Search team combs Molalla looking for missing woman
0 Comments Published by Pioneer Staff on Tuesday, July 24, 2007 at 12:14 PM.
By Abby Sewell
Molalla Pioneer
Search and rescue teams have been combing the Molalla area since last night, looking for 75-year-old Ruby Larson.
Larson, who suffers from dementia according to family members, was seen leaving the Pheasant Pointe Assisted Living Facility at about 3 p.m. yesterday.
Family members began searching for Larson shortly thereafter and at about 8 p.m. notified the Molalla Police Department.
Larson has lived at Pheasant Pointe since last May, after spending a year in another assisted living facility in Omak, Wash. Her son and daughter-in-law live in Molalla and Larson had lived in the area previously for several years.
Daughter-in-law Carmen Buoy said Larson has been known to wander periodically. Most recently, she left Pheasant Pointe at about 1 a.m. last Saturday and was found in downtown Molalla by her son several hours later.
"She had been leaving here and there before that," Buoy said. "Usually she might leave for an hour or two and then come back."
Buoy said a doctor first diagnosed Larson with mild dementia while she was living in Omak, and the situation has since deteriorated.
"One day you can talk to her and have a conversation, and another day she's in a bad mood and doesn't remember things," she said.
Larson did not have access to a vehicle, according to MPD officer Scott Douglas, and there was no evidence that she took public transit. One witness reported seeing Larson heading toward the countryside southeast of town on foot.
About 30 to 40 people from MPD, the Molalla Fire Department and the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office Search and Rescue Coordinators, along with local volunteers from Pheasant Pointe and the City of Molalla, have been performing a door-to-door grid searchand checking in back yards, Douglas said.
"A lot of people with dementia or Alzheimers will find a spot and hunker down," he said. "... Right now we're still looking close to the assisted living facility and we're asking people to check their back yards."
Pheasant Pointe regional manager Hannah Austin said the family was immediately contacted when Larson left the facility.
"People can come and go here," she said. "Ruby often goes for long walks and has returned, but we did notify the family."
Austin added, "She's a fairly new resident, and with older people sometimes things change at the drop of a hat ... If someone is an elopement risk, we would need to have them moved to a safer community."
Buoy said the family has been looking into placing Larson in a more supervised facility.
"I really don't think she should have been out wandering," she said.
Larson is described as Caucasian, 5'6" tall, weighing 150 pounds, with thinning red hair. She was last seen wearing a blue and white flowered top and purple pants.
Molalla Pioneer
Search and rescue teams have been combing the Molalla area since last night, looking for 75-year-old Ruby Larson.
Larson, who suffers from dementia according to family members, was seen leaving the Pheasant Pointe Assisted Living Facility at about 3 p.m. yesterday.
Family members began searching for Larson shortly thereafter and at about 8 p.m. notified the Molalla Police Department.
Larson has lived at Pheasant Pointe since last May, after spending a year in another assisted living facility in Omak, Wash. Her son and daughter-in-law live in Molalla and Larson had lived in the area previously for several years.
Daughter-in-law Carmen Buoy said Larson has been known to wander periodically. Most recently, she left Pheasant Pointe at about 1 a.m. last Saturday and was found in downtown Molalla by her son several hours later.
"She had been leaving here and there before that," Buoy said. "Usually she might leave for an hour or two and then come back."
Buoy said a doctor first diagnosed Larson with mild dementia while she was living in Omak, and the situation has since deteriorated.
"One day you can talk to her and have a conversation, and another day she's in a bad mood and doesn't remember things," she said.
Larson did not have access to a vehicle, according to MPD officer Scott Douglas, and there was no evidence that she took public transit. One witness reported seeing Larson heading toward the countryside southeast of town on foot.
About 30 to 40 people from MPD, the Molalla Fire Department and the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office Search and Rescue Coordinators, along with local volunteers from Pheasant Pointe and the City of Molalla, have been performing a door-to-door grid searchand checking in back yards, Douglas said.
"A lot of people with dementia or Alzheimers will find a spot and hunker down," he said. "... Right now we're still looking close to the assisted living facility and we're asking people to check their back yards."
Pheasant Pointe regional manager Hannah Austin said the family was immediately contacted when Larson left the facility.
"People can come and go here," she said. "Ruby often goes for long walks and has returned, but we did notify the family."
Austin added, "She's a fairly new resident, and with older people sometimes things change at the drop of a hat ... If someone is an elopement risk, we would need to have them moved to a safer community."
Buoy said the family has been looking into placing Larson in a more supervised facility.
"I really don't think she should have been out wandering," she said.
Larson is described as Caucasian, 5'6" tall, weighing 150 pounds, with thinning red hair. She was last seen wearing a blue and white flowered top and purple pants.
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