A sexually violent predator who cut off his GPS and fled last month, prompting a manhunt, has been found dead in a San Diego riverbed in the Talmadge area, sheriff’s officials said Tuesday.
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Someone found the body of Merle Wakefield, 69, in a riverbed near Fairmount Avenue north of Aldine Drive and called San Diego police just after 9:30 a.m. Monday, according to the Sheriff’s Office, which had been leading the search for Wakefield. The area is roughly half a mile south of Montezuma Avenue.
The county Medical Examiner’s Office responded and later positively identified the body as Wakefield. Sheriff’s officials did not say how long Wakefield may have been dead or how he may have died. The Medical Examiner’s Office will perform an autopsy to determine his cause and manner of death.
Citing the active investigation, sheriff’s officials said they would not release further information at this time.
More than four weeks ago, around 3:20 a.m. Sept. 25, Wakefield cut off his GPS while working at an Amazon warehouse in Rancho Bernardo. His device alerted to “tamper mode.”
Security video shows Wakefield get into the passenger side of a white Tesla, according to a Sept. 28 court filing. Roughly 20 minutes after his GPS alerted, a staffer with Liberty Healthcare, which monitored Wakefield while on release, was at the work site; the staffer had planned to drive Wakefield home when his shift ended at 4 a.m.
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The GPS and his cellphone, which was a secure device provided by and monitored by Liberty, were found in bushes. Wakefield’s car and car keys were located at his Campo home.
Wakefield was convicted in 1981 of committing lewd acts with a minor under 14, then convicted in 1990 of rape by means of force, violence or fear, according to the District Attorney’s Office. Following his release from prison in 1998, he was formally designated a sexually violent predator and committed to the Department of State Hospitals for treatment.
Sexually violent predators, or SVPs, have been convicted of a violent sex crime and diagnosed with a mental condition that makes them likely to re-offend. They are court-ordered to live in a state hospital after they serve their prison sentence. It is a civil commitment, not a criminal one. They are considered hospital patients, and law enforcement has no direct involvement.
Wakefield took part in a treatment program and several years later won his bid for conditional release into the community. He had been living — with tight restrictions — in rural East County since late 2024. He was eventually allowed to have a job. His disappearance marked the first time an SVP on conditional release in San Diego County had absconded.
Earlier this month, with Wakefield still missing, the county Board of Supervisors unanimously agreed to oppose proposals from Liberty Healthcare, which the state contracts to monitor SVPs, to place two more sexually violent predators in a Boulevard home. A judge will consider that request Nov. 12.
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