Missing man has Alzheimer’s
By ROBERT FATURECHI Special to the Daily Press
A 73-year-old Santa Monica man has gone missing since leaving his retirement home last Thursday for an early morning stroll, prompting family and police to spend the past week checking local hospitals, homeless shelters and food lines in the hopes of spotting the Alzheimer’s victim.
Though he’s fine physically, Roland Baker’s mental health has gradually deteriorated the last few years. Baker’s son said a decline into dementia would prevent his father from surviving long on his own.
“He does well from time to time and everything is fine, but then he has these lapses when he’s not fine,” said Baker’s son, John.
Baker, a short black man with graying hair and a white beard and mustache, was last seen wearing dark pants, a dark-striped shirt and black shoes. Along with a “Safe Return” bracelet on Baker’s wrist that lists a 24-hour hot-line used to reunite Alzheimer’s patients with caregivers, white name labels have been stuck onto Baker’s clothes and shoes.
He stands five feet, three inches tall and weighs 160 pounds, according to a flier distributed by police.
Anyone who spots Baker is asked to call the number on Baker’s bracelet or the Santa Monica Police Department at (310) 458-8491. “(Seniors) get lost and they get disoriented. There can be all kinds of dangers.” said Donald Doss, a SMPD reserve officer who investigates elder abuse crimes and tracks down missing seniors in Santa Monica.
A nurse at Holiday Villa — the retirement home Baker moved into three years ago — checked on the former social worker shortly after 5 a.m. on July 28. When a nurse came back an hour later to accompany Baker to breakfast, he was gone — prompting Holiday Villa employees to search the area before calling the police, said Sam Rosenberg, an administrator at Holiday Villa.
Though Holiday Villa — located on 17th Street in Santa Monica — operates as an assisted living facility, the retirement home’s employees are responsible only for housekeeping, meals and social events, not supervision.
“It’s like a senior apartment building so (employees) don’t have the duty of providing care,” Rosenberg said, brushing off any suggestion of employee negligence.
“We’re all worried sick and I think his life may be in danger at this point. It’s been very hot recently.”
Though Baker’s son doesn’t blame Holiday Villa for his father’s disappearance, he said he plans on moving Baker — if located — to a care center more equipped to accommodate his father’s worsening dementia.
“We really don’t have major problems in facilities whose patrons have Alzheimer’s because those are lock-down facilities,” Doss said. “But this is a place for people who can mostly take care of themselves.”
Holiday Villa employees, the SMPD, Baker’s son and four hired private investigators have spent the past week combing homeless shelters, walking up and down the Third Street Promenade and Palisades Park, and posting fliers around town to no avail. Because Baker rarely carries cash, police doubt he’s taken a bus anywhere.
“He loves to walk,” Rosenberg said.
Baker also went missing earlier this year, but only for a couple hours, Doss said.
Doss, a volunteer officer for nearly 30 years, is in charge of tracking down missing seniors in Santa Monica. Though Doss gets about five missing people cases a month, it usually takes him no longer than a few hours to round up lost seniors.
“This is a rare incidence when it’s taken so long to find an individual,” Doss said, adding that his longest search rounded out to 10 days.
Baker’s relatively lengthy disappearance has forced Doss to search all over the city, from nearby hospitals on Friday to a drive on Saturday through Brentwood — one of Baker’s favorite visiting spots. Doss stopped by the food line in Palisades Park ON Tuesday afternoon with no success.
All Los Angeles County hospitals have been alerted, though police doubt they’ll find Baker at either of Santa Monica’s two hospitals since they don’t accept mentally ill patients.
Though Baker takes daily medication for his Alzheimer’s, his son said his biggest worry isn’t a few days without meds, but hunger and dehydration, especially in light of the recent summer warm-up.
“He doesn’t have the capacity or means to take care of himself,” John Baker said. “He might not be in the best of health at this point.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 4, 2005. Read the original PDF.