Missing man's family searches Downey area after hospital release

DOWNEY - The family of a missing San Diego man is searching the Downey area after the man received treatment at a local hospital, officials said.

Larry Everett Starks, a retired San Diego County sheriff's deputy missing for four years, was examined and released last week by a Southern California hospital that was not told he's a missing person.

His daughter, Kiersten Carlin, is searching the Downey area after Starks showed up at a Downey restaurant on Jan. 5 and was taken to the hospital. Starks reportedly said he was a retired deputy looking for his daughter, but didn't have contact information.

He was living in Florida when he went off his schizophrenia medicine and disappeared in December 2007. The San Diego department confirmed Starks was a retired deputy, but hospital staff wasn't told he was a missing person.

- City News Service