“I always think, you know, if that could happen to him, it could happen to me,” Lee Pechin told Dateline. “It’s just hard to think that something devious touched your friend.”
Lee’s friend, 61-year-old Timothy DeBrito, has been missing for four months. He was last seen on April 22, 2025, in Stockton, California.
“I cannot picture any scenario where he’s just out there and hasn’t reached out to anybody,” Lee said.
Lee says the two met more than 25 years ago. “We had some mutual friends and just started as casual acquaintances,” he recalled. “Our friendship grew after that.”
What Lee remembers most fondly about his friend is how he drew people in. “Timmy was just one of those guys that when he smiled and he spoke to you, he was authentic,” he said. “Friendly and warm. I could probably count on one hand the times I saw Tim and he wasn’t smiling.”
As they got older, Lee says they didn’t hang out as often but tried to catch up occasionally. Recently, though, it has been harder to get a hold of his friend. “He was having some health issues and some personal issues,” Lee said. “I was not close enough to Tim to, you know, invade his personal space.”
But the two were able to speak earlier this year, and Lee says it seemed like Tim was doing better. “He was probably upbeat the last time I spoke to him,” he recalled.
Then, in April, Lee got some news from one of their mutual friends: Tim was missing. “Our mutual friend contacted me to ask if I had spoken to him.”
Lee had not. As the months passed, Lee’s concern for his missing friend grew. That’s when he decided to reach out to Dateline, hoping for attention for Tim’s case. On May 6, the Stockton Police Department posted about Tim’s disappearance. According to the post, Timothy was last seen on April 22, 2025, and may have been driving a blue Acura TL. The post also stated that Tim has a medical condition that requires regular visits.
According to Lee, Tim’s Acura has since been found. “It was found with an individual who had apparently just purchased it from a private citizen, and all the information on that is kind of vague,” he said.
Dateline reached out to the Stockton Police Department for the latest update on Tim’s disappearance but has yet to hear back.
Lee believes Timothy disappeared under suspicious circumstances. “I have a scenario in my mind that is completely hearsay,” he said. “There’s just a lot of us here that want to know what happened to him.”
Lee told Dateline that Tim is single and has two adult children from a previous marriage. Dateline was unable to get in touch with Tim’s family.
If his friend is out there, Lee is hoping he will find his way home. “I’d want Tim to know that I miss him and think about him often,” he said. “It’s just a lot of sad things in this situation.”
Tim is 5’10”, weighs 205 lbs., and has brown hair and brown eyes.
He will turn 62 this week.
Anyone with information about his disappearance is asked to call the Stockton Police Department at 209-937-7911.
