"We are not interested in prosecuting anyone," Mustaine tells PEOPLE. "If anyone has taken her and are afraid to turn her in, no one is going to punish them. We just want to find out where she's at."
It's now been 20 days since Sally Estabrook, 76, first went missing from the Pinezanita RV park and campground near Julian, California, about 60 miles east of San Diego. Estabrook was there with her husband, who went to take a shower. When he returned, she was gone. "He's pretty upset, and rightly so," Mustaine says. "Her Alzheimer's was pretty advanced. She's noncommunicative. We are really just beyond words."An exhaustive search-and-rescue operation commenced almost immediately, which has now included teams from four counties, the U.S. Border Patrol and 300 volunteers – as well as bloodhounds and cadaver dogs. But neither Estabrook, nor her body, has been found yet.
"It's been a remarkable outpouring of volunteers," says Mustaine. "They've gone out with ATVs, horses, motorcycles, we've had people offer to use search drones. But there's been nothing. No scent. She just vanished," Mustaine says.
Initially, Mustaine asked the public to check local hospitals, shelters and senior centers, and to also look in their own backyards. "A lot of times people that wander who have Alzheimer's are found very close to their homes. They just take shelter underneath bushes," Mustaine said in a media briefing on Oct. 11.
