[UPDATE: Located!] Willits Man Suffering From Mental Illness Not Seen by Concerned Family Since the Fourth of July
The family of 50-year-old Willits man Shannon Phillips is concerned. His daughter, Michelle Beck, said no one from her family has seen him since the Fourth of July. The last confirmed sighting of her father makes her think he was in the throes of mental illness.
Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office Captain Greg Van Patten told us on July 8, 2022 deputies responded to Lake Mendocino’s Pomo A area after reports that someone was “causing a disturbance.” A sergeant contacted Phillips, found he was associated with a nearby RV, and “released him after contact.”
Michelle Beck is concerned that her father is not taking his medication, and reported that when he does not take his medicine, “he is not himself.” This extended absence is not like her father, Michelle told us. “We see him every day. Even if it is walking the town of Willits, or he calls us. We have not seen him or heard from him.” Recently, Phillips has become homeless and struggling with his mental health which has led Michelle to keep a close eye on him.
Shannon Phillips is 50 years old. His hair is long and brown/gray. Michelle says her dad is around 145 lbs and stands around 5’7” and could be wearing blue jeans or dark shorts.
If anyone has information about the whereabouts of Shannon Phillips, please reach out to the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office at (707) 463-4086
UPDATE 7/15/2022: Michelle Beck informed us that her father has been found safe and sound.
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I wonder why this story doesn’t appear under CRIME like you filed the story of the poor suicidal woman in Arcata whose image was casually compared to Napalm Girl …
(And although the press loves to erroneously hold that image up to portray the horrors of war, it was ironically an attack of ” friendly fire.” Quoted recently, Kim Phuc said, “I grew up detesting that photo. I thought to myself, “I am a little girl. I am naked. Why did he take that picture? Why didn’t my parents protect me? Why did he print that photo? Why was I the only kid naked while my brothers and cousins in the photo had their clothes on?” I felt ugly and ashamed…” )
And this is why for a year I have not replied to a single comment you have made. You twist the truth.
You are not representing Kim Phuc fairly. In the very same article you quote, she says, “The thought of sharing the images of the carnage, especially of children, may seem unbearable — but we should confront them. It is easier to hide from the realities of war if we don’t see the consequences…I cannot speak for the families in Uvalde, Texas, but I think that showing the world what the aftermath of a gun rampage truly looks like can deliver the awful reality. We must face this violence head-on, and the first step is to look at it.”
Literally, you took her words out of context and attempted to make them mean the exact opposite of what she was trying to say in her New York Times 0pinion piece https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/06/opinion/kim-phuc-vietnam-napalm-girl-photograph.html
You took the words of a woman who has presumably gained wisdom and insight from her experience and twisted them to support your point of view. You are willing to completely twist the words of a victim to attack the person who hosts your comments. I care about you for other reasons. But I don’t much like your behavior.
Hear hear.
Kudos to Kym
A gun rampage that could have been stopped by do nothing cops or any decent shot armed and ready to do what was needed. The real crime there was preventing the parents from access to the school. No way I trust a bunch of fat donut eating mayberry cops with my kids life. Just one teacher with a concealed carry permit and a gun in a locked safe and some of those kids would be alive.
Nothing twisted . Those were her exact words. Her experience at a moment in time. As a vulnerable victim.
And not even intended as an attack on you. Why take it, or make it personal? I’m not. And I certainly don’t expect replies from you, and hadn’t noticed you weren’t . We don’t always agree that’s for sure, friends can disagree !
Remember, Kim Phuc was immediately scooped up by that photographer and taken to the hospital. She had countless surgeries and hundreds of hours of therapy over her lifetime to come to terms with that trauma.
Where is that sort of relief and remedy for the lady on the 101 ? Did the photographer try to help? Of course not. She was taken into custody by three make LEO’s. And bringing up the shooting in Texas ? Why? This was not violence, it was mental /emotional distress.
“Photographs, by definition, capture a moment in time. But the surviving people in these photographs, especially the children, must somehow go on. We are not symbols. We are human”
Walking on the freeway is prohibited , but it’s not criminal.
That ‘crime” story- complete with details how she’d already taken a knife to her throat- was compared to heroically highlighting the horrors of war and capturing an image like napalm girl, but to me and about 40 other followers on your Facebook feed it was a vulnerable person’s worst day and not fair play to broadcast her image. Face hidden or not. It’s the intent.
Thanks to your generous (or masochistic) willingness to host feedback on your articles, my conviction in saying something about it, was given platform . Thank you . Your assessment of those posts as reflecting poorly on my “behavior” as you see it, is about as important to me as your opinion on Covid policy. Why hold someone in moderation in excess of a year who you were consciously making an effort to not even speak to ? Seems like a labor-intensive and semi- passive aggressive approach that you must be getting something from. Or you could just as easily communicate your feelings, or block me. And be done.
One and four of us will suffer mental instability, depression or anxiety at some point in our lives. How is someone going to seek help if this is how their story is shared ? And had she actually succeeded in committing suicide that day, little to no mention would be made of that reality in the press.
Suicide is routinely omitted from obituaries for a reason , out of respect.
If you don’t think choosing the words out of an essay about why photos of terrible news events should be shown in such a way as to make it look like the author doesn’t think the photos should be shown is twisting…then you do you.
As to moderation…You were put on moderation over a year ago. But you have broken the rules again several times. The current time is up on August 7.
You may want to back off on the magic mushrooms…
I pray that they will locate him, and he will be ok. Please watch for him so we can get him home and the treatment he needs. Mental health is a huge concern, and it is time people like Mr. Phillips can receive the care that they need and deserve so badly.
Mental illness knows no Boundaries richer, poorer, younger, older people do struggle. We have dismal mental health support in Mendocino County there are some things started but the availability of treatment and services is basically nothing. There is not a safe place that people who are mentally ill can go to and drop in and not feel judged. Sometimes the biggest part of seeking treatment is the Judgment that people feel. It is not wrong to ask for help or should not make people feel like that if they seek it. And if people are using substances and other things like that the 5150 law is ridiculous. Danger to others and self. Hmmm…if you can’t control use and you’re running the streets loose that’s definitely a danger to others and yourself. May he be located safe. ❤ The county as well as the country is reeling from no adequate, active, truly FUNCTIONAL mental health services. We gotta walk n chew gum at the same time. A glossy press release with a few pictures and a couple newspaper articles, some talk at Board of Supervisors of the fine work they do does not Mental Health Services make. Take a look at the booking logs. This crap is not ok. ? ????????????
We need to change the law about involuntary treatment before anything useful can be done. Not to mention there are not enough certified professionals (nor adequate certification itself) to treat those who want to cooperate much less those who don’t. And lastly, “go to and drop in and not feel judged” – of course people are going feel judged because the most basic definition of mental illness is “impairment in important areas of functioning. ” The most severe forms lead to involutary commitment and who wouldn’t be afraid of that. And that means stearing clear of all mental health treatment that does not give what is wanted- instant fixes voluntarily done when desperate and no demands when not.
One of the relative few safety nets for the mentally ill among others – board and cares- are disappearing. “The planned closure of yet another board-and-care home—this one nestled near Golden Gate Park—reflects a broader trend affecting thousands of low-income Californians with serious mental illness. While housing values soar and minimum-wage increases drive up staffing costs, state reimbursement rates to board-and-cares have remained stagnant. The result: more facilities are shutting their doors.” https://calmatters.org/projects/board-and-care-homes-closing-in-california-mental-health-crisis/
Newsom’s California has a budget excess because it refuses to spend money to do anything about things that no one wants to talk about and certainly are not as shiny as causes like racial justice and environmental grant giving. But it seems like Newsom’s ready to move to the bigger stage so we, as some of the country’s leading netizens, can elect another person who talks a great deal but can’t manage to do anything practical that works but might offend some or another group by being less than perfect. Because, of course, most of us are unwilling to look at reality but we still are fond of announcing some needs to do something… Just not us…
100% ?. It is far easier to find drugs, drama, dysfunction, a life of crime and some jail time then it is to find mental health and Housing Services in this county. You call the housing people sorry. The list is full we have 50 people ahead of you. There are no openings. There’s 27 on the list. Your income is $20 to high…excuses are found faster than any help..
Spot on. Newscum has plenty of money but refuses to spend it where it will do the most good, while Californian’s suffer medically and economically.
Even with all the assistance in the world, one must take their medications.
Agreed and secondary to that when people go off their medications we need to have the compassion to know. We need to have the respect to support them in the right way. A safe place for them to be while they’re going through the crisis. Recovery from anything is not easy, without positive, consistent sometimes lifelong support it can be hard to hold on to. We all (some more than others TRUE) struggle whether we admit it or not.
Since when does a healthy society require CHEMICAL MEDICAL INTERVENTION?
When society can no longer successfully deal with the blowback of those who get left behind.
Does the model of a corporate communist society help?
Not everyone uses medication. Some use medication for a little while. And for some it becomes something that is necessary due to possible dopamine disruption. Once that happens it’s hard to replace it naturally. Sadly, drug and alcohol use is a number one stripper of natural dopamine production in the body. Once that production is reduced or abolished entirely is never fully replaced. Also the extreme danger of melatonin use same thing happens.
Officers receive info about mental stability and medications when it’s available and respond accordingly but that info is usually lost in the system. Family members and friends usually tell responding officers about the persons situation.
OMGosh I hope this scenario has a happy outcome! Just in case he traveled this way, I’m watching for him here in so Hum and showed everyone at the Gville Laundromat the photo and expose’ this morning. Unless he hopped a ride down the highway some one may see him.
Terrible situation for your father but at least he has you Michelle.
I love good kids and you sound like a great human
Freedom means nothing left to lose (Khris Kristofferson and Alexander Solzhenitsyn).
Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.
You might as will get it right.
Do you think Solzhenitsyn got it wrong?
Let’s get one thing STRAIGHT.
This isn’t about mental illness or health:
It’s a long story of malnutrition and the reality of options that so many people refuse to accept as the monkey of poverty is so hard to get off your back
Can’t argue with that.
That’s why I harp about educating our kids about all the different kinds of dope and what you can look forward to when you start using it.
I think Community meetings with all adults to learn the true facts about fentanyl would be beneficial
You’re on to something. Community meetings to learn the facts about all the deadly drug use in our community would be beneficial. Communication is a wonderful thing.