KILLEEN, Texas — The search continues for a missing Killeen man after five days with no signs of him.
Bienvenido “Benny” Rios, a loving husband of nearly 50 years and father of six boys, has dementia and the family is starting to fear the worse.
Eliseo Rios, one of the sons of Benny, told 6 News that Benny has been missing before, but only for a couple of hours. Since Benny's dementia has advanced, they put a GPS tracker on his keys so they could find him if something were to ever happen.
When Benny went on his walk on July 13, Elesio said Benny took the tracker off and left it at home.
"Obviously everybody's worried," Eliseo said. "My mom's worried. We have the police looking for him. We have canine tracking dogs. Haven't had any luck yet, but we're praying that he will be found soon because we know that with the heat and his dehydration, time is ticking."
The Rios family, police, and community members have searched the entire City of Killeen and even neighboring cities as they continue looking for Benny. They have also been focusing on Long Branch Park in Killeen and the surrounding area because that was where his cell phone last pinged and the last known location of him.
"When [mom] came home he wasn't here, so she called his cell phone and I don't think there was an answer first, but after multiple attempts, he finally answered the phone," Eliseo recalled. "That's when he told us that he was under a tree. We tried to convince him to stay sitting up so that if somebody drove by we can actually see where he was sitting."
Eliseo said Benny's phone then died and then haven't been able to find any signs since.
There are now missing person flyers of Benny all over the city, including the park. The Rios have checked the areas he would frequent, but no sign.
"We've scoured Killeen, Temple, Harker Heights, Copperas Cove, and even as far out as Kempner," Eliseo said. "We keep running over the same areas over and over again and obviously it's not getting any easier."
"When you get somebody with dementia it becomes a challenge because there is that level of unpredictability," said Sgt. Neal Holtzclaw with Killeen Police Department. "With somebody that doesn't have dementia you can kind of guess their pattern, you know what they like... like a certain restaurant, or gas station, they have a routine."
KPD has implemented all their resources since Benny went missing including searches, drones, and scent tracking dogs.
"We have searched extensively," Neal said. "All the fields, anywhere around the area just to see if there's any sign if he has fallen, if he's if he's somewhere hurt. We've searched anywhere that's pretty much in walking distance from the house."
Neal said they don't think Benny could have gotten too far from home given his age, medical condition and the heat. However, Neal did say it is possible he could've been picked up by someone and he hasn't realized where home is.
Now they're calling on the community to step up.
"This is a community effort and we are one piece of that community," Holtzclaw said. "We need everybody's help and we need everybody's eyes and everybody's ears out there."
Police described Rios as a Hispanic man, 5-feet-7-inches tall, 120 pounds, with grey hair, a mustache and sideburns. He is fluent in both Spanish and English. The Rios family believes Benny left the house wearing a blue/teal long sleeve shirt, long pants, and his favorite black cowboy hat.
Anyone who has seen Rios or knows where he could be is asked to contact the Killeen Police Department at 254-501-8830.