Family expands hunt for missing Newport Beach man who bolted from hospital

A Newport Beach man went missing earlier this month after bolting from Huntington Beach Hospital during a mental health episode, according to his family.

Friends and family have been searching for Scott Breneman, 41, who is the captain and owner of West Caught Fish Co. in Newport Beach. Breneman lives in Dover Shores with his wife and children and is described to be 5 feet 10 and 165 pounds. He has blond-brown hair and blue eyes.

Breneman went missing on Jan. 7 after family members called Newport Beach’s mobile crisis assessment team when Breneman began acting irrationally.

His mother, Lisa, said she had been with him that day. She said he has diabetes, and he agreed with her that he should be checked out by doctors. He was transported to Huntington Beach Hospital on Beach Boulevard, where he was tested for drugs and alcohol.

“But, then the nurse came,” said Lisa Breneman, a retired registered nurse herself, “and she was drawing a sedative into a syringe in front of him and that’s a trigger for a lot of patients. [Scott] looks at me and he goes, ‘Mom, I’m not going to be sedated. I’m going to run,’ and I turned to the security guard and said, ‘He’s going to run.’

“But they didn’t do anything.”

A spokesperson for Huntington Beach Hospital was not immediately available for comment.

A notice made by Cal Advocates for the Missing that was posted online on Monday. Breneman has been missing since Jan. 7.

(Courtesy of Cal Advocates for the Missing)

Breneman left the facility, and the family doesn’t know whether he remains in Huntington Beach, returned to Newport Beach or is elsewhere in Orange County. He was last seen in a green hospital gown with beige scrub pants and no shoes.

Lisa Breneman said she noticed her son’s erratic behavior beginning around Christmas, but she chalked it up to stress surrounding the holidays.

She aimed to be a support for him and described him as an adult with no preexisting mental health issues, as far as he was aware.

“He could’ve had signs, but they weren’t identified,” she said.

She and Breneman’s friends have been searching every day since the episode and are collaborating with Cal Advocates for the Missing to amplify news of their search . The nonprofit’s founder Brenda Condon said she lives in Corona del Mar and knows the local area well. When she heard of the Brenemans’ story, she thought she could help connect the family with the organization’s resources.

“It’s just horrible. I can’t believe that that happened because he was on a 5150 [a police code which allows hospitals to temporarily and involuntarily hold an individual believed to be a harm to themselves or other people],” Condon said. “He should’ve been kept safe and not been able to leave like that. We’re asking people to keep an eye out.”

A public notice of the search for Breneman posted Monday by the organization had been seen by around 137,000 people and shared by 2,000 of those viewers as of Wednesday, Condon said. She added she’s received tips almost every day since posting it, including some regarding sightings of Breneman around Brookhurst Street and Adams Avenue. At least 50 people have reached out, she said.

Lisa Breneman said she has been looking around Newport Beach in places that she knows are familiar to her son and has put up fliers in the Back Bay, hopeful he may come home on his own. She’s also been checking homeless shelters and food banks in addition to following up on tips that Condon receives.

“I just want him to come home safely,” she said.

Any readers with information on Scott Breneman are being asked to call the Newport Beach Police Department at (949) 644-3681 or text leads to Condon at (858) 212-7503. The nonprofit is asking that people do not approach Breneman if they see him but to try to take a photo and note the cross streets for detectives.