Family friend says missing Pacifica Marine is OK

 

By Sean Maher
San Mateo County Times

Posted: 04/07/2010 10:13:02 PM PDT

Updated: 04/07/2010 10:26:23 PM PDT

 

A local man who was reported missing from a Southern California military base last week called home Tuesday night and told his family he was all right, a family friend said.

Alex Lopez, a 30-year-old Marine, had recently returned to California after a tour of duty in Afghanistan and was stationed at Camp Pendleton, family friend Laura Trapani said. Friends told her they last saw Lopez on March 28 when he was leaving a Bay Area Starbucks at the end of a three-day leave from duty.

After Lopez left the coffee shop — accompanied by a woman named Vanessa Silva, about whom Lopez's family knows nothing — he failed to report back to duty the next day and appeared to have made no calls from his cell phone, which was apparently turned off, Trapani said.

"That was scary," Trapani said. "The whole family was upset. But I know they're very, very relieved now. What I'm hoping is it was just a huge miscommunication."

Lopez called his grandmother and told her he'd returned to Southern California and was fine, Trapani said.

"He had to get some things done that I don't know if anybody was aware of or not," Trapani said. "When (his grandmother) hung up, she was very relieved and crying and wanted to tell everyone."

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Posted by Steve Sinai