Sheriff’s office seeks public’s help locating missing at-risk Templeton man

A Templeton man is missing, and the people who know this stretch of the Central Coast best — neighbors, hikers, vineyard workers, commuters on Highway 101 — may hold the clue that brings him home.

The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office is asking for the public's help locating Chad Corpuz, 37, who was last seen on the morning of Tuesday, June 16, walking away from his residence in the 1200 block of Bennett Way in Templeton. As of Friday, June 20, he had not been found, according to the Paso Robles Daily News.

What We Know: A Man Walks Away

The details of Corpuz's disappearance carry a quiet, unsettling weight. According to the Sheriff's Office, he was last seen at approximately 11 a.m. on June 16, leaving on foot from his Bennett Way home. He left behind three things that people rarely go far without: his cell phone, his vehicle, and his dog. He did not show up to work the following day, June 17.

It wasn't until Thursday, June 19 — three days after he was last seen — that deputies responded to a missing person report on Bennett Way, CalCoastNews reported. That two-day gap underscores how quietly someone can vanish from a small community before an alarm is formally raised.

The Sheriff's Office has classified Corpuz as an at-risk missing person. Officials say they believe he may be experiencing a mental health crisis — a designation that signals urgency and shapes the nature of the search.

Who Is Chad Corpuz?

Corporuz is described as a White and Filipino male, 5 feet 6 inches tall, weighing approximately 200 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. KSBY reported he was last seen wearing a dark-colored hat, a blue shirt, and long dark shorts — everyday summer clothes that offer little protection from the elements if he has been sleeping outdoors during the warm June nights in the inland hills around Templeton and Paso Robles.

Beyond those physical details, what the public record shows is a 37-year-old man with ties to a job and a home and a dog — the ordinary architecture of a life — who walked away from all of it one Tuesday morning.

A Tight-Knit Community on Alert

Templeton sits just south of Paso Robles on the 101 corridor, a small unincorporated community of oak-studded hills, ranch land, and quiet residential streets. Bennett Way, where Corpuz lived, is in that familiar fabric of neighborhood Templeton that locals know well. The area is surrounded by open space — creek corridors, vineyards, hillside trails — that could shelter someone traveling on foot but also complicate a search.

Missing person cases involving suspected mental health crises are not unheard of in San Luis Obispo County. The terrain between Templeton and Paso Robles — with its dry summer hills, creek beds, and agricultural corridors — can make foot travel both possible and perilous, especially as Central Coast temperatures climb in June.

SLO County has resources in place for moments like this one. The county's Behavioral Health Community Action Team (BHCAT) is a partnership that pairs behavioral health staff with law enforcement officers who have specific mental health training, according to the SLO County Behavioral Health Department. That kind of coordinated response is exactly what cases like Corpuz's call for — a missing person in distress is not the same as a missing person who is simply lost.

If You See Him: How to Help

Anyone in the Paso Robles, Templeton, or broader North County area who may have seen a man matching Corpuz's description — a 5'6" man in a dark hat, blue shirt, and dark shorts, traveling on foot — is urged to contact the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office immediately at (805) 781-4550.

Think broadly: vineyard crews, delivery drivers, trail users at Templeton Park or along the Salinas River, morning walkers, anyone who may have noticed someone walking alone along a rural road in the days since June 16. In communities like ours, a familiar face in an unfamiliar place is exactly the kind of detail that can save a life.

Mental Health, Missing Persons, and What Communities Can Do

The "at-risk" classification used by the Sheriff's Office is more than a bureaucratic label. It reflects the reality that when someone disappears during a mental health crisis, time and community awareness are among the most powerful tools available to bring them home safely.

For anyone in the 805 who is themselves struggling — or who knows someone who is — SLO County's Central Coast Hotline offers free, confidential mental health guidance and crisis support 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, at 1-800-783-0607. The national Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is also reachable by calling or texting 988, according to SLO County Behavioral Health.

Right now, the most important thing is finding Chad Corpuz and getting him home. If you have any information, call the Sheriff's Office at (805) 781-4550.