Both of them were just trying to get home when they died.
Ronald Westbrook, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel, was wandering a frozen night in northwest Georgia when he was shot to death by a frightened homeowner.
Lucilla Harris had driven from her Atlanta home and was wandering a wooded suburb miles away when she laid down and died not far from her car.
Both were 72. Both suffered from dementia.
The sad stories of Westbrook and Harris both appeared in the news last week and cast a light on an increasing problem: As America ages, more and more people are struck with Alzheimer’s disease and wander off. Increasingly, police are called to find them.
About 10 times a month, Georgia law enforcement agencies work with the Alzheimer’s Association with cases of cognitively-impaired adults who have gone missing, said Ginny Helms, a vice president of the state chapter. Almost a third are driving. Police, often with the organization’s help, try to interview family members to determine what might have been on the missing person’s mind, hoping to narrow the universe of places they might have gone.
There are an estimated 120,000 Georgians with Alzheimer’s and more than 60 percent of them wander off at some point and get lost, she said.
“If not found in 24 hours, there’s a 50 percent chance they will not be found alive,” said Helms. “But a lot of families don’t think to call, especially if (the disease) is early on.”
In 2006, the state instituted Mattie’s Call, which is similar to an Amber Alert, for missing adults with dementia or other infirmities. Since then, the number of alerts increased fivefold to 150.
Atlanta police said they received a call from Harris’ family Monday evening, saying she had driven off two days earlier in her Saturn Ion and hadn’t been seen.
Apparently, Harris drove south some 13 miles, negotiated a number of curving streets, drove up a driveway at the end of a cul-de-sac and then parked in the backyard of a Stockbridge home where the owner was out of town. On Monday, a neighbor, sensing something was wrong, called police about the car. They checked the vehicle’s tags but found nothing suspicious, said Henry County police spokesman Joey Smith.
Atlanta police officer K. Y. Jones, in an email, wrote: “When they encountered the vehicle our report had not been filed yet.”
On Friday evening, the neighbor called police again, seeing Harris’ case on TV. The next morning, search crews found a body they believe to be Harris. (She still had her purse and matches her description.)
A neighbor’s surveillance camera showed a woman believed to be Harris walk up onto a porch, apparently on the night after she went missing.
Her body was found near the edge of a woodline.
“I don’t know if she laid down because she was tired or cold or afraid or what,” Smith said. “She was just trying to find her way home.
Earlier in the week in Walker County near the Tennessee line, Westbrook wandered off from his home wearing a light jacket as wind chills brought temperatures down to near 20 degrees.
About 2:30 a.m., a deputy stopped and questioned Westbrook as he stood near a mailbox but the man convinced the lawman he lived just up the hill.
Some 90 minutes later, Westbrook did just what the lost Atlanta woman tried to do: He went up to a door of a home on a cul-de-sac looking for help. Westbrook rang the bell, jiggled the doorknob and then walked into the backyard. The resident, Joe Hendrix, 34, came outside, ordered Westbrook to stop and fired a .40-caliber slug fired into his chest when he didn’t.
Hendrix has not been charged and the incident ignited a debate about the state’s stand-your-ground law, which allows people greater latitude in using force if they believe they are being threatened physically.
A woman answering the phone at the Westbrook home, who did not want to be identified, said, “Family members of these Alzheimer’s patients are doing the best they can to deal with this.”
So are police. Helms, from the Alzheimer’s Association, said her organization trains 2,500 officers a year on how to deal with adults with dementia.
The International Association of Chiefs of Police is holding a national training seminar on the subject this week.
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