An 80-year-old Villager who was reported missing Monday was found the following day in Ocala – in good health – purchasing a new van.
A Marion County sheriff’s deputy was called to a home in the 17000 block of McLawren Terrace in the Village of Calumet Grove on Monday by a woman who claimed her husband hadn’t returned home and wasn’t answering her phone calls. The woman said her husband suffers from “mild cognitive impairment” and she was worried that he might be lost.
The 65-year-old woman told the deputy that she and her husband “had been having problems recently but nothing serious.” She said he was last seen between 10-11 a.m. Monday and was wearing a yellow button-up shirt and jeans. And she added that he was driving a silver 2014 Honda van with an expired driver’s license, which was confirmed by the deputy, a sheriff’s office report states, adding that the man sent his wife a text message around 6 p.m. asking her to purchase garbage bags from Wal-Mart.
The woman said her husband might have visited his brother’s home in Lady Lake but was hesitant to give the deputy his contact information. She showed the deputy a text from the 77-year-old brother from several days ago where he told her “he did not want to be in the middle of the couple’s problems,” a sheriff’s office report states.
The woman said her husband has no history of alcohol or substance abuse or mental illness. She said he hadn’t made any concerning statements and doesn’t own any firearms. And she said he failed to take his evening dose of medication for mild cognitive impairment and hypertension, though it had happened before and “there is no serious medical effects from it.”
The deputy checked all area hospitals and mental health facilities, called the husband’s cell phone several times and left two voicemails urging him to return the calls as soon as possible. And he put out the word about the missing man to other deputies and law enforcement agencies and checked nearby establishments.
The deputy also contacted the man’s brother, who hadn’t heard from him but said the couple was having marital problems and his brother had been talking about getting a divorce. And the deputy attempted to contact a friend of the husband’s known only as “Olga” with no luck, the report says.
On Tuesday, after the deputy made a second visit to the McLawren Terrace home to gather more information, the man’s wife stopped by the South Marion District Office to report that she’d heard her husband was at a Honda dealership in Ocala. The deputy contacted dispatch and asked that an Ocala police officer respond to the dealership and check on the man, the report says.
A short time later, an Ocala police sergeant made contact with the deputy and said the man was in good health and was picking up his new van. He said the man had traded in his old van the day before and stayed at a friend’s house because of an argument he had with his wife, the report says, adding that the deputy let the woman know her husband had been located and was in good health.
