Family organizes search party to look for former high school teacher and coach
A former Shadow Hills High School teacher who recently moved to Winchester hasn’t been heard from since May 4. Now his family is asking the community to help search for Alfredo Rodriguez, 45, of Winchester.
“I just need my husband back. I need my husband back,” said Angelina Rodriguez to a group of family and volunteers in La Quinta to get posters with Alfredo Rodriguez picture.
The two had been married for almost 20 years and have two children together.
More than a 10 days ago, Alfredo went missing from their home in Winchester, a town just west of Hemet. The family had recently moved from Indio where Alfredo was a teacher and coach for Shadow Hills High School as well as other schools.
“This is familiar ground. My husband help coach my sons baseball team, my kids grew up in the park playing here in the desert for the last 10 years,” said Angelina Rodriguez.
Angelina remembers the morning her husband went missing. She said he walked her out to her car like he normally did when she left for work. He said he wasn’t feeling well.
Angelina said her husband was having trouble sleeping. A few days before he went missing he started taking a generic perception version of Ambien.
Alfredo’s son Andrew said his father also recently started dealing with depression.
“He was very depressed but it wasn’t to the point where he would leave. He would come up to my room and we would talk and he would be depressed and he would snap out of it because we would just talk it out,” Andrew Rodriguez said.
Family members say the police have searched Alfredo’s phone and have not found any evidence that he ran off with someone else. He also left his home without his keys or wallet.
“He is a strong guy. He’s a guy you can depend on, he’s a leader. He takes care of children and adults. He’s a solid man,” said Hal Williams, a long time friend of the family.
The family is organizing a search party with a simple but smart system. Having people take hundreds of fliers and write down in a notebook where they were putting them up.
Friends and family say there is a good chance Alfredo is still out there. Dogs searching around their neighborhood lost his scent at a highway and they think he could have been picked up in a car.
“Fredo if you see this message or see this on TV or wherever you are at, we just want to let you know how hard we are looking for you. Please just let someone call us and let us know that you are alive and safe,” said Mike Bozanich, Alfredo’s brother-in-law.
Anyone with any information is asked to contact the Riverside County Sheriffs Department at (951) 973-9308.
JOE GALLI IS ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER @JOEGALLINEWS.
