Richard Barranco was a 55-year-old male who was last seen in San Luis Obispo, California, on August 1, 2001. Public missing-person listings connected to the case identified him as Richard Barranco, listed his case number as MP101437, and described him as a White/Caucasian male with brown hair and brown eyes. His listed height ranged from approximately 5 feet 5 inches to 5 feet 7 inches, and his listed weight ranged from about 150 to 170 pounds.
Those basic details formed the public framework of the case: a middle-aged man last known to be in San Luis Obispo, with limited information released publicly about the events leading up to his disappearance.
The publicly available online information about Richard’s disappearance is sparse, and the circumstances surrounding the day he was last seen have not been widely detailed in public records. There are no clear online reports describing where in San Luis Obispo he was last observed, who last had contact with him, what he may have been doing at the time, or whether he was believed to be traveling, living locally, or experiencing any specific hardship when he was reported missing. In cases like this, the absence of a broad public narrative can be painful for families and communities, because the missing-person record may preserve the fact of the disappearance without preserving the fuller story of the person’s daily life, relationships, routines, and the immediate concerns that led others to seek help.
California’s missing-person system is maintained as a law-enforcement resource, and the California Department of Justice explains that its missing-person search database contains only a subset of people reported missing by law enforcement in the state. The state also directs anyone with information about a listed missing person to contact the law-enforcement agency connected to the record or the California Department of Justice Missing Persons hotline. That broader system is intended to help agencies compare records, share identifying details, and support the process of locating missing individuals or resolving long-standing cases.
The investigating agency has reported that Richard Barranco was found alive, meaning this is no longer an active missing-person case. Public online information does not appear to provide a clearly documented exact date of recovery or detailed circumstances explaining how or where he was located, so those details should not be assumed. The available record shows that Richard was reported missing from San Luis Obispo in 2001, that public listings preserved identifying information while the case was active, and that the case was ultimately resolved with Richard being found alive. The overview of the case is therefore one of limited public detail but a resolved outcome: Richard Barranco, a 55-year-old man last seen in San Luis Obispo, California, was the subject of a missing-person report, and official reporting later indicated that he was located alive.Last Seen: Aug 1, 2001
