A Lassen County Sheriff’s Deputy helps local woman locate her brother who’s been missing for 25 years

Our community should pause for a moment to celebrate the dedication and commitment of Lassen County Sheriff’s Deputy Derek Kennemore who last week helped a local woman locate her brother who’s been missing for 25 years and close a decades old missing person’s case.

According to a statement from the LCSO, the woman called the office Friday, Nov. 22, and told Kennemore she had received an April 2024 USA Today article that included a picture of a man she believed to be her missing brother.

She told Kennemore her brother went missing from Doyle in 1999 and had not been heard from since. The USA Today article requested assistance identifying the man, who had been admitted to a hospital in the Los Angeles, California area.

Kennemore contacted the hospital and was told that the man was transferred to another hospital in July 2024. The man was non-verbal and had never been identified.

Kennemore contacted the second hospital which confirmed it had a non-verbal, unidentified man in its care who matched the description of the missing person.

Kennemore didn’t stop there. He contacted the Los Angeles Police Department Missing Persons Unit, and was put in contact with a detective who responded to the second hospital and fingerprinted the man — positively identifying him as the woman’s missing brother.

Kennemore contacted the woman and informed her that with the assistance of LAPD, the LCSO was able to positively identify the man as her brother.

The family will be reunited soon, and the names have been withheld for family privacy.

According to the statement, “The Lassen County Sheriff’s Office would like to commend Deputy Kennemore on his tenacity with this case. We would also like to thank the Los Angeles Police Department for its assistance in identifying the missing man and closing out this 25-year-old case.”