Elizabeth City Police Call Off Search for 86-Year-Old Man

By Jeffrey S. Hampton, The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va., The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va.

Dec. 28–ELIZABETH CITY — Police suspended a two-day search Tuesday for an 86-year-old man who walked out of the assisted living facility where he had lived for only a week.

Herbert Moore, believed to be suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, walked out the door of Carolina House early Monday morning wearing a white T-shirt, pajama pants and slippers.

For the past two days, 70 officers, helicopters and prison bloodhounds searched the fields and wooded areas near the assisted living facility, said Capt. Frank Koch of the Elizabeth City Police Department. The woods are dotted with ponds and swampy areas.

“We searched about every place he was physically able to reach,” Koch said Tuesday.

Five members of Moore’s family joined in the search.

“I just can’t see him shimmying very far,” said Moore’s niece, Gretchen James.

Moore had wanted to return home and was found in the front parking lot Saturday trying to leave, Koch said. The search has been designated a missing-person investigation. Moore has been listed with the National Crime Information Center, a national police data base, as an endangered person, Koch said.

Staff photographer Chris Curry contributed to this story.

Reach Jeffrey Hampton at (252) 338-0159 or jeff.hampton@pilotonline.com.

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