The device went off around 3:30 a.m. Friday, according to the San Diego County Sheriff's Office. Liberty Healthcare, the state contractor responsible for supervising Wakefield, sent supervisors to check on him and found the monitor removed with Wakefield nowhere to be found. The company then alerted the sheriff's office and San Diego police, kicking off a weekend-long search that turned up no sign of him.
The sheriff's office said Sunday it "shares the community's concerns over Merle Wakefield's disappearance," acknowledging the fear a case like this stirs up in the neighborhoods where he was supposed to be tracked around the clock. A man classified as a sexually violent predator is now unaccounted for. Police have not said where he might have gone or whether they have any leads on his location.
A device built to catch tampering in real time still left investigators two days behind him.