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Tampa Police Searching For Missing Man With Schizophrenia

Photo courtesy of Barbara Del Castillo

Police are looking for Gary Wayne Fields, a 49-year-old man with schizophrenia who wandered away from his assisted-living facility.

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By VALERIE KALFRIN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 14, 2007

Updated: 11/14/2007 10:19 pm

TAMPA - More than a year ago, when Gary Wayne Fields wandered away from an assisted-living facility, his mother found him hours later, standing in front of a Wal-Mart.

"I knew you would come get me," he said, according to his mother, Barbara Del Castillo. Fields, 49, who is schizophrenic, has vanished again. Three weeks ago today, he walked away from a Sulphur Springs assisted-living facility. Del Castillo and her relatives haven't heard from him since.

"I'm having nightmares," Del Castillo said. "I keep thinking he's waiting for me somewhere."

Fields is her only son. In addition to schizophrenia, for which he takes medication, he is "somewhat autistic" and has a speech impediment, she said. He has a corrected cleft palate and cleft lip.

"He's deteriorated to the point that I can't keep him at home," said Del Castillo, 67, of Sun City Center. "He's just a very child-like man."

Tampa police classify Fields as a "missing endangered person" because of his medical condition. Police are checking homeless shelters and gathering areas. In addition, police have alerted all officers to keep an eye out for him, police spokeswoman Andrea Davis said.

"They're checking everywhere," Davis said.

Fields left the facility without his wallet, identification and the $30 his mother gave him when she last saw him on Oct. 20. Fields had lived at the Springs Water Assisted Living Facility at 1411 E. Waters Ave. - where he could come and go as he liked - for about a year, his mother said.

State mental-health officials transferred him there after a six-month stay at a facility in Chattahoochee, to give him more of a community environment, Del Castillo said. She had hoped he would have more structure.

"He hears voices. When they tell him to walk away, he'll walk away," she said. "If they tell him not to eat, he won't eat."
Officials at the facility declined to comment today.

Del Castillo said she and her son met every Saturday to go places like Wal-Mart - "It's his favorite store" - the Kmart on North Florida Avenue, Taco Bell and a comic-book store. Since he vanished, she has visited their usual hangouts as well as homeless shelters such as Metropolitan Ministries.

Fields knows her phone number and would call her if he was "functional," she said. She fears his lack of medication might have affected his ability to seek help.

Del Castillo described her son as about 6 feet tall and 150 pounds. He has hazel eyes and brown hair and is possibly unshaven. He was last seen wearing a white T-shirt, blue jeans and tennis shoes.

A photo Del Castillo supplied of her son shows him standing with his mouth open, which she said is how he usually looks. He walks with his arms slack at his sides, she said.

Police asked anyone with information about the man to call (813) 231-6130.

Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800 or vkalfrin@tampatrib.com.

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