Feather Alert issued for missing McKinleyville teen seen in Eureka

A Feather Alert has widened the search for 14-year-old Dan’des’ne Moorehead, after the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office determined the McKinleyville boy was at risk and that public help could make a difference. The statewide alert is meant for missing Indigenous people who may be endangered or missing under unexplained or suspicious circumstances, a standard that pushes the case beyond a routine missing-person notice and into an emergency public search.

Deputies said Dan’des’ne Moorehead, described as a Native American juvenile from McKinleyville, was reported missing by his father at about 8:11 a.m. on May 10. He was last seen two nights earlier, on May 8 at about 9:30 p.m., at the family’s apartment in McKinleyville. Investigators believe he may have left sometime overnight or during the early morning hours of May 9.

A possible sighting added urgency to the search. The Sheriff’s Office received a report on May 11 that Dan’des’ne Moorehead may have been seen walking in the 1100 block of Broadway Street in Eureka on the morning of May 10. KRCR reported that he may have been on foot, which broadens the area deputies and the public need to consider, from McKinleyville’s residential streets to one of Eureka’s busiest corridors.

Dan’des’ne Moorehead is 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighs about 120 pounds. He has brown hair and hazel eyes. Deputies said he was last seen wearing a black T-shirt, blue jeans and camouflage Nike Air Force 1 shoes. Those details are the most useful identifiers for anyone who may have passed him near Broadway Street or elsewhere in Humboldt County.

The Sheriff’s Office is asking anyone with information to call (707) 445-7251 or the Crime Tip line at (707) 268-2539 and reference case number 202602064. California Highway Patrol says anyone with information about an active Feather Alert should call 911 immediately. The alert system launched Jan. 1, 2023, as part of California’s response to the missing and murdered Indigenous people crisis, after tribal leaders, local law enforcement and lawmakers said Indigenous families needed a faster way to mobilize the public when a young person disappeared under dangerous circumstances.

For Humboldt County, the alert is designed to do what a standard bulletin cannot: turn a single missing-juvenile report into a coordinated search that reaches drivers, neighbors and businesses across McKinleyville, Eureka and the wider North Coast.