Missing for month, family of blind Natomas man takes appeal to Sacramento police
A month after Lovett Moore vanished from a Natomas gas station, his family’s search has only grown more urgent — and calls for help from authorities have intensified.
Days after Moore’s family, friends and concerned volunteers searched Sacramento neighborhoods, fields and shopping centers looking for the missing blind and disabled Natomas man they returned Tuesday to Sacramento Police Department headquarters searching for answers.
Moore’s mother and brother were among those clutching hand-drawn signs Tuesday outside the agency’s Freeport Boulevard headquarters, calling again for Sacramento police to ramp up their search for the man missing for a month.
“Sac PD. Do your job. Bring LJ home,” one sign read, referring to Moore’s nickname. “Lovett Moore. Missing 30 days. Sac PD has failed to do their job,” read another. A hand-written sign carried by Moore’s mother, Pamela Matthews, read simply: “Justice for LJ.”
The 33-year-old Moore, last seen in the early hours of June 28 at an Arena Boulevard Aisle 1 convenience store in Natomas, remains missing with few clues into his disappearance, despite public appeals from family and missing persons alerts from Sacramento police.
Lovett Moore is 5-foot-6 and 140 pounds. He was last wearing a long-sleeve green polo shirt and black shorts. He had a large burn bandage on his left leg, family said.
On July 20, some 50 people, including Moore’s family from Sacramento and the Bay Area, marshaled a search party in the Natomas shopping center where Moore was last seen.
“Just bring him home,” Moore’s mother, Pamela Matthews, said July 20 in an anguished public plea for her son’s safe return.
Family members say investigators have been slow to follow up on leads family and advocates provided in Sacramento and the Bay Area, and have yet to request security footage from neighboring businesses in the Arena Boulevard shopping center where Moore was last seen or commit more resources to a search.
“Nobody is taking this seriously. They’re supposed to serve and protect,” said Moore’s brother, Johnny Tillis, as family and friends drew posters from a parking lot across the street from the police station.
“That leaves the family to question everything,” said Leia Schenk, of the Sacramento community advocacy EMPACT, who led the mass July 20 search effort. “We’re trying to give (information) to you to do your job. The family is not going to stop. They want answers and they deserve regular communication.
“The family’s depending on you all.”
Sacramento Police Department investigators are working the missing persons case and have talked with Moore’s family, department officials said. But updates, delivered on the department’s social media platforms, have been sparse.
The latest update was a statement on Monday: “The Sacramento Police Department continues to actively work to locate LJ and investigate this case,” department officials said, using Moore’s nickname. “We urge the community to contact our department immediately if you have any information about LJ’s whereabouts.”
Moore is also listed in the state Department of Justice’s missing person database, alerting other agencies to his disappearance.
Anyone with information is urged to call Sacramento Police Department dispatchers at 916-808-5471.
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