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Jeremiah Mullen Found Safely

DISCOVERY BAY — The 34-year-old Discovery Bay man reported missing by police was found safe Saturday in Livermore, according to Contra Costa Sheriff's Office.

Jeremiah Mullen was last seen by his family in Discovery Bay at 2:30 p.m. Friday. He was found safe near Vasco Road in Livermore Saturday afternoon.

"He went for a long walk," Sgt. Sandra Douglas said.

Mullen was found uninjured and his now at home with his family.

Roland “Jake” Jacques Found

CARMICHAEL, CA - The elderly husband of a patient at Carmichael's Mercy San Juan Medical Center has been safely located after he went missing Wednesday morning, according to medical staff.

Roland "Jake" Jacques, 84, was reunited with family members after he wandered away from the hospital campus at 6105 Coyle Avenue at 8:30 a.m., say police.

Jacques was considered at risk because he suffers from dementia.

Daniel “Ted” Lazarus Found

ORINDA, Calif. -- A 70-year-old Orinda man who has dementia was located Monday night after being reported missing earlier in the day, a Contra Costa County sheriff's spokesman said. Daniel "Ted" Lazarus was found at about 9:10 p.m. in good health on Bear Creek Road in the Orinda area, sheriff's spokesman Jimmy Lee said. Lazarus, who had his yellow mountain bike, had last been seen at about 10:30 a.m. this morning near the St. Mary's College library in Moraga, police said. Orinda police said he was considered to be at-risk because of his age and due to his medical condition.

Betty Joe Blevins Missing

A San Bernardino County sheriff's search and rescue team says a 73-year-old Wonder Valley woman who was reported missing Monday has not been found and is now considered a critical missing person because she suffers from Alzheimer's disease.

Deputies were called to the 2600 block of Lighter Way about 2 p.m. by family members who were unsure where Betty Joe Blevins had gone.

Volunteer searchers and a sheriff's helicopter pilot searched the area around her home but have not located her.

Blevins is 5-feet-4, weighs 80 pounds, has gray hair and was last seen wearing a light blue gown with black slippers.

Anyone with information on Blevins' whereabouts is asked to call the sheriff's Morongo Basin station at 760-366-4175.

Roberto Ramirez Garcia Missing

LYNWOOD - Sheriff's deputies sought the public's help today in finding a man with Alzheimer's disease who was last seen visiting a family member in Lynwood.

Roberto Ramirez Garcia, 61, of Norwalk, was visiting a relative's home on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Lynwood about 9 a.m. Saturday and he hasn't been seen or heard from since, according to the Sheriff's Department.

Garcia's family is concerned and joined the sheriff's deputies in asking for help from anyone who may have seen him.

Garcia is 5 feet 7 inches tall, 168 pounds and has gray hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a dark shirt, blue jeans and a black hat with a Mexican-American flag, according to the Sheriff's Department. Garcia has full dentures and he is nearly blind in one eye.

Anyone with more information was urged to call detectives at (323) 890- 5500.

Missing Ocala Women Found

OCALA - Marion County Sheriff's Office deputies received a call about 9:05 a.m. Sunday that an elderly woman with Alzheimer's disease was missing from her home in the Ocala National Forest.

According to Capt. Jim Burton, deputies were dispatched to 16855 S.E. First St. to search for the 85-year-old white woman. Family members reported that the woman went to bed about 9:30 p.m. Saturday. When the family arose on Sunday morning, the woman, who is legally blind and wears a special identity bracelet, was missing.

A neighbor spotted the woman on a nearby road. When deputies spoke to the woman, she said she had gone out for a walk. The woman was unharmed and was returned to the family's home.

Verda Jane Sandberg Found

PLEASANT VIEW -- Police report that Verda Jane Sandberg, 74, was located alive and in relatively good condition about a mile east of her home just before 3 p.m. Tuesday.

The Pleasant View woman, who has dementia, was the subject of a missing and endangered person report after she had wandered from her home Sunday evening or early Monday.

"Mrs. Sanders was disoriented, but conscious, and extremely cold, thirsty and hungry after wandering away from home with minimal clothing approximately 39 hours prior," states a police news release.

She received from officers on scene, treated by paramedics and then transported to McKay-Dee Hospital for additional short-term care.

Pleasant View police said Sandberg had come upon an unlocked door in a basement stairwell of an LDS church on the corner of Elberta Drive and 400 East in North Ogden.

She spent the night safe from inclement weather and low temperatures in a small room that was inaccessible to other areas in the basement level of the church, states the release.

After extensive ground searches aided by a Utah Highway Patrol helicopter both Monday and Tuesday, an officer spotted Sandberg as she came out of the room and peered out from the stairwell.

Police reports say an officer patrolling the area spotted the top of a blue bandana she was wearing and recognized her.

Missing elderly woman found dead north of Santa Cruz

SANTA CRUZ — An elderly woman who last week disappeared from a Front Street residential care facility just hours after moving in was found dead off Highway 1 just south of Bonny Doon Road on Monday night, Santa Cruz police reported.

It's likely Carol Fundingsland, 74, walked to the area because she had left Sunshine Villa Assisted Living community with no money or ID, according to Capt. Steve Clark.

Fundingsland, who had dementia, was found with scratches on her legs, probably from walking through brush during part of her 10-mile journey from Sunshine Villa, police reported. Foul play is not suspected in her death.

Clark said police believe Fundingsland succumbed to exposure during the cold, rainy weekend — she left wearing a hooded sweatshirt, capri pants and sneakers — but an autopsy will be performed this week.

Police will look into the circumstances of Fundingsland's death, Clark said.

"We'll take the totality of the circumstances, look at that and take it to the District Attorney's Office," he said.

Fundingsland moved into facility Friday but it was not the first residential care facility she had lived in. Sunshine Villa residents can wear a monitoring bracelet that notifies staff when they leave the facility, but fewer than 5 percent chose that option, according to Pat Holahan, executive director of Sunshine Villa.

Fundingsland had not opted for the monitoring device, Holahan said. She also

wasn't familiar with the Santa Cruz area, according to Sunshine Villa staff.

"We are deeply saddened by the death of Ms. Fundingsland," Holahan said in a prepared statement. "This incident is the first of its kind to ever occur in our senior community's 17-year history." Sunshine Villa representatives declined to comment further about Fundingsland's death.

Fundingsland's son, a Santa Clara County resident, had just left when a surveillance camera at Sunshine Villa captured her walking out the front door of the assisted-living facility around 5:30 p.m. Friday. Staff noticed she was gone around 9 p.m. and searched the facility before reporting her disappearance to police around 11 p.m. that night, Clark said.

Police searched the neighborhood, asked other law enforcement agencies to watch for her and used e-mail and text alerts to notify residents that Fundingsland was missing and at-risk. Clark said officers responded to several possible sightings of Fundingsland during the weekend.

Monday, someone called police to report that Fundingsland may have been seen on the North Coast on Saturday morning. Officers searched south from Davenport by foot, on ATVs and in cars. At one farm, a man told officers he thought he saw Fundingsland on Saturday, but she appeared OK so he didn't call police, Clark said.

Around 7 p.m. Monday, an officer on an ATV found Fundingsland's body on a muddy service road east of Highway 1 about seven miles north of Santa Cruz, Clark said.

Family members could not be reached for comment.

Hearing Fundingsland had died was heart-breaking, Clark said. Officers had held out hope a North Coast resident had taken the woman in.

"We were really hopeful that we would find her," Clark said. "It's a shame." Sunshine Villa staff also had organized a door-to-door search canvassing Santa Cruz neighborhoods and distributing fliers, Holahan said.

There were reports Fundingsland had been seen downtown, on Ocean Street, and at the Homeless Services Center on River Street, according to a statement released by Dan Lamey, chief operating officer of BPM Senior Living Co., which operates Sunshine Villa and 16 other adult care facilities across the West.

Clark said not all of the tips Sunshine Villa staff generated were turned over to police, though he noted none of them focused on the North Coast.