any type of authority figures,” said Chastity Lopez, Jerry’s niece.

They were able to form a search party Sunday with the American Legion. It’s the nation’s largest veteran service organization that has a chapter here in New Mexico.

“American Legion is all about supporting our veterans and our veterans in need. Especially when there’s such an urgent need of finding a lost in the family needs our assistance,” said Richard Anaya, post commander of American Legion Post 49.

If you see Lopez, contact APD’s Missing Persons Unit at 505-924-6000 or call the non-emergency number at (505)-242-COPS.