Alonzo Lamar [FOUND]: Still Struggling to Remember

After no one had heard or seen from 27-year-old Alonzo Lamar for over 20 days this summer, he was found on the side of the street, in an unsettling blank state, with a large bump on his head and no memory of what had happened to him, or even the names of his family members.

“He didn’t even know who his mama was, and the mama was crying,” missing persons advocate Tory Lowe said. “Like we got him, but we didn’t get him. Because he came back not the same.”

Alonzo is one of 2,466 people who have been reported missing in Milwaukee in 2024, as of Oct. 15. Though his case received a morsel of local news coverage, many people of color, particularly Black men, are underreported by news media, which academic research shows is more likely to cover the cases of missing white, blonde women.

The Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) has received between 2,500 and 3,300 missing persons reported each year since 2014. Although most of those individuals are likely found, the others are not. He is also part of the largest category: Those who are short-term missing people who turn up later.

A team of 12 student journalists at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee spent three months investigating 18 cases of missing people of color, including that of Alonzo Lamar, spanning from 1975 to 2024. Many of these cases occur against a backdrop of criticism from the families of the missing about the MPD, which was found to have only one detective dedicated to long-term missing persons cases amid a recruitment and retention crisis. The students sat down with this detective to review MPD’s process for investigating missing persons. They also connected with family members, loved ones, and friends, while diving into police case files provided by the MPD for each person. Plus, they investigated issues affecting missing people of color, including mental health, segregation, police response, and more.

Although Alonzo is no longer missing, the students chose to include his story because it highlights important issues related to mental health, flaws in police investigations, the role of community activist Tory Lowe, and the power of social media in missing persons cases.

It also highlights the largest proportion of missing person cases: People who are later found alive.

A family dispute raises questions following Alonzo Lamar’s disappearance

Alonzo’s mother, Satira, described her son to the students as a loner, someone who likes to stay to himself, smoke his weed, listen to his favorite music, and spend time with his kids.

At the start of the summer of 2024, Satira revealed that Alonzo was living with his aunt, Johnisha Ware, her boyfriend, and her children at their home near 23rd and Center streets. Towards the end of July, Ware accused Alonzo of leaving her 6-year-old son on the side of the road without shoes, according to Satira and police reports. Satira said that Alonzo denied this, and said he thinks the boy walked off on his own. Satira added that she had previously helped her sister search for him when he wandered off in the past.

Satira told the students that this incident sparked an argument between Ware, her boyfriend, and Alonzo. As a result, Alonzo Lamar went to Satira’s home, but all his belongings remained at Ware’s house. Satira said that Ware later told Alonzo she had never kicked him out, so he returned to her house on his bicycle with a pack of cigarettes and $20, which Satira had given him. Unaware at the time, this would be the last time Satira saw her son before his disappearance.

A few days later, Ware informed Satira that Alonzo could no longer stay with them. During this time, Satira tried contacting Alonzo, but her calls went unanswered. Ware told Satira that Alonzo had gone to his godmother’s house, while her boyfriend, “Cash,” claimed he had gone to an old acquaintance’s home. Satira reached out to his godmother, who confirmed that Alonzo had never arrived. After Alonzo missed a family funeral a few days later, Satira knew something was seriously wrong, and this was unlike her son. The next day, she reported him missing.

For her part, Ware told police that she saw Lamar on August 2 “when she told him that he had to leave her house because of family issues that involves her other children. Ware stated that Lamar has property in her house that belongs to him” but did not have house keys, the police file says.

In a second police interview, Ware told police that she had kicked Lamar out of her house “because of his mental health issues and because he took her son’s bike and left him on Burleigh St.”

She alleged that she took him in because he had been kicked out of another family home and that he left her residence with a couple backpacks. She thought he had dropped them off somewhere, because he did briefly return without them. He didn’t show up at the family funeral.

Ware also told police that Lamar’s disappearance had caused conflict between the families. He had disappeared before and she thought he was active on Facebook.

Timeline Disparities Suggest Possible Errors in Report Logging

The police file for Lamar’s case contains conflicting information about key dates, which contradicts statements from his mother and local news outlets WISN 12 and FOX6.

The police case file states that Satira walked into the MPD District 4 lobby on July 13 at approximately 3:06 p.m. to report her son as missing. However, just a few sentences later, the report states that Satira last saw Alonzo on July 31—two weeks before the missing person’s report was filed.

Satira, however, told a student journalist that she went to the police station on Aug. 17 to report Lamar missing, after no one had seen or heard from him since Aug. 2. Local news outlets, WISN 12 and FOX6, both reported that Alonzo was last seen on Aug. 17, further complicating the timeline.

These conflicting statements regarding dates raise questions about the accuracy of the timeline or suggest possible errors in report logging, as that information was entered into the police report on Aug. 17, the day Satira claimed to report Alonzo missing. MPD declined any questions from the student journalist regarding Alonzo’s case but released the full police file.

According to WISN 12, FOX6, and the police file, Alonzo was not classified as a critical missing person. The police file indicates he has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. To classify a missing person as critical, MPD must determine that they pose a threat to themselves or others, or that someone else has put them in danger, among other criteria. Captain Erin Mejia clarified that when it comes to missing persons with mental illness, whether they are deemed critical is evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

Nonetheless, Satira said that the day after she reported Alonzo missing, she called MPD District 4 to check on the progress of the case. She said they told her that because her sister’s house is located in the 5th District, they would need to transfer her there. “It was back and forth, back and forth, back and forth the whole day,” she said. “No progress.”

The next day, Satira decided to visit her sister, Ware, at her home. She noticed the room where Alonzo had been staying had been thoroughly cleaned. There were no sheets on the bed, and the room—walls included—had been scrubbed down with bleach, she said. Satira found this unusual, as her sister does not typically clean often. Satira also noted that Ware told her Alonzo had taken all of his belongings with him. But some of his clothing and his “good shoes” were still on the shelf, along with the bike Ware claimed he rode off on. Satira decided to call the police again to report this, which is reflected in the police file.

In the phone call the police told her they were sending an officer out to the house now to search the room and house. Satira told the students that she waited outside, near the side of her sister’s house for five hours, but no one showed up during that time.

However, the police file notes, that at approximately 9:23 p.m. on Aug. 17, two officers in full-duty uniforms with body-worn cameras went to Ware’s home. It reads that when they arrived, they spoke with Ware’s daughter, who told them, “She had not seen Alonzo in a couple of months.” The officers gave the child a community contact card and asked her to have Ware or her boyfriend call District 5 when they got home so the officers could speak with them.

As mentioned earlier, a brief missing person notice was published by a few local news stations to spread the word about Alonzo’s disappearance. To make this happen, Satira’s younger sister contacted them. They instructed her to send all the information they had, and they would run the story.

“They played it, and said that the police was helping,” Satira said. “I told her to call them back and tell them that the police aren’t helping with sh*t. They didn’t change it at all. They still ran it as if the police was helping. That’s messed up.”

MKE missing persons activist Tory Lowe joins the search for Alonzo Lamar

Shortly after, community activist and radio host of 101.7 The Truth, Tory Lowe, got involved to assist Satira with locating Alonzo. He uses his social media platform to raise awareness about missing people in Milwaukee and personally works within the community to help families locate them to the best of his abilities.

Together, they distributed flyers, canvased miles around the surrounding area, and shared a powerful, emotional video of Satira on Lowe’s Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram accounts. In a strong, resolute voice, Satira told viewers that Alonzo was last seen at her sister’s home, visible behind her in the video, and that she and her boyfriend were the last to see him. She explained that his cell phone had been turned off, with the last ping coming from inside their house. Satira also alleged that her sister and her boyfriend had given multiple conflicting stories about his disappearance and that every time the police were scheduled to visit, they weren’t home. They were also not helping the family in the search for Alonzo.

In the video, Lowe asked, “What do you want the community to know?” Satira responded, “I’m just looking for my child. Even if I only get his body, let me lay my son to rest. He has a daughter who deserves the chance to say goodbye to her father.”

After the video was posted, Ware allegedly told MPD that Tory and Satira were harassing her by putting her home on social media. So, the police told them that they couldn’t make any more videos that included her house.

But that didn’t stop the search from continuing. Lowe and Satira made another video for social media on Aug. 26 featuring Satira passing out flyers, looking around the neighborhood, giving updates on the search, and asking for anyone with information to come forward. Both posts received thousands of likes, shares, and comments across platforms.

Five hours after the second video was shared on social media, Alonzo was found by a citizen on the side of Lisbon Avenue and Walnut Street, near a tree. He was in a dazed, confused state, with a lump on his head, and he couldn’t recognize his mother, Satira. He had no recollection of how he ended up there or what had happened to him.

“When I found my son, he didn’t know who I was, he didn’t know who his kids were, he didn’t know the names of his brothers, his nieces, nephews, cousins—no one,” Satira said.

He was immediately rushed to the hospital, and the doctors told Satira that Alonzo was disoriented and had suffered from a concussion. There were no drugs found in his system except marijuana.

“My thing is, if the police would have done their job, they would have found my son faster,” Satira said. “I told them, I want y’all to go in there and luminate that room… And they still have yet to go in there and luminate that room.” She is referring to Luminol, which is a chemical that can be used to detect blood.

Alonzo’s struggle to remember

Alonzo now lives with his mother, and for the past few months, she has been re-teaching Alonzo the names of family members by showing him photos and taking him to psychiatrists and therapists. “It has taken us a long time to get my son together now. It’s hard; it’s very hard,” Satira expressed.  While his memory is not fully restored, it has gradually improved in some areas, such as music and his children. However, he is still struggling to remember what happened during the time he was missing.

To this day, Satira said Lowe continues to check in on the Lamar family during this difficult time.

“He is doing what the police are supposed to do, he’s doing what the media are supposed to do,” Satira said. “He’s taking it all on his own, by himself.”

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This story is part of a semester-long investigative reporting project into missing people’s cases in Milwaukee and Wisconsin. It was created by an advanced reporting class in the Journalism, Advertising, and Media Studies program at UW-Milwaukee. Other stories from the project are available here.