Paul Bassett: Blood found in car of missing man Found

Paul Bassett was found on May 6 in a hospital in Tijuana, Mexico. The family went to TJ and handed out flyers and someone one recognized him and said he was being treated at the hospital.

The following day an ambulance took Paul across the border to Sharp Chula Vista.

“It’s amazing. He’s still a little confused but it’s such a relief,” Jacqueline Bassett said Monday night. “He has some sort of inflammation in the brain. He just got lost and he doesn’t know where he was or who he was at the time,” his wife told NBC San Diego.

There has been no explanation about the blood found in the car, or whether he was a victim of foul play.

I am so happy for the family and they took the initiative to go to Tijuana and search. This reminds me of the story of a dad, David Lavau (read full story here) that went missing a few years back and the adult children asked the police where the phone last pinged and walked the highway in that area searching for him. They found him in his car still alive after it had gone off the side of the highway into brush, and landed right next to another car where another missing man had driven off the road a year earlier.

Paul Bassett, 26, is missing from Chula Vista, Calif. since Sunday, March 31. He left his home he shares with his wife Jacqueline Bassett to go study. Paul is an inactive U.S. Marine who is pursuing a security management degree.

The San Diego Police Dept. stated that Paul’s car, a Honda Accord was seen at the Mission Valley mall around 6:35 p.m. He had called his wife around 5 p.m. and said he would be home by 6 p.m. The car was later found in Tijuana which is a border town that neighbors San Diego.

Jacqueline told NBC San Diego news that she was told there was blood in the car.

In December 2013, Salvatore Belvedere and Ilona Flint were shot in the head while at the Mission Valley shopping mall. Gianni Belvedere, Salvatore’s brother was later found in the trunk of his car in Riverside in January.

Salvatore, Ilona and Gianni were victims of a crime at the
Mission Valley Shopping Mall

Former FBI S/A Brad Garrett told Good Morning America back in January that “these types of shootings, it really goes back to some sort of revenge: you owe me money, you owe me drugs, etc.”

Here is a very interesting graph and map of the area that shows crime in the area.

Please note that the Mission Valley shopping mall is where the big cartoon fist is, left of the 805 and the area on the left of 163 is commonly referred to as Hotel Circle area. Since March 2014 to the end of April 2014, there are lots and lots of thefts and burglary shown in that area. The thefts are not detailed, so I am thinking it could be the result of cars being broken into at the shopping mall.

The mall has lots of places to park including an underground parking area and not much security. Everyone in San Diego knows where it’s at and it is a very easy and convenient place to meet, particularly if you are meeting someone for the first time. It is also not a very busy mall these days and is just that empty of people that someone could walk up to you and try to rob you and no one would notice. Is this what happened to Paul? Did someone try to rob him or was he there because it was a convenient meet up place?

Paul was wearing a Seattle Seahawks shirt and black shorts. He is 6’3″ tall, 220 pounds.

If you have any information on his whereabouts, please call the San Diego Police Dept. at 619-531-2000.