Crime & Safety

Family Provides Details About Missing Lake Elsinore Man

Anyone who sees a man matching Craig Staneart's description is asked to contact the Lake Elsinore Sheriff's Station at 951-245-3300 or 951-674-3202.

Family members of a missing Lake Elsinore man who suffers from dementia remain hopeful their loved one will be found soon.

Craig Staneart, 63, has been missing from his Maes Avenue home since Feb. 7 and police have been actively searching for him. (Click here to read about the day he was reported missing.)

Tuesday, a sheriff's department command center was set up at the corner of Lakeshore Drive and Dryden Street as Staneart’s wife of 42 years stayed home in case her husband returned. (Click here to read about today's search.)

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He is described as having brown hair and blue eyes, 6’3”tall weighing about 220 pounds, but his wife said he is likely much thinner today.

“His cheeks would be sunken in and he would have a beard now,” she said, explaining that her husband was on various medications, one designed to keep his appetite up, and she shaved his face daily because his facial hair grew fast and thick.

Find out what's happening in Lake Elsinore-Wildomarwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

He prefers sweets, like chocolate milk, orange soda and candy bars, the family said.

Staneart also wore a medicated patch on his back to keep his mood elevated, Ann said. “The last one I put on him might still be there, or there might be residue if it came off,” she said.

Staneart is a chatty man, but he becomes anxious in crowds and will likely avoid them, his daughter Sarah Nesvold added.

“He will talk your ear off,” she said.

Dara Carrescia is also the Stanearts’ daughter. She described her dad as a fit man who is able to weather harsh conditions.

“He’s a survivalist,” she said.

The Stanearts moved to Lake Elsinore in 1979 from Orange County and have lived in the same house on Maes Street since then, the family said. Craig was a general contractor who about six years ago passed the written and physical tests required to become a Riverside County Sheriff’s Department deputy, Ann said. The dreams were dashed, however, when the signs of dementia started to show.

“It’s so ironic,” Dara said.

Anyone who sees Staneart is asked to contact the Lake Elsinore Sheriff’s Station at 951-245-3300 or 951-674-3202.


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